"CHAPTER I. CONTRADICTORY LETTERS\n\n\nTo Mr. F. R. Starr, Engineer, 30 Canongate, Edinburgh.\n\nIF Mr. James Starr will come to-morrow to the Aberfoyle coal-mines,\nDochart pit, Yarrow shaft, a communication of an interesting nature will\nbe made to him.\n\n\"Mr. James Starr will be awaited for, the whole day, at the Callander\nstation, by Harry Ford, son of the old overman Simon Ford.\"\n\n\"He is requested to keep this invitation secret.\"\n\nSuch was the letter which James Starr received by the first post, on the\n3rd December, 18--, the letter bearing the Aberfoyle postmark, county of\nStirling, Scotland.\n\nThe engineer's curiosity was excited to the highest pitch. It never\noccurred to him to doubt whether this letter might not be a hoax. For\nmany years he had known Simon Ford, one of the former foremen of the\nAberfoyle mines, of which he, James Starr, had for twenty years, been\nthe manager, or, as he would be termed in English coal-mines, the\nviewer. James Starr was a strongly-constituted man, on whom his\nfifty-five years weighed no more heavily than if they had been forty.\nHe belonged to an old Edinburgh family, and was one of its most\ndistinguished members. His labors did credit to the body of engineers\nwho are gradually devouring the carboniferous subsoil of the United\nKingdom, as much at Cardiff and Newcastle, as in the southern counties\nof Scotland. However, it was more particularly in the depths of the\nmysterious mines of Aberfoyle, which border on the Alloa mines and\noccupy part of the county of Stirling, that the name of Starr had\nacquired the greatest renown. There, the greater part of his existence\nhad been passed. Besides this, James Starr belonged to the Scottish\nAntiquarian Society, of which he had been made president. He was also\nincluded amongst the most active members of the Royal Institution; and\nthe Edinburgh Review frequently published clever articles signed by him.\nHe was in fact one of those practical men to whom is due the prosperity\nof England. He held a high rank in the old capital of Scotland, which\nnot only from a physical but also from a moral point of view, well\ndeserves the name of the Northern Athens.\n\nWe know that the English have given to their vast extent of coal-mines\na very significant name. They very justly call them the \"Black Indies,\"\nand these Indies have contributed perhaps even more than the Eastern\nIndies to swell the surprising wealth of the United Kingdom.\n\nAt this period, the limit of time assigned by professional men for\nthe exhaustion of coal-mines was far distant and there was no dread\nof scarcity. There were still extensive mines to be worked in the two\nAmericas. The manufactories, appropriated to so many different uses,\nlocomotives, steamers, gas works, &c., were not likely to fail for want\nof the mineral fuel; but the consumption had so increased during the\nlast few years, that certain beds had been exhausted even to their\nsmallest veins. Now deserted, these mines perforated the ground with\ntheir useless shafts and forsaken galleries. This was exactly the case\nwith the pits of Aberfoyle.\n\nTen years before, the last butty had raised the last ton of coal from\nthis colliery. The underground working stock, traction engines, trucks\nwhich run on rails along the galleries, subterranean tramways, frames to\nsupport the shaft, pipes--in short, all that constituted the machinery\nof a mine had been brought up from its depths. The exhausted mine was\nlike the body of a huge fantastically-shaped mastodon, from which all\nthe organs of life have been taken, and only the skeleton remains.\n\nNothing was left but long wooden ladders, down the Yarrow shaft--the\nonly one which now gave access to the lower galleries of the Dochart\npit. Above ground, the sheds, formerly sheltering the outside works,\nstill marked the spot where the shaft of that pit had been sunk,\nit being now abandoned, as were the other pits, of which the whole\nconstituted the mines of Aberfoyle.\n\nIt was a sad day, when for the last time the workmen quitted the mine,\nin which they had lived for so many years. The engineer, James Starr,\nhad collected the hundreds of workmen which composed the active and\ncourageous population of the mine. Overmen, brakemen, putters, wastemen,\nbarrowmen, masons, smiths, carpenters, outside and inside laborers,\nwomen, children, and old men, all were collected in the great yard of\nthe Dochart pit, formerly heaped with coal from the mine.\n\nMany of these families had existed for generations in the mine of\nold Aberfoyle; they were now driven to seek the means of subsistence\nelsewhere, and they waited sadly to bid farewell to the engineer.\n\nJames Starr stood upright, at the door of the vast shed in which he\nhad for so many years superintended the powerful machines of the shaft.\nSimon Ford, the foreman of the Dochart pit, then fifty-five years of\nage, and other managers and overseers, surrounded him. James Starr took\noff his hat. The miners, cap in hand, kept a profound silence. This\nfarewell scene was of a touching character, not wanting in grandeur.\n\n\"My friends,\" said the engineer, \"the time has come for us to separate.\nThe Aberfoyle mines, which for so many years have united us in a\ncommon work, are now exhausted. All our researches have not led to\nthe discovery of a new vein, and the last block of coal has just been\nextracted from the Dochart pit.\" And in confirmation of his words, James\nStarr pointed to a lump of coal which had been kept at the bottom of a\nbasket.\n\n\"This piece of coal, my friends,\" resumed James Starr, \"is like the last\ndrop of blood which has flowed through the veins of the mine! We shall\nkeep it, as the first fragment of coal is kept, which was extracted\na hundred and fifty years ago from the bearings of Aberfoyle. Between\nthese two pieces, how many generations of workmen have succeeded each\nother in our pits! Now, it is over! The last words which your engineer\nwill address to you are a farewell. You have lived in this mine, which\nyour hands have emptied. The work has been hard, but not without profit\nfor you. Our great family must disperse, and it is not probable that the\nfuture will ever again unite the scattered members. But do not forget\nthat we have lived together for a long time, and that it will be the\nduty of the miners of Aberfoyle to help each other. Your old masters\nwill not forget you either. When men have worked together, they must\nnever be stranger to each other again. We shall keep our eye on you, and\nwherever you go, our recommendations shall follow you. Farewell then, my\nfriends, and may Heaven be with you!\"\n\nSo saying, James Starr wrung the horny hand of the oldest miner, whose\neyes were dim with tears. Then the overmen of the different pits came\nforward to shake hands with him, whilst the miners waved their caps,\nshouting, \"Farewell, James Starr, our master and our friend!\"\n\nThis farewell would leave a lasting remembrance in all these honest\nhearts. Slowly and sadly the population quitted the yard. The black soil\nof the roads leading to the Dochart pit resounded for the last time to\nthe tread of miners' feet, and silence succeeded to the bustling life\nwhich had till then filled the Aberfoyle mines.\n\nOne man alone remained by James Starr. This was the overman, Simon Ford.\nNear him stood a boy, about fifteen years of age, who for some years\nalready had been employed down below.\n\nJames Starr and Simon Ford knew and esteemed each other well. \"Good-by,\nSimon,\" said the engineer.\n\n\"Good-by, Mr. Starr,\" replied the overman, \"let me add, till we meet\nagain!\"\n\n\"Yes, till we meet again. Ford!\" answered James Starr. \"You know that I\nshall be always glad to see you, and talk over old times.\"\n\n\"I know that, Mr. Starr.\"\n\n\n\"My house in Edinburgh is always open to you.\"\n\n\"It's a long way off, is Edinburgh!\" answered the man shaking his head.\n\"Ay, a long way from the Dochart pit.\"\n\n\"A long way, Simon? Where do you mean to live?\"\n\n\"Even here, Mr. Starr! We're not going to leave the mine, our good old\nnurse, just because her milk is dried up! My wife, my boy, and myself,\nwe mean to remain faithful to her!\"\n\n\"Good-by then, Simon,\" replied the engineer, whose voice, in spite of\nhimself, betrayed some emotion.\n\n\"No, I tell you, it's TILL WE MEET AGAIN, Mr. Starr, and not Just\n'good-by,'\" returned the foreman. \"Mark my words, Aberfoyle will see you\nagain!\"\n\nThe engineer did not try to dispel the man's illusion. He patted Harry's\nhead, again wrung the father's hand, and left the mine.\n\nAll this had taken place ten years ago; but, notwithstanding the wish\nwhich the overman had expressed to see him again, during that time Starr\nhad heard nothing of him. It was after ten years of separation that he\ngot this letter from Simon Ford, requesting him to take without delay\nthe road to the old Aberfoyle colliery.