"Good morning, and success attend you, Menke," she returned.
With a parting word to his friend Tezcot the hunter left them, moving rapidly up the mountain, and was soon lost to view among the timber.
Tezcot and Mitla, at a later hour, awoke to the fact that they were farther from home than they had intended to go at starting out. They were more than a league and a half away, and the hunter thought it time to call a halt. Their hunt had proven fairly successful, quite a bunch of game having been secured, rendering the excursion very satisfactory.
"Father," said Mitla, when a return had been decided on, "let us visit the hermit's cave, on our way, going home. I have not been there for a long time."
"If a visit to the hermit would please ye, Mit, we'll go that way."
"Thank you, father; it would, indeed, please me very much to visit the hermitage again."
So it was settled the hermitage should receive a visit from them.
The hermit's cave was the abode of a recluse, whose identity and previous life were a profound mystery. By accompanying the hunter and Mitla to it, we will at least get an insight into the character of the man.
About a league from Tezcot's house was a long, narrow, and dark ravine. It was fully a half mile in length, and was inwalled on either side by steep elevations. Its gloomy wildness was seemingly filled with an awe-inspiring presence, and only a few of the denizens of the mountainous range would venture into it. Stories were told of strange sights and sounds haunting its lonely recesses, which readily found credence in the minds of the more superstitious of them.
Tezcot, and a few other fearless hunters of the locality, took the stories for what they were--creations of fancy or design, and occasionally explored the place in quest of game.
Since the advent of the hermit on the mountain, which took place some years prior to the incidents narrated here, these bolder mountaineers might have been seen at intervals cautiously invading its solitudes, going, in most cases, to the hermitage to visit its strange occupant.
The ravine was situated east and west, and those who were familiar with its dark depths found it most easily entered from the eastern terminus.
When Tezcot and Mitla arrived there, they went in without hesitation. They found the ground rough, and frequently quite sloping, yet made good progress over it.