As a rule, he believed more in the commonplace than in the romantic--most people do.

But truth to tell, romance is far more common than the commonplace.

There are few who have not, at one time or other of their lives, had some strange or tragic episode woven into the tissue of their every-day existence; and it would be difficult to find one person even among humdrum individuals, who, from birth to death, has experienced nothing out of the common.
Errington generally dismissed all tales of adventure as mere exaggerations of heated fancy; and, had he read in some book, of a respectable nineteenth-century yachtsman having such an interview with a madman in a sea-cavern, he would have laughed at the affair as an utter improbability, though he could not have explained why he considered it improbable.

But now it had occurred to himself, he was both surprised and amused at the whole circumstance; moreover, he was sufficiently interested and carious to be desirous of sifting the matter to its foundation.
It was, however, somewhat of a relief to him when he again readied the outer cavern.

He replaced the lamp on the shelf where he had found it, and stepped once more into the brilliant light of the very early dawn, which then had all the splendor of full morning.