\n\nA communication of an interesting nature, what could it be? Dochart pit.\nYarrow shaft! What recollections of the past these names brought back\nto him! Yes, that was a fine time, that of work, of struggle,--the best\npart of the engineer's life. Starr re-read his letter. He pondered over\nit in all its bearings. He much regretted that just a line more had not\nbeen added by Ford. He wished he had not been quite so laconic.\n\nWas it possible that the old foreman had discovered some new vein?\nNo! Starr remembered with what minute care the mines had been explored\nbefore the definite cessation of the works. He had himself proceeded\nto the lowest soundings without finding the least trace in the soil,\nburrowed in every direction. They had even attempted to find coal under\nstrata which are usually below it, such as the Devonian red sandstone,\nbut without result. James Starr had therefore abandoned the mine with\nthe absolute conviction that it did not contain another bit of coal.\n\n\"No,\" he repeated, \"no! How is it possible that anything which could\nhave escaped my researches, should be revealed to those of Simon Ford.\nHowever, the old overman must well know that such a discovery would be\nthe one thing in the world to interest me, and this invitation, which I\nmust keep secret, to repair to the Dochart pit!\" James Starr always came\nback to that.\n\nOn the other hand, the engineer knew Ford to be a clever miner,\npeculiarly endowed with the instinct of his trade. He had not seen him\nsince the time when the Aberfoyle colliery was abandoned, and did not\nknow either what he was doing or where he was living, with his wife and\nhis son. All that he now knew was, that a rendezvous had been appointed\nhim at the Yarrow shaft, and that Harry, Simon Ford's son, was to wait\nfor him during the whole of the next day at the Callander station.\n\n\n\"I shall go, I shall go!\" said Starr, his excitement increasing as the\ntime drew near.\n\nOur worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain is always\non the boil, like a kettle on a hot fire. In some of these brain kettles\nthe ideas bubble over, in others they just simmer quietly. Now on this\nday, James Starr's ideas were boiling fast.\n\nBut suddenly an unexpected incident occurred. This was the drop of cold\nwater, which in a moment was to condense all the vapors of the brain.\nAbout six in the evening, by the third post, Starr's servant brought\nhim a second letter. This letter was enclosed in a coarse envelope, and\nevidently directed by a hand unaccustomed to the use of a pen. James\nStarr tore it open. It contained only a scrap of paper, yellowed by\ntime, and apparently torn out of an old copy book.\n\nOn this paper was written a single sentence, thus worded:\n\n\"It is useless for the engineer James Starr to trouble himself, Simon\nFord's letter being now without object.\"\n\nNo signature.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II. ON THE ROAD\n\n\nTHE course of James Starr's ideas was abruptly stopped, when he got this\nsecond letter contradicting the first.\n\n\"What does this mean?\" said he to himself. He took up the torn envelope,\nand examined it. Like the other, it bore the Aberfoyle postmark. It had\ntherefore come from the same part of the county of Stirling. The old\nminer had evidently not written it. But, no less evidently, the author\nof this second letter knew the overman's secret, since it expressly\ncontradicted the invitation to the engineer to go to the Yarrow shaft.\n\nWas it really true that the first communication was now without object?\nDid someone wish to prevent James Starr from troubling himself either\nuselessly or otherwise? Might there not be rather a malevolent intention\nto thwart Ford's plans?\n\nThis was the conclusion at which James Starr arrived, after mature\nreflection. The contradiction which existed between the two letters only\nwrought in him a more keen desire to visit the Dochart pit. And besides,\nif after all it was a hoax, it was well worth while to prove it. Starr\nalso thought it wiser to give more credence to the first letter than to\nthe second; that is to say, to the request of such a man as Simon Ford,\nrather than to the warning of his anonymous contradictor.\n\n\"Indeed,\" said he, \"the fact of anyone endeavoring to influence my\nresolution, shows that Ford's communication must be of great importance.\nTo-morrow, at the appointed time, I shall be at the rendezvous.\"\n\nIn the evening, Starr made his preparations for departure. As it might\nhappen that his absence would be prolonged for some days, he wrote to\nSir W. Elphiston, President of the Royal Institution, that he should be\nunable to be present at the next meeting of the Society. He also wrote\nto excuse himself from two or three engagements which he had made for\nthe week. Then, having ordered his servant to pack a traveling bag, he\nwent to bed, more excited than the affair perhaps warranted.\n\nThe next day, at five o'clock, James Starr jumped out of bed, dressed\nhimself warmly, for a cold rain was falling, and left his house in the\nCanongate, to go to Granton Pier to catch the steamer, which in three\nhours would take him up the Forth as far as Stirling.\n\nFor the first time in his life, perhaps, in passing along the Canongate,\nhe did NOT TURN TO LOOK AT HOLYROOD, the palace of the former sovereigns\nof Scotland. He did not notice the sentinels who stood before its\ngateways, dressed in the uniform of their Highland regiment, tartan\nkilt, plaid and sporran complete. His whole thought was to reach\nCallander where Harry Ford was supposedly awaiting him.\n\nThe better to understand this narrative, it will be as well to hear a\nfew words on the origin of coal. During the geological epoch, when\nthe terrestrial spheroid was still in course of formation, a thick\natmosphere surrounded it, saturated with watery vapors, and copiously\nimpregnated with carbonic acid. The vapors gradually condensed in\ndiluvial rains, which fell as if they had leapt from the necks of\nthousands of millions of seltzer water bottles. This liquid, loaded\nwith carbonic acid, rushed in torrents over a deep soft soil, subject to\nsudden or slow alterations of form, and maintained in its semi-fluid\nstate as much by the heat of the sun as by the fires of the interior\nmass. The internal heat had not as yet been collected in the center of\nthe globe. The terrestrial crust, thin and incompletely hardened,\nallowed it to spread through its pores. This caused a peculiar form of\nvegetation, such as is probably produced on the surface of the inferior\nplanets, Venus or Mercury, which revolve nearer than our earth around\nthe radiant sun of our system.\n\nThe soil of the continents was covered with immense forests. Carbonic\nacid, so suitable for the development of the vegetable kingdom,\nabounded. The feet of these trees were drowned in a sort of immense\nlagoon, kept continually full by currents of fresh and salt waters.\nThey eagerly assimilated to themselves the carbon which they, little by\nlittle, extracted from the atmosphere, as yet unfit for the function\nof life, and it may be said that they were destined to store it, in the\nform of coal, in the very bowels of the earth.\n\nIt was the earthquake period, caused by internal convulsions, which\nsuddenly modified the unsettled features of the terrestrial surface.\nHere, an intumescence which was to become a mountain, there, an abyss\nwhich was to be filled with an ocean or a sea. There, whole forests sunk\nthrough the earth's crust, below the unfixed strata, either until they\nfound a resting-place, such as the primitive bed of granitic rock, or,\nsettling together in a heap, they formed a solid mass.\n\nAs the waters were contained in no bed, and were spread over every\npart of the globe, they rushed where they liked, tearing from\nthe scarcely-formed rocks material with which to compose schists,\nsandstones, and limestones. This the roving waves bore over the\nsubmerged and now peaty forests, and deposited above them the elements\nof rocks which were to superpose the coal strata. In course of time,\nperiods of which include millions of years, these earths hardened in\nlayers, and enclosed under a thick carapace of pudding-stone, schist,\ncompact or friable sandstone, gravel and stones, the whole of the\nmassive forests.\n\nAnd what went on in this gigantic crucible, where all this vegetable\nmatter had accumulated, sunk to various depths? A regular chemical\noperation, a sort of distillation. All the carbon contained in these\nvegetables had agglomerated, and little by little coal was forming\nunder the double influence of enormous pressure and the high temperature\nmaintained by the internal fires, at this time so close to it.\n\nThus there was one kingdom substituted for another in this slow but\nirresistible reaction. The vegetable was transformed into a mineral.