She pointed out
a place where Tita would from time to time leave him provisions, and
said that he would find water in the caves; she then tripped quickly
off. Jean did not linger, seeing that if he did so light would fail him
for his return. He crossed the track for the third time, reached the
caves, and slept soundly till dawn.
When he awoke he inspected his strange retreat. He was in a large hall,
two hundred feet long, and some fifty feet high and broad; this chamber
was entered by a small orifice of no great length, through which he had
passed on the preceding night; it was warm, and dry except where the
stream of which Hilda had spoken trickled through to the sea. It was the
fissure now known as the Creux Mahie, and to which an easy access has
been arranged for the benefit of the curious. Here Jean passed three
months. Hilda frequently visited him, and always kept him supplied with
food; she warned him also when he might safely roam on the cliffs above.
There was no obstacle to her visits, even when they extended to a
considerable length, as the mother seemed always to be satisfied as to
her absences when Tita accompanied her; and the latter, whose
infirmities prevented her from descending, had no means of shortening
the interviews.
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