of the awful truth was to be gleaned even from those broken,
disjointed sentences.

For ten years an exile in these horrible wilds. For ten years
not a single glimpse of white face or figure. For ten ages no
intelligible voice, save his own; and that, through long disuse,
had threatened to desert him!

"Ten years!" echoed Waldo, in amazement. "Why didn't you rack
out o' this, then? I know I would; even if the woods were full
of--'sour-us' and the like o' that! Yes, SIR!"

A low, husky laugh came through those heavily bearded lips, and
the stranger flung out his hands in a sweeping gesture, sunken
eyes glowing with an almost savage light as he spoke with more
coherence:

"Why is it, young gentleman? Why did I not leave, do you ask?
Look! All about you it stretches: a cell,--a death-cell, from
which escape is impossible! Here I have fought for what is ever
more precious than bare life: for liberty; but though ten awful
years have rolled by, here I remain, in worse than prison!
Escape? Ah, how often have I attempted to escape, only to fail,
because escape from these wilds is beyond the power of any person
not gifted with wings!"

"Ten years, you say, good friend? And all that time you have
lived here alone?" asked the professor, curiously.

"Ten years,--ten thousand years, I could almost swear, only for