\nPlants which had lived the vegetative life in all the vigor of first\ncreation became petrified. Some of the substances enclosed in this\nvast herbal left their impression on the other more rapidly mineralized\nproducts, which pressed them as an hydraulic press of incalculable power\nwould have done.\n\nThus also shells, zoophytes, star-fish, polypi, spirifores, even fish\nand lizards brought by the water, left on the yet soft coal their exact\nlikeness, \"admirably taken off.\"\n\nPressure seems to have played a considerable part in the formation of\ncarboniferous strata. In fact, it is to its degree of power that are due\nthe different sorts of coal, of which industry makes use. Thus in the\nlowest layers of the coal ground appears the anthracite, which, being\nalmost destitute of volatile matter, contains the greatest quantity\nof carbon. In the higher beds are found, on the contrary, lignite and\nfossil wood, substances in which the quantity of carbon is infinitely\nless. Between these two beds, according to the degree of pressure to\nwhich they have been subjected, are found veins of graphite and rich or\npoor coal. It may be asserted that it is for want of sufficient pressure\nthat beds of peaty bog have not been completely changed into coal. So\nthen, the origin of coal mines, in whatever part of the globe they have\nbeen discovered, is this: the absorption through the terrestrial crust\nof the great forests of the geological period; then, the mineralization\nof the vegetables obtained in the course of time, under the influence of\npressure and heat, and under the action of carbonic acid.\n\nNow, at the time when the events related in this story took place, some\nof the most important mines of the Scottish coal beds had been exhausted\nby too rapid working. In the region which extends between Edinburgh\nand Glasgow, for a distance of ten or twelve miles, lay the Aberfoyle\ncolliery, of which the engineer, James Starr, had so long directed the\nworks. For ten years these mines had been abandoned. No new seams had\nbeen discovered, although the soundings had been carried to a depth of\nfifteen hundred or even of two thousand feet, and when James Starr had\nretired, it was with the full conviction that even the smallest vein had\nbeen completely exhausted.\n\nUnder these circumstances, it was plain that the discovery of a new seam\nof coal would be an important event. Could Simon Ford's communication\nrelate to a fact of this nature? This question James Starr could not\ncease asking himself. Was he called to make conquest of another corner\nof these rich treasure fields? Fain would he hope it was so.\n\nThe second letter had for an instant checked his speculations on this\nsubject, but now he thought of that letter no longer. Besides, the son\nof the old overman was there, waiting at the appointed rendezvous. The\nanonymous letter was therefore worth nothing.\n\nThe moment the engineer set foot on the platform at the end of his\njourney, the young man advanced towards him.\n\n\n\"Are you Harry Ford?\" asked the engineer quickly.\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr.\"\n\n\"I should not have known you, my lad. Of course in ten years you have\nbecome a man!\"\n\n\"I knew you directly, sir,\" replied the young miner, cap in hand. \"You\nhave not changed. You look just as you did when you bade us good-by in\nthe Dochart pit. I haven't forgotten that day.\"\n\n\"Put on your cap, Harry,\" said the engineer. \"It's pouring, and\npoliteness needn't make you catch cold.\"\n\n\"Shall we take shelter anywhere, Mr. Starr?\" asked young Ford.\n\n\"No, Harry. The weather is settled. It will rain all day, and I am in a\nhurry. Let us go on.\"\n\n\"I am at your orders,\" replied Harry.\n\n\"Tell me, Harry, is your father well?\"\n\n\"Very well, Mr. Starr.\"\n\n\"And your mother?\"\n\n\"She is well, too.\"\n\n\"Was it your father who wrote telling me to come to the Yarrow shaft?\"\n\n\"No, it was I.\"\n\n\n\"Then did Simon Ford send me a second letter to contradict the first?\"\nasked the engineer quickly.\n\n\"No, Mr. Starr,\" answered the young miner.\n\n\"Very well,\" said Starr, without speaking of the anonymous letter. Then,\ncontinuing, \"And can you tell me what you father wants with me?\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr, my father wishes to tell you himself.\"\n\n\"But you know what it is?\"\n\n\"I do, sir.\"\n\n\"Well, Harry, I will not ask you more. But let us get on, for I'm\nanxious to see Simon Ford. By-the-bye, where does he live?\"\n\n\"In the mine.\"\n\n\"What! In the Dochart pit?\"\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr,\" replied Harry.\n\n\"Really! has your family never left the old mine since the cessation of\nthe works?\"\n\n\"Not a day, Mr. Starr. You know my father. It is there he was born, it\nis there he means to die!\"\n\n\n\"I can understand that, Harry. I can understand that! His native mine!\nHe did not like to abandon it! And are you happy there?\"\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr,\" replied the young miner, \"for we love one another, and\nwe have but few wants.\"\n\n\"Well, Harry,\" said the engineer, \"lead the way.\"\n\nAnd walking rapidly through the streets of Callander, in a few minutes\nthey had left the town behind them.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III. THE DOCHART PIT\n\n\nHARRY FORD was a fine, strapping fellow of five and twenty. His grave\nlooks, his habitually passive expression, had from childhood been\nnoticed among his comrades in the mine. His regular features, his deep\nblue eyes, his curly hair, rather chestnut than fair, the natural grace\nof his person, altogether made him a fine specimen of a lowlander.\nAccustomed from his earliest days to the work of the mine, he was strong\nand hardy, as well as brave and good. Guided by his father, and impelled\nby his own inclinations, he had early begun his education, and at an age\nwhen most lads are little more than apprentices, he had managed to make\nhimself of some importance, a leader, in fact, among his fellows, and\nfew are very ignorant in a country which does all it can to remove\nignorance. Though, during the first years of his youth, the pick was\nnever out of Harry's hand, nevertheless the young miner was not long in\nacquiring sufficient knowledge to raise him into the upper class of the\nminers, and he would certainly have succeeded his father as overman of\nthe Dochart pit, if the colliery had not been abandoned.\n\nJames Starr was still a good walker, yet he could not easily have kept\nup with his guide, if the latter had not slackened his pace. The young\nman, carrying the engineer's bag, followed the left bank of the river\nfor about a mile. Leaving its winding course, they took a road under\ntall, dripping trees. Wide fields lay on either side, around isolated\nfarms. In one field a herd of hornless cows were quietly grazing; in\nanother sheep with silky wool, like those in a child's toy sheep fold.\n\nThe Yarrow shaft was situated four miles from Callander. Whilst walking,\nJames Starr could not but be struck with the change in the country. He\nhad not seen it since the day when the last ton of Aberfoyle coal had\nbeen emptied into railway trucks to be sent to Glasgow. Agricultural\nlife had now taken the place of the more stirring, active, industrial\nlife. The contrast was all the greater because, during winter, field\nwork is at a standstill. But formerly, at whatever season, the mining\npopulation, above and below ground, filled the scene with animation.\nGreat wagons of coal used to be passing night and day. The rails, with\ntheir rotten sleepers, now disused, were then constantly ground by\nthe weight of wagons. Now stony roads took the place of the old mining\ntramways. James Starr felt as if he was traversing a desert.\n\nThe engineer gazed about him with a saddened eye. He stopped now and\nthen to take breath. He listened. The air was no longer filled with\ndistant whistlings and the panting of engines. None of those black\nvapors which the manufacturer loves to see, hung in the horizon,\nmingling with the clouds. No tall cylindrical or prismatic chimney\nvomited out smoke, after being fed from the mine itself; no blast-pipe\nwas puffing out its white vapor. The ground, formerly black with\ncoal dust, had a bright look, to which James Starr's eyes were not\naccustomed.\n\nWhen the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also. The young miner\nwaited in silence. He felt what was passing in his companion's mind, and\nhe shared his feelings; he, a child of the mine, whose whole life had\nbeen passed in its depths.\n\n\"Yes, Harry, it is all changed,\" said Starr. \"But at the rate we worked,\nof course the treasures of coal would have been exhausted some day. Do\nyou regret that time?\"\n\n\"I do regret it, Mr. Starr,\" answered Harry. \"The work was hard, but it\nwas interesting, as are all struggles.