living man in this huge chamber of dead horrors! Then again it flashed
across my mind in a luminous moment that where one man could come, or go,
or live, another could do likewise, and never did cat watch mouse with
more concentrated eagerness than I that quaint, bent-shouldered thing
hobbling about in the blue morning shadows where all else was silence.

Nearer and nearer he came, till so close face and garb were discernible,
and then there could no longer be any doubt, it was a woodman, an old man,
with grizzled monkey-face, stooping gait, and a shaggy fur cloak, utterly
unlike the airy garments of my Hither folk, who now stood before me.
It gave me quite a start to recognise him there, for it showed I was in
a new land, and since he was going so cheerfully about his business,
whatever it might chance to be, there must be some way out of this
accursed pit in which I had fallen. So very cautiously I edged out,
taking advantage of all the cover possible until we were only twenty
yards apart, and then suddenly standing up, and putting on the most
affable smile, I called out--

"Hullo, mess-mate!"

The effect was electrical. That quaint old fellow sprang a yard into
air as though a spring had shot him up. Then, coming down, he stood
transfixed at his full height as stiff as a ramrod, staring at me
with incredible wonder. He looked so funny that in spite of hunger
and loneliness I burst out laughing, whereat the woodman, suddenly
recovering his senses, turned on his heels and set off at his best pace
in the opposite direction. This would never do! I wanted him to be my
guide, philosopher, and friend. He was my sole visible link with the
outside world, so after him I went at tip-top speed, and catching him
up in fifty yards along the shingle laid hold of his nether garments.