I knew he had lately been offered a situation in the Great Sahara, where lions and sandflies made the hermit-life peculiarly attractive and difficult, and had gone to Africa to take possession, so I thought I would look in and see how the atmosphere of this den agreed with its reputation.
My surprise was great: the place was newly swept and scoured.
Then there was another surprise.

Back in the gloom of the cavern I heard the clink of a little bell, and then this exclamation: "Hello Central! Is this you, Camelot ?--Behold, thou mayst glad thy heart an thou hast faith to believe the wonderful when that it cometh in unexpected guise and maketh itself manifest in impossible places--here standeth in the flesh his mightiness The Boss, and with thine own ears shall ye hear him speak!" Now what a radical reversal of things this was; what a jumbling together of extravagant incongruities; what a fantastic conjunction of opposites and irreconcilables--the home of the bogus miracle become the home of a real one, the den of a mediaeval hermit turned into a telephone office! The telephone clerk stepped into the light, and I recognized one of my young fellows.

I said: "How long has this office been established here, Ulfius ?" "But since midnight, fair Sir Boss, an it please you.

We saw many lights in the valley, and so judged it well to make a station, for that where so many lights be needs must they indicate a town of goodly size." "Quite right.

It isn't a town in the customary sense, but it's a good stand, anyway.