\"\n\n\"No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers of\nlandslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps of\nthunder. One had to guard against all those perils! You say well! It was\na struggle, and consequently an exciting life.\"\n\n\"The miners of Alva have been more favored than the miners of Aberfoyle,\nMr. Starr!\"\n\n\"Ay, Harry, so they have,\" replied the engineer.\n\n\"Indeed,\" cried the young man, \"it's a pity that all the globe was not\nmade of coal; then there would have been enough to last millions of\nyears!\"\n\n\"No doubt there would, Harry; it must be acknowledged, however, that\nnature has shown more forethought by forming our sphere principally of\nsandstone, limestone, and granite, which fire cannot consume.\"\n\n\"Do you mean to say, Mr. Starr, that mankind would have ended by burning\ntheir own globe?\"\n\n\"Yes! The whole of it, my lad,\" answered the engineer. \"The earth would\nhave passed to the last bit into the furnaces of engines, machines,\nsteamers, gas factories; certainly, that would have been the end of our\nworld one fine day!\"\n\n\"There is no fear of that now, Mr. Starr. But yet, the mines will be\nexhausted, no doubt, and more rapidly than the statistics make out!\"\n\n\"That will happen, Harry; and in my opinion England is very wrong in\nexchanging her fuel for the gold of other nations! I know well,\" added\nthe engineer, \"that neither hydraulics nor electricity has yet shown all\nthey can do, and that some day these two forces will be more completely\nutilized. But no matter! Coal is of a very practical use, and lends\nitself easily to the various wants of industry. Unfortunately man cannot\nproduce it at will. Though our external forests grow incessantly under\nthe influence of heat and water, our subterranean forests will not be\nreproduced, and if they were, the globe would never be in the state\nnecessary to make them into coal.\"\n\nJames Starr and his guide, whilst talking, had continued their walk at\na rapid pace. An hour after leaving Callander they reached the Dochart\npit.\n\nThe most indifferent person would have been touched at the appearance\nthis deserted spot presented. It was like the skeleton of something\nthat had formerly lived. A few wretched trees bordered a plain where\nthe ground was hidden under the black dust of the mineral fuel, but no\ncinders nor even fragments of coal were to be seen. All had been carried\naway and consumed long ago.\n\nThey walked into the shed which covered the opening of the Yarrow shaft,\nwhence ladders still gave access to the lower galleries of the pit. The\nengineer bent over the opening. Formerly from this place could be heard\nthe powerful whistle of the air inhaled by the ventilators. It was now a\nsilent abyss. It was like being at the mouth of some extinct volcano.\n\nWhen the mine was being worked, ingenious machines were used in certain\nshafts of the Aberfoyle colliery, which in this respect was very well\noff; frames furnished with automatic lifts, working in wooden slides,\noscillating ladders, called \"man-engines,\" which, by a simple movement,\npermitted the miners to descend without danger.\n\nBut all these appliances had been carried away, after the cessation of\nthe works. In the Yarrow shaft there remained only a long succession\nof ladders, separated at every fifty feet by narrow landings. Thirty of\nthese ladders placed thus end to end led the visitor down into the\nlower gallery, a depth of fifteen hundred feet. This was the only way\nof communication which existed between the bottom of the Dochart pit and\nthe open air. As to air, that came in by the Yarrow shaft, from whence\ngalleries communicated with another shaft whose orifice opened at a\nhigher level; the warm air naturally escaped by this species of inverted\nsiphon.\n\n\n\"I will follow you, my lad,\" said the engineer, signing to the young man\nto precede him.\n\n\"As you please, Mr. Starr.\"\n\n\"Have you your lamp?\"\n\n\"Yes, and I only wish it was still the safety lamp, which we formerly\nhad to use!\"\n\n\"Sure enough,\" returned James Starr, \"there is no fear of fire-damp\nexplosions now!\"\n\nHarry was provided with a simple oil lamp, the wick of which he lighted.\nIn the mine, now empty of coal, escapes of light carburetted hydrogen\ncould not occur. As no explosion need be feared, there was no necessity\nfor interposing between the flame and the surrounding air that metallic\nscreen which prevents the gas from catching fire. The Davy lamp was of\nno use here. But if the danger did not exist, it was because the cause\nof it had disappeared, and with this cause, the combustible in which\nformerly consisted the riches of the Dochart pit.\n\nHarry descended the first steps of the upper ladder. Starr followed.\nThey soon found themselves in a profound obscurity, which was only\nrelieved by the glimmer of the lamp. The young man held it above his\nhead, the better to light his companion. A dozen ladders were descended\nby the engineer and his guide, with the measured step habitual to the\nminer. They were all still in good condition.\n\nJames Starr examined, as well as the insufficient light would permit,\nthe sides of the dark shaft, which were covered by a partly rotten\nlining of wood.\n\nArrived at the fifteenth landing, that is to say, half way down, they\nhalted for a few minutes.\n\n\"Decidedly, I have not your legs, my lad,\" said the engineer, panting.\n\n\"You are very stout, Mr. Starr,\" replied Harry, \"and it's something too,\nyou see, to live all one's life in the mine.\"\n\n\"Right, Harry. Formerly, when I was twenty, I could have gone down all\nat a breath. Come, forward!\"\n\nBut just as the two were about to leave the platform, a voice, as yet\nfar distant, was heard in the depths of the shaft. It came up like a\nsonorous billow, swelling as it advanced, and becoming more and more\ndistinct.\n\n\n\"Halloo! who comes here?\" asked the engineer, stopping Harry.\n\n\"I cannot say,\" answered the young miner.\n\n\"Is it not your father?\"\n\n\"My father, Mr. Starr? no.\"\n\n\"Some neighbor, then?\"\n\n\"We have no neighbors in the bottom of the pit,\" replied Harry. \"We are\nalone, quite alone.\"\n\n\"Well, we must let this intruder pass,\" said James Starr. \"Those who are\ndescending must yield the path to those who are ascending.\"\n\nThey waited. The voice broke out again with a magnificent burst, as\nif it had been carried through a vast speaking trumpet; and soon a few\nwords of a Scotch song came clearly to the ears of the young miner.\n\n\"The Hundred Pipers!\" cried Harry. \"Well, I shall be much surprised if\nthat comes from the lungs of any man but Jack Ryan.\"\n\n\"And who is this Jack Ryan?\" asked James Starr.\n\n\"An old mining comrade,\" replied Harry. Then leaning from the platform,\n\"Halloo! Jack!\" he shouted.\n\n\"Is that you, Harry?\" was the reply. \"Wait a bit, I'm coming.\" And the\nsong broke forth again.\n\nIn a few minutes, a tall fellow of five and twenty, with a merry face,\nsmiling eyes, a laughing mouth, and sandy hair, appeared at the bottom\nof the luminous cone which was thrown from his lantern, and set foot\non the landing of the fifteenth ladder. His first act was to vigorously\nwring the hand which Harry extended to him.\n\n\"Delighted to meet you!\" he exclaimed. \"If I had only known you were to\nbe above ground to-day, I would have spared myself going down the Yarrow\nshaft!\"\n\n\"This is Mr. James Starr,\" said Harry, turning his lamp towards the\nengineer, who was in the shadow.\n\n\"Mr. Starr!\" cried Jack Ryan. \"Ah, sir, I could not see. Since I left\nthe mine, my eyes have not been accustomed to see in the dark, as they\nused to do.\"\n\n\"Ah, I remember a laddie who was always singing. That was ten years ago.\nIt was you, no doubt?\"\n\n\"Ay, Mr. Starr, but in changing my trade, I haven't changed my\ndisposition. It's far better to laugh and sing than to cry and whine!\"\n\n\n\"You're right there, Jack Ryan. And what do you do now, as you have left\nthe mine?\"\n\n\"I am working on the Melrose farm, forty miles from here. Ah, it's not\nlike our Aberfoyle mines! The pick comes better to my hand than the\nspade or hoe. And then, in the old pit, there were vaulted roofs, to\nmerrily echo one's songs, while up above ground!--But you are going to\nsee old Simon, Mr. Starr?\"\n\n\"Yes, Jack,\" answered the engineer.\n\n\"Don't let me keep you then.\"\n\n\"Tell me, Jack,\" said Harry, \"what was taking you to our cottage\nto-day?\"\n\n\"I wanted to see you, man,\" replied Jack, \"and ask you to come to\nthe Irvine games. You know I am the piper of the place. There will be\ndancing and singing.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Jack, but it's impossible.\"\n\n\"Impossible?\"\n\n\"Yes; Mr. Starr's visit will last some time, and I must take him back to\nCallander.\"\n\n\"Well, Harry, it won't be for a week yet. By that time Mr. Starr's visit\nwill be over, I should think, and there will be nothing to keep you at\nthe cottage.