you! Leave me in peace! I will die
when Thelma bids me; but not till then!"

And he rushed down the long gallery and disappeared in the furthest
chamber, where he gave vent to a sort of long, sobbing cry, which rang
dolefully through the cavern and then subsided into utter silence.

Feeling as if he were in a chaotic dream, Errington pursued his
interrupted course through the winding passages with a bewildered and
wondering mind. What strange place had he inadvertently lighted on? and
who were the still stranger beings in connection with it? First the
beautiful girl herself; next the mysterious coffin, hidden in its
fanciful shell temple; and now this deformed madman, with the pale face
and fine eyes; whose utterances, though incoherent, savored somewhat of
poesy and prophecy. And what spell was attached to that name of Thelma?
The more he thought of his morning's adventure, the more puzzled he
became. 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. There was a deliciously
balmy wind, the blue sky was musical with a chorus of larks, and every
breath of air that waved aside the long grass sent forth a thousand
odors from hidden beds of wild thyme and bog-myrtle.

He perceived the _Eulalie_ at anchor in her old p