"It runs under the sea ever so far.

I should say it was a ripping place to hide in." From which and other similar remarks it was concluded that the juniors had a much better notion as to where Rollitt had been than they chose to admit.
They eagerly embraced the first opportunity of going to the shop, and investigating the scene of the mystery for themselves.

They carefully locked the outer door against possible intruders, and then in Indian file ascended the stone ladder, and after it the corkscrew staircase.
The room in which they found themselves was pretty much as Rollitt had left it.

It had evidently been made use of by a former lodge-keeper as a dwelling-room, for there was a ragged paper on the wall, and an attempt here and there to board over dangerous holes in the floor.
Besides which there was a rude shutter to the tiny window, by means of which no doubt Rollitt had succeeded in concealing his presence at night.

The remains of a wood fire were on the hearth, and a candle-end showed (what they already knew) that the hermit did not spend all his evenings in darkness.
More than this, in one corner still lay some of the wraps which he had evidently used to extemporise a bed.