\"\n\n\"Indeed, Harry,\" said James Starr, \"you must profit by your friend\nJack's invitation.\"\n\n\"Well, I accept it, Jack,\" said Harry. \"In a week we will meet at\nIrvine.\"\n\n\"In a week, that's settled,\" returned Ryan. \"Good-by, Harry! Your\nservant, Mr. Starr. I am very glad to have seen you again! I can give\nnews of you to all my friends. No one has forgotten you, sir.\"\n\n\"And I have forgotten no one,\" said Starr.\n\n\"Thanks for all, sir,\" replied Jack.\n\n\"Good-by, Jack,\" said Harry, shaking his hand. And Jack Ryan, singing as\nhe went, soon disappeared in the heights of the shaft, dimly lighted by\nhis lamp.\n\nA quarter of an hour afterwards James Starr and Harry descended the last\nladder, and set foot on the lowest floor of the pit.\n\nFrom the bottom of the Yarrow shaft radiated numerous empty galleries.\nThey ran through the wall of schist and sandstone, some shored up with\ngreat, roughly-hewn beams, others lined with a thick casing of wood. In\nevery direction embankments supplied the place of the excavated veins.\nArtificial pillars were made of stone from neighboring quarries, and now\nthey supported the ground, that is to say, the double layer of tertiary\nand quaternary soil, which formerly rested on the seam itself. Darkness\nnow filled the galleries, formerly lighted either by the miner's lamp\nor by the electric light, the use of which had been introduced in the\nmines.\n\n\"Will you not rest a while, Mr. Starr?\" asked the young man.\n\n\"No, my lad,\" replied the engineer, \"for I am anxious to be at your\nfather's cottage.\"\n\n\"Follow me then, Mr. Starr. I will guide you, and yet I daresay you\ncould find your way perfectly well through this dark labyrinth.\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed! I have the whole plan of the old pit still in my head.\"\n\nHarry, followed by the engineer, and holding his lamp high the better\nto light their way, walked along a high gallery, like the nave of a\ncathedral. Their feet still struck against the wooden sleepers which\nused to support the rails.\n\nThey had not gone more than fifty paces, when a huge stone fell at the\nfeet of James Starr. \"Take care, Mr. Starr!\" cried Harry, seizing the\nengineer by the arm.\n\n\"A stone, Harry! Ah! these old vaultings are no longer quite secure, of\ncourse, and--\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" said Harry Ford, \"it seems to me that stone was thrown,\nthrown as by the hand of man!\"\n\n\"Thrown!\" exclaimed James Starr. \"What do you mean, lad?\"\n\n\"Nothing, nothing, Mr. Starr,\" replied Harry evasively, his anxious gaze\nendeavoring to pierce the darkness. \"Let us go on. Take my arm, sir, and\ndon't be afraid of making a false step.\"\n\n\"Here I am, Harry.\" And they both advanced, whilst Harry looked on\nevery side, throwing the light of his lamp into all the corners of the\ngallery.\n\n\"Shall we soon be there?\" asked the engineer.\n\n\"In ten minutes at most.\"\n\n\"Good.\"\n\n\"But,\" muttered Harry, \"that was a most singular thing. It is the first\ntime such an accident has happened to me.\n\n\"That stone falling just at the moment we were passing.\"\n\n\"Harry, it was a mere chance.\"\n\n\"Chance,\" replied the young man, shaking his head. \"Yes, chance.\" He\nstopped and listened.\n\n\"What is the matter, Harry?\" asked the engineer.\n\n\"I thought I heard someone walking behind us,\" replied the young\nminer, listening more attentively. Then he added, \"No, I must have been\nmistaken. Lean harder on my arm, Mr. Starr. Use me like a staff.\"\n\n\"A good solid staff, Harry,\" answered James Starr. \"I could not wish for\na better than a fine fellow like you.\"\n\nThey continued in silence along the dark nave. Harry was evidently\npreoccupied, and frequently turned, trying to catch, either some distant\nnoise, or remote glimmer of light.\n\nBut behind and before, all was silence and darkness.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV. THE FORD FAMILY\n\n\nTEN minutes afterwards, James Starr and Harry issued from the principal\ngallery. They were now standing in a glade, if we may use this word\nto designate a vast and dark excavation. The place, however, was not\nentirely deprived of daylight. A few rays straggled in through\nthe opening of a deserted shaft. It was by means of this pipe that\nventilation was established in the Dochart pit. Owing to its lesser\ndensity, the warm air was drawn towards the Yarrow shaft. Both air and\nlight, therefore, penetrated in some measure into the glade.\n\nHere Simon Ford had lived with his family ten years, in a subterranean\ndwelling, hollowed out in the schistous mass, where formerly stood the\npowerful engines which worked the mechanical traction of the Dochart\npit.\n\nSuch was the habitation, \"his cottage,\" as he called it, in which\nresided the old overman. As he had some means saved during a long life\nof toil, Ford could have afforded to live in the light of day, among\ntrees, or in any town of the kingdom he chose, but he and his wife and\nson preferred remaining in the mine, where they were happy together,\nhaving the same opinions, ideas, and tastes. Yes, they were quite fond\nof their cottage, buried fifteen hundred feet below Scottish soil.\nAmong other advantages, there was no fear that tax gatherers, or rent\ncollectors would ever come to trouble its inhabitants.\n\nAt this period, Simon Ford, the former overman of the Dochart pit, bore\nthe weight of sixty-five years well. Tall, robust, well-built, he would\nhave been regarded as one of the most conspicuous men in the district\nwhich supplies so many fine fellows to the Highland regiments.\n\nSimon Ford was descended from an old mining family, and his ancestors\nhad worked the very first carboniferous seams opened in Scotland.\nWithout discussing whether or not the Greeks and Romans made use of\ncoal, whether the Chinese worked coal mines before the Christian era,\nwhether the French word for coal (HOUILLE) is really derived from the\nfarrier Houillos, who lived in Belgium in the twelfth century, we may\naffirm that the beds in Great Britain were the first ever regularly\nworked. So early as the eleventh century, William the Conqueror divided\nthe produce of the Newcastle bed among his companions-in-arms. At the\nend of the thirteenth century, a license for the mining of \"sea coal\"\nwas granted by Henry III. Lastly, towards the end of the same century,\nmention is made of the Scotch and Welsh beds.\n\nIt was about this time that Simon Ford's ancestors penetrated into the\nbowels of Caledonian earth, and lived there ever after, from father to\nson. They were but plain miners. They labored like convicts at the work\nof extracting the precious combustible. It is even believed that the\ncoal miners, like the salt-makers of that period, were actual slaves.\n\nHowever that might have been, Simon Ford was proud of belonging to this\nancient family of Scotch miners. He had worked diligently in the same\nplace where his ancestors had wielded the pick, the crowbar, and the\nmattock. At thirty he was overman of the Dochart pit, the most important\nin the Aberfoyle colliery. He was devoted to his trade. During long\nyears he zealously performed his duty. His only grief had been to\nperceive the bed becoming impoverished, and to see the hour approaching\nwhen the seam would be exhausted.\n\nIt was then he devoted himself to the search for new veins in all the\nAberfoyle pits, which communicated underground one with another. He\nhad had the good luck to discover several during the last period of\nthe working. His miner's instinct assisted him marvelously, and the\nengineer, James Starr, appreciated him highly. It might be said that\nhe divined the course of seams in the depths of the coal mine as a\nhydroscope reveals springs in the bowels of the earth. He was par\nexcellence the type of a miner whose whole existence is indissolubly\nconnected with that of his mine. He had lived there from his birth, and\nnow that the works were abandoned he wished to live there still. His son\nHarry foraged for the subterranean housekeeping; as for himself, during\nthose ten years he had not been ten times above ground.\n\n\"Go up there! What is the good?\" he would say, and refused to leave his\nblack domain. The place was remarkably healthy, subject to an equable\ntemperature; the old overman endured neither the heat of summer nor\nthe cold of winter. His family enjoyed good health; what more could he\ndesire?\n\nBut at heart he felt depressed. He missed the former animation,\nmovement, and life in the well-worked pit. He was, however, supported by\none fixed idea. \"No, no! the mine is not exhausted!\" he repeated.