Then he stood up and signed to us to follow him, and we went along the cleft to the water-cave, and sat down there in the dim green light that filtered through the water.
"Mon gars," he said very gravely, "I have done you a wrong.

I ought to have kept it to myself.

It was the suddenness of it that upset me.

I told you no living man besides myself knew of this place, and that was because I believed this man dead--dead this twenty years.

He was partner with me in the free-trading for a time, until we fell out--" "You said just now that he was my father," I broke in, and eyed him closely to see if his wits were still astray.