“Free?  Then you cannot be countrymen of mine!  But pardon an old man, my son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his own experience.  But who and whence are you?  And why are you bringing into this lonely wilderness that gold—­for I know too well the shape of those accursed packets, which would God that I had never seen!”

“What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to you as the young should to the old.  As for our gold, it will be a curse or a blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or ill; and so is a man’s head, or his hand, or any other thing; but that is no reason for cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm with them; neither is it for throwing away those packages, which, by your leave, we shall deposit in one of these caves.  We must be your neighbors, I fear, for a day or two; but I can promise you, that your garden shall be respected, on condition that you do not inform any human soul of our being here.”

“God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I have seen too much already.  As you have come in peace, in peace depart.  Leave me alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord have mercy on you!”

And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned suddenly to Amyas again—­

“Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I shrink at first from the conversation of human beings, and forget, in the habitual shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable gentleman of Spain.  My garden, and all which it produces, is at your service.  Only let me entreat that these poor Indians shall have their share; for heathens though they be, Christ died for them; and I cannot but cherish in my soul some secret hope that He did not die in vain.”

“God forbid!” said Brimblecombe.  “They are no worse than we, for aught I see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have fared no worse than we since they have been with us, nor will, I promise you.”

The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for the last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and that the sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way every five minutes, to get fruit for their new pets.

A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked Amyas, Cary, and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern.

They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat down on mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning against a slab of stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which evidently served him as a place of prayer.  He seemed restless and anxious, as if he waited for them to begin the conversation; while they, in their turn, waited for him.  At last, when courtesy would not allow him to be silent any longer, he began with a faltering voice: 

“You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a spot, and at my asking you to become my guests even for one evening, while I have no better hospitality to offer you.”