\n\nAnd that man would have given serious offense who could have ventured\nto express before Simon Ford any doubt that old Aberfoyle would one day\nrevive! He had never given up the hope of discovering some new bed which\nwould restore the mine to its past splendor. Yes, he would willingly,\nhad it been necessary, have resumed the miner's pick, and with his\nstill stout arms vigorously attacked the rock. He went through the dark\ngalleries, sometimes alone, sometimes with his son, examining, searching\nfor signs of coal, only to return each day, wearied, but not in despair,\nto the cottage.\n\nMadge, Simon's faithful companion, his \"gude-wife,\" to use the Scotch\nterm, was a tall, strong, comely woman. Madge had no wish to leave the\nDochart pit any more than had her husband. She shared all his hopes and\nregrets. She encouraged him, she urged him on, and talked to him in\na way which cheered the heart of the old overman. \"Aberfoyle is only\nasleep,\" she would say. \"You are right about that, Simon. This is but a\nrest, it is not death!\"\n\n\nMadge, as well as the others, was perfectly satisfied to live\nindependent of the outer world, and was the center of the happiness\nenjoyed by the little family in their dark cottage.\n\nThe engineer was eagerly expected. Simon Ford was standing at his door,\nand as soon as Harry's lamp announced the arrival of his former viewer\nhe advanced to meet him.\n\n\n\"Welcome, Mr. Starr!\" he exclaimed, his voice echoing under the roof\nof schist. \"Welcome to the old overman's cottage! Though it is buried\nfifteen hundred feet under the earth, our house is not the less\nhospitable.\"\n\n\"And how are you, good Simon?\" asked James Starr, grasping the hand\nwhich his host held out to him.\n\n\"Very well, Mr. Starr. How could I be otherwise here, sheltered from\nthe inclemencies of the weather? Your ladies who go to Newhaven or\nPortobello in the summer time would do much better to pass a few months\nin the coal mine of Aberfoyle! They would run no risk here of catching a\nheavy cold, as they do in the damp streets of the old capital.\"\n\n\"I'm not the man to contradict you, Simon,\" answered James Starr, glad\nto find the old man just as he used to be. \"Indeed, I wonder why I do\nnot change my home in the Canongate for a cottage near you.\"\n\n\"And why not, Mr. Starr? I know one of your old miners who would be\ntruly pleased to have only a partition wall between you and him.\"\n\n\"And how is Madge?\" asked the engineer.\n\n\"The goodwife is in better health than I am, if that's possible,\"\nreplied Ford, \"and it will be a pleasure to her to see you at her table.\nI think she will surpass herself to do you honor.\"\n\n\"We shall see that, Simon, we shall see that!\" said the engineer, to\nwhom the announcement of a good breakfast could not be indifferent,\nafter his long walk.\n\n\"Are you hungry, Mr. Starr?\"\n\n\"Ravenously hungry. My journey has given me an appetite. I came through\nhorrible weather.\"\n\n\"Ah, it is raining up there,\" responded Simon Ford.\n\n\"Yes, Simon, and the waters of the Forth are as rough as the sea.\"\n\n\n\"Well, Mr. Starr, here it never rains. But I needn't describe to you\nall the advantages, which you know as well as myself. Here we are at the\ncottage. That is the chief thing, and I again say you are welcome, sir.\"\n\nSimon Ford, followed by Harry, ushered their guest into the dwelling.\nJames Starr found himself in a large room lighted by numerous lamps, one\nhanging from the colored beams of the roof.\n\n\"The soup is ready, wife,\" said Ford, \"and it mustn't be kept waiting\nany more than Mr. Starr. He is as hungry as a miner, and he shall\nsee that our boy doesn't let us want for anything in the cottage!\nBy-the-bye, Harry,\" added the old overman, turning to his son, \"Jack\nRyan came here to see you.\"\n\n\"I know, father. We met him in the Yarrow shaft.\"\n\n\"He's an honest and a merry fellow,\" said Ford; \"but he seems to be\nquite happy above ground. He hasn't the true miner's blood in his veins.\nSit down, Mr. Starr, and have a good dinner, for we may not sup till\nlate.\"\n\nAs the engineer and his hosts were taking their places:\n\n\"One moment, Simon,\" said James Starr. \"Do you want me to eat with a\ngood appetite?\"\n\n\"It will be doing us all possible honor, Mr. Starr,\" answered Ford.\n\n\"Well, in order to eat heartily, I must not be at all anxious. Now I\nhave two questions to put to you.\"\n\n\"Go on, sir.\"\n\n\"Your letter told me of a communication which was to be of an\ninteresting nature.\"\n\n\"It is very interesting indeed.\"\n\n\"To you?\"\n\n\"To you and to me, Mr. Starr. But I do not want to tell it you until\nafter dinner, and on the very spot itself. Without that you would not\nbelieve me.\"\n\n\"Simon,\" resumed the engineer, \"look me straight in the face. An\ninteresting communication? Yes. Good! I will not ask more,\" he added, as\nif he had read the reply in the old overman's eyes.\n\n\"And the second question?\" asked the latter.\n\n\"Do you know, Simon, who the person is who can have written this?\"\nanswered the engineer, handing him the anonymous letter.\n\n\nFord took the letter and read it attentively. Then giving it to his son,\n\"Do you know the writing?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, father,\" replied Harry.\n\n\"And had this letter the Aberfoyle postmark?\" inquired Simon Ford.\n\n\"Yes, like yours,\" replied James Starr.\n\n\"What do you think of that, Harry?\" said his father, his brow darkening.\n\n\"I think, father,\" returned Harry, \"that someone has had some interest\nin trying to prevent Mr. Starr from coming to the place where you\ninvited him.\"\n\n\"But who,\" exclaimed the old miner, \"who could have possibly guessed\nenough of my secret?\" And Simon fell into a reverie, from which he was\naroused by his wife.\n\n\"Let us begin, Mr. Starr,\" she said. \"The soup is already getting cold.\nDon't think any more of that letter just now.\"\n\nOn the old woman's invitation, each drew in his chair, James Starr\nopposite to Madge--to do him honor--the father and son opposite to each\nother. It was a good Scotch dinner. First they ate \"hotchpotch,\" soup\nwith the meat swimming in capital broth. As old Simon said, his wife\nknew no rival in the art of preparing hotchpotch. It was the same with\nthe \"cockyleeky,\" a cock stewed with leeks, which merited high praise.\nThe whole was washed down with excellent ale, obtained from the best\nbrewery in Edinburgh.\n\nBut the principal dish consisted of a \"haggis,\" the national pudding,\nmade of meat and barley meal. This remarkable dish, which inspired the\npoet Burns with one of his best odes, shared the fate of all the good\nthings in this world--it passed away like a dream.\n\nMadge received the sincere compliments of her guest. The dinner\nended with cheese and oatcake, accompanied by a few small glasses of\n\"usquebaugh,\" capital whisky, five and twenty years old--just Harry's\nage. The repast lasted a good hour. James Starr and Simon Ford had not\nonly eaten much, but talked much too, chiefly of their past life in the\nold Aberfoyle mine.\n\nHarry had been rather silent. Twice he had left the table, and even the\nhouse. He evidently felt uneasy since the incident of the stone, and\nwished to examine the environs of the cottage. The anonymous letter had\nnot contributed to reassure him.\n\nWhilst he was absent, the engineer observed to Ford and his wife,\n\"That's a fine lad you have there, my friends.\"\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr, he is a good and affectionate son,\" replied the old\noverman earnestly.\n\n\"Is he happy with you in the cottage?\"\n\n\"He would not wish to leave us.\"\n\n\"Don't you think of finding him a wife, some day?\"\n\n\"A wife for Harry,\" exclaimed Ford. \"And who would it be? A girl from up\nyonder, who would love merry-makings and dancing, who would prefer her\nclan to our mine! Harry wouldn't do it!\"\n\n\"Simon,\" said Madge, \"you would not forbid that Harry should take a\nwife.\"\n\n\"I would forbid nothing,\" returned the old miner, \"but there's no hurry\nabout that. Who knows but we may find one for him--\"\n\nHarry re-entered at that moment, and Simon Ford was silent.\n\nWhen Madge rose from the table, all followed her example, and seated\nthemselves at the door of the cottage. \"Well, Simon,\" said the engineer,\n\"I am ready to hear you.\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" responded Ford, \"I do not need your ears, but your legs.\nAre you quite rested?\"\n\n\"Quite rested and quite refreshed, Simon. I am ready to go with you\nwherever you like.\"\n\n\"Harry,\" said Simon Ford, turning to his son, \"light our safety lamps.\"\n\n\"Are you going to take safety lamps!\" exclaimed James Starr, in\namazement, knowing that there was no fear of explosions of fire-damp in\na pit quite empty of coal.\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr, it will be prudent.\"\n\n\"My good Simon, won't you propose next to put me in a miner's dress?\"\n\n\"Not just yet, sir, not just yet!\" returned the old overman, his\ndeep-set eyes gleaming strangely.