"This has been a hiding place already."

"Methinks this has once been a chapel," said the clergyman presently,
pointing to some rude carvings--one something like a cross, and a large
stone that might have served as an altar.

"Belike," said Kenton, "there's an old stone pile, a mere hovel, down
below, where my grandfather said he remembered an old monk, a hermit, or
some such gear--a Papist--as lived in hiding. He did no hurt, and was
a man from these parts, so none meddled with him, or gave notice to the
Queen's officers, and our folk at the farm sold his baskets at the town,
and brought him a barley loaf twice a week till he died, all alone in
his hut. Very like he said his mass here."

John wondered to find that the minister thought this made the place
more suitable. The whole cavern was so low that the two men could hardly
stand upright in it, though it ran about twelve yards back. There were
white limestone drops like icicles hanging above from the roof; and
bats, disturbed by the light, came flying about the heads of their
visitors, while streamers of ivy and old man's beard hung over the
mouth, and were displaced by the heads of the men.

"None is like to find the spot," said John Kenton, as he tried to
replace the tangled branches that had been pushed aside.

"God grant us happier days for bringing it forth," said the clergyman.

All three bared their heads, and Mr. Holworth uttered a few words of
prayer and blessing; then let John help him down the steep scramble
and descent, and looked up to see whether any sign of the cave could be
detected from the edge of the brook. Kenton shook his head reassuringly.

"Ah!" said Mr. Holworth, "it minds me that none ever found again the
holy Ark of the Covenant that King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah hid
in a cavern within Mount Pisgah! and our sins be many that have provoked
this judgment! Mayhap the boy will be the only one of us who will see
these blessed vessels restored to their Altar once more! He may
have been sent hither to that very end. Now, look you, Steadfast
Kenton--Steadfast thou hast ever been, so far as I have known thee, in
nature as well as in name. Give me thy word that thou wilt never give up
the secret of yonder cavern to any save a lawfully ordained minister of
the church."

"No doubt poor old Clerk North will be in distress about the loss," said
Kenton.

"True, but he had best not be told. His mind is fast going, and he
cannot safely be tr