\n\nHarry soon reappeared, carrying three safety lamps. He handed one of\nthese to the engineer, the other to his father, and kept the third\nhanging from his left hand, whilst his right was armed with a long\nstick.\n\n\n\"Forward!\" said Simon Ford, taking up a strong pick, which was leaning\nagainst the wall of the cottage.\n\n\"Forward!\" echoed the engineer. \"Good-by, Madge.\"\n\n\"GOD speed you!\" responded the good woman.\n\n\"A good supper, wife, do you hear?\" exclaimed Ford. \"We shall be hungry\nwhen we come back, and will do it justice!\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V. SOME STRANGE PHENOMENA\n\n\nMANY superstitious beliefs exist both in the Highlands and Lowlands of\nScotland. Of course the mining population must furnish its contingent\nof legends and fables to this mythological repertory. If the fields are\npeopled with imaginary beings, either good or bad, with much more reason\nmust the dark mines be haunted to their lowest depths. Who shakes the\nseam during tempestuous nights? who puts the miners on the track of an\nas yet unworked vein? who lights the fire-damp, and presides over the\nterrible explosions? who but some spirit of the mine? This, at least,\nwas the opinion commonly spread among the superstitious Scotch.\n\nIn the first rank of the believers in the supernatural in the Dochart\npit figured Jack Ryan, Harry's friend. He was the great partisan of\nall these superstitions. All these wild stories were turned by him into\nsongs, which earned him great applause in the winter evenings.\n\nBut Jack Ryan was not alone in his belief. His comrades affirmed, no\nless strongly, that the Aberfoyle pits were haunted, and that certain\nstrange beings were seen there frequently, just as in the Highlands. To\nhear them talk, it would have been more extraordinary if nothing of the\nkind appeared. Could there indeed be a better place than a dark and deep\ncoal mine for the freaks of fairies, elves, goblins, and other actors\nin the fantastical dramas? The scenery was all ready, why should not the\nsupernatural personages come there to play their parts?\n\nSo reasoned Jack Ryan and his comrades in the Aberfoyle mines. We have\nsaid that the different pits communicated with each other by means of\nlong subterranean galleries. Thus there existed beneath the county of\nStirling a vast tract, full of burrows, tunnels, bored with caves,\nand perforated with shafts, a subterranean labyrinth, which might be\ncompared to an enormous ant-hill.\n\nMiners, though belonging to different pits, often met, when going to or\nreturning from their work. Consequently there was a constant opportunity\nof exchanging talk, and circulating the stories which had their origin\nin the mine, from one pit to another. These accounts were transmitted\nwith marvelous rapidity, passing from mouth to mouth, and gaining in\nwonder as they went.\n\nTwo men, however, better educated and with more practical minds than the\nrest, had always resisted this temptation. They in no degree believed\nin the intervention of spirits, elves, or goblins. These two were Simon\nFord and his son. And they proved it by continuing to inhabit the dismal\ncrypt, after the desertion of the Dochart pit. Perhaps good Madge, like\nevery Highland woman, had some leaning towards the supernatural. But\nshe had to repeat all these stories to herself, and so she did, most\nconscientiously, so as not to let the old traditions be lost.\n\nEven had Simon and Harry Ford been as credulous as their companions,\nthey would not have abandoned the mine to the imps and fairies. For ten\nyears, without missing a single day, obstinate and immovable in their\nconvictions, the father and son took their picks, their sticks, and\ntheir lamps. They went about searching, sounding the rock with a sharp\nblow, listening if it would return a favor-able sound. So long as the\nsoundings had not been pushed to the granite of the primary formation,\nthe Fords were agreed that the search, unsuccessful to-day, might\nsucceed to-morrow, and that it ought to be resumed. They spent their\nwhole life in endeavoring to bring Aberfoyle back to its former\nprosperity. If the father died before the hour of success, the son was\nto go on with the task alone.\n\nIt was during these excursions that Harry was more particularly struck\nby certain phenomena, which he vainly sought to explain. Several times,\nwhile walking along some narrow cross-alley, he seemed to hear sounds\nsimilar to those which would be produced by violent blows of a pickax\nagainst the wall.\n\nHarry hastened to seek the cause of this mysterious work. The tunnel\nwas empty. The light from the young miner's lamp, thrown on the wall,\nrevealed no trace of any recent work with pick or crowbar. Harry would\nthen ask himself if it was not the effect of some acoustic illusion, or\nsome strange and fantastic echo. At other times, on suddenly throwing a\nbright light into a suspicious-looking cleft in the rock, he thought he\nsaw a shadow. He rushed forward. Nothing, and there was no opening to\npermit a human being to evade his pursuit!\n\nTwice in one month, Harry, whilst visiting the west end of the pit,\ndistinctly heard distant reports, as if some miner had exploded a charge\nof dynamite. The second time, after many careful researches, he found\nthat a pillar had just been blown up.\n\nBy the light of his lamp, Harry carefully examined the place attacked\nby the explosion. It had not been made in a simple embankment of stones,\nbut in a mass of schist, which had penetrated to this depth in the coal\nstratum. Had the object of the explosion been to discover a new vein? Or\nhad someone wished simply to destroy this portion of the mine? Thus\nhe questioned, and when he made known this occurrence to his father,\nneither could the old overman nor he himself answer the question in a\nsatisfactory way.\n\n\"It is very queer,\" Harry often repeated. \"The presence of an unknown\nbeing in the mine seems impossible, and yet there can be no doubt\nabout it. Does someone besides ourselves wish to find out if a seam\nyet exists? Or, rather, has he attempted to destroy what remains of the\nAberfoyle mines? But for what reason? I will find that out, if it should\ncost me my life!\"\n\nA fortnight before the day on which Harry Ford guided the engineer\nthrough the labyrinth of the Dochart pit, he had been on the point of\nattaining the object of his search. He was going over the southwest end\nof the mine, with a large lantern in his hand. All at once, it seemed\nto him that a light was suddenly extinguished, some hundred feet before\nhim, at the end of a narrow passage cut obliquely through the rock. He\ndarted forward.\n\nHis search was in vain. As Harry would not admit a supernatural\nexplanation for a physical occurrence, he concluded that certainly\nsome strange being prowled about in the pit. But whatever he could do,\nsearching with the greatest care, scrutinizing every crevice in the\ngallery, he found nothing for his trouble.\n\nIf Jack Ryan and the other superstitious fellows in the mine had seen\nthese lights, they would, without fail, have called them supernatural,\nbut Harry did not dream of doing so, nor did his father. And when they\ntalked over these phenomena, evidently due to a physical cause, \"My\nlad,\" the old man would say, \"we must wait. It will all be explained\nsome day.\"\n\nHowever, it must be observed that, hitherto, neither Harry nor his\nfather had ever been exposed to any act of violence. If the stone which\nhad fallen at the feet of James Starr had been thrown by the hand\nof some ill-disposed person, it was the first criminal act of that\ndescription.\n\nJames Starr was of opinion that the stone had become detached from\nthe roof of the gallery; but Harry would not admit of such a simple\nexplanation. According to him, the stone had not fallen, it had been\nthrown; for otherwise, without rebounding, it could never have described\na trajectory as it did.\n\nHarry saw in it a direct attempt against himself and his father, or even\nagainst the engineer.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI. SIMON FORD'S EXPERIMENT\n\n\nTHE old clock in the cottage struck one as James Starr and his two\ncompanions went out. A dim light penetrated through the ventilating\nshaft into the glade. Harry's lamp was not necessary here, but it\nwould very soon be of use, for the old overman was about to conduct the\nengineer to the very end of the Dochart pit.\n\nAfter following the principal gallery for a distance of two miles,\nthe three explorers--for, as will be seen, this was a regular\nexploration--arrived at the entrance of a narrow tunnel. It was like a\nnave, the roof of which rested on woodwork, covered with white moss. It\nfollowed very nearly the line traced by the course of the river Forth,\nfifteen hundred feet above.\n\n\"So we are going to the end of the last vein?\" said James Starr.\n\n\n\"Ay! You know the mine well still.\"\n\n\"Well, Simon,\" returned the engineer, \"it will be difficult to go\nfurther than that, if I don't mistake.\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed, Mr. Starr. That was where our picks tore out the last bit\nof coal in the seam. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I myself\ngave that last blow, and it re-echoed in my heart more dismally than on\nthe rock. Only sandstone and schist were round us after that, and when\nthe truck rolled towards the shaft, I followed, with my heart as full as\nthough it were a funeral. It seemed to me that the soul of the mine was\ngoing with it.\"\n\nThe gravity with which the old man uttered these words impressed the\nengineer, who was not far from sharing his sentiments. They were those\nof the sailor who leaves his disabled vessel--of the proprietor who sees\nthe house of his ancestors pulled down. He pressed Ford's hand; but now\nthe latter seized that of the engineer, and, wringing it:\n\n\"That day we were all of us mistaken,\" he exclaimed. \"No! The old mine\nwas not dead. It was not a corpse that the miners abandoned; and I dare\nto assert, Mr. Starr, that its heart beats still.\"\n\n\"Speak, Ford! Have you discovered a new vein?\" cried the engineer,\nunable to contain himself. \"I know you have! Your letter could mean\nnothing else.\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" said Simon Ford, \"I did not wish to tell any man but\nyourself.\"\n\n\"And you did quite right, Ford. But tell me how, by what signs, are you\nsure?\"\n\n\"Listen, sir!\" resumed Simon. \"It is not a seam that I have found.\"\n\n\"What is it, then?\"\n\n\"Only positive proof that such a seam exists.\"\n\n\"And the proof?\"\n\n\"Could fire-damp issue from the bowels of the earth if coal was not\nthere to produce it?\"\n\n\"No, certainly not!\" replied the engineer. \"No coal, no fire-damp. No\neffects without a cause.\"\n\n\"Just as no smoke without fire.\"\n\n\"And have you recognized the presence of light carburetted hydrogen?\"\n\n\"An old miner could not be deceived,\" answered Ford. \"I have met with\nour old enemy, the fire-damp!\"\n\n\n\"But suppose it was another gas,\" said Starr. \"Firedamp is almost\nwithout smell, and colorless. It only really betrays its presence by an\nexplosion.\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" said Simon Ford, \"will you let me tell you what I have\ndone? Harry had once or twice observed something remarkable in his\nexcursions to the west end of the mine. Fire, which suddenly went out,\nsometimes appeared along the face of the rock or on the embankment of\nthe further galleries. How those flames were lighted, I could not and\ncannot say. But they were evidently owing to the presence of fire-damp,\nand to me fire-damp means a vein of coal.\"\n\n\"Did not these fires cause any explosion?\" asked the engineer quickly.\n\n\"Yes, little partial explosions,\" replied Ford, \"such as I used to cause\nmyself when I wished to ascertain the presence of fire-damp. Do you\nremember how formerly it was the custom to try to prevent explosions\nbefore our good genius, Humphry Davy, invented his safety-lamp?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied James Starr. \"You mean what the 'monk,' as the men called\nhim, used to do. But I have never seen him in the exercise of his duty.\"\n\n\"Indeed, Mr. Starr, you are too young, in spite of your five-and-fifty\nyears, to have seen that. But I, ten years older, often saw the last\n'monk' working in the mine. He was called so because he wore a long robe\nlike a monk. His proper name was the 'fireman.' At that time there was\nno other means of destroying the bad gas but by dispersing it in little\nexplosions, before its buoyancy had collected it in too great quantities\nin the heights of the galleries. The monk, as we called him, with his\nface masked, his head muffled up, all his body tightly wrapped in a\nthick felt cloak, crawled along the ground. He could breathe down there,\nwhen the air was pure; and with his right hand he waved above his head\na blazing torch. When the firedamp had accumulated in the air, so as to\nform a detonating mixture, the explosion occurred without being fatal,\nand, by often renewing this operation, catastrophes were prevented.\nSometimes the 'monk' was injured or killed in his work, then another\ntook his place. This was done in all mines until the Davy lamp was\nuniversally adopted. But I knew the plan, and by its means I discovered\nthe presence of firedamp and consequently that of a new seam of coal in\nthe Dochart pit.\"\n\nAll that the old overman had related of the so-called \"monk\" or\n\"fireman\" was perfectly true. The air in the galleries of mines was\nformerly always purified in the way described.\n\nFire-damp, marsh-gas, or carburetted hydrogen, is colorless, almost\nscentless; it burns with a blue flame, and makes respiration impossible.\nThe miner could not live in a place filled with this injurious gas, any\nmore than one could live in a gasometer full of common gas. Moreover,\nfire-damp, as well as the latter, a mixture of inflammable gases, forms\na detonating mixture as soon as the air unites with it in a proportion\nof eight, and perhaps even five to the hundred. When this mixture is\nlighted by any cause, there is an explosion, almost always followed by a\nfrightful catastrophe.\n\nAs they walked on, Simon Ford told the engineer all that he had done\nto attain his object; how he was sure that the escape of fire-damp\ntook place at the very end of the farthest gallery in its western part,\nbecause he had provoked small and partial explosions, or rather little\nflames, enough to show the nature of the gas, which escaped in a small\njet, but with a continuous flow.\n\nAn hour after leaving the cottage, James Starr and his two companions\nhad gone a distance of four miles. The engineer, urged by anxiety and\nhope, walked on without noticing the length of the way. He pondered\nover all that the old miner had told him, and mentally weighed all the\narguments which the latter had given in support of his belief. He agreed\nwith him in thinking that the continued emission of carburetted hydrogen\ncertainly showed the existence of a new coal-seam. If it had been merely\na sort of pocket, full of gas, as it is sometimes found amongst the\nrock, it would soon have been empty, and the phenomenon have ceased.\nBut far from that. According to Simon Ford, the fire-damp escaped\nincessantly, and from that fact the existence of an important vein might\nbe considered certain. Consequently, the riches of the Dochart pit were\nnot entirely exhausted. The chief question now was, whether this was\nmerely a vein which would yield comparatively little, or a bed occupying\na large extent.\n\nHarry, who preceded his father and the engineer, stopped.\n\n\n\"Here we are!\" exclaimed the old miner. \"At last, thank Heaven! you\nare here, Mr. Starr, and we shall soon know.\" The old overman's voice\ntrembled slightly.\n\n\"Be calm, my man!\" said the engineer. \"I am as excited as you are, but\nwe must not lose time.\"\n\nThe gallery at this end of the pit widened into a sort of dark cave.\nNo shaft had been pierced in this part, and the gallery, bored into the\nbowels of the earth, had no direct communication with the surface of the\nearth.\n\nJames Starr, with intense interest, examined the place in which they\nwere standing. On the walls of the cavern the marks of the pick could\nstill be seen, and even holes in which the rock had been blasted, near\nthe termination of the working. The schist was excessively hard, and it\nhad not been necessary to bank up the end of the tunnel where the works\nhad come to an end. There the vein had failed, between the schist and\nthe tertiary sandstone. From this very place had been extracted the last\npiece of coal from the Dochart pit.\n\n\"We must attack the dyke,\" said Ford, raising his pick; \"for at the\nother side of the break, at more or less depth, we shall assuredly find\nthe vein, the existence of which I assert.\"\n\n\"And was it on the surface of these rocks that you found out the\nfire-damp?\" asked James Starr.\n\n\"Just there, sir,\" returned Ford, \"and I was able to light it only by\nbringing my lamp near to the cracks in the rock. Harry has done it as\nwell as I.\"\n\n\"At what height?\" asked Starr.\n\n\"Ten feet from the ground,\" replied Harry.\n\nJames Starr had seated himself on a rock. After critically inhaling the\nair of the cavern, he gazed at the two miners, almost as if doubting\ntheir words, decided as they were. In fact, carburetted hydrogen is not\ncompletely scentless, and the engineer, whose sense of smell was very\nkeen, was astonished that it had not revealed the presence of the\nexplosive gas. At any rate, if the gas had mingled at all with the\nsurrounding air, it could only be in a very small stream. There was no\ndanger of an explosion, and they might without fear open the safety lamp\nto try the experiment, just as the old miner had done before.\n\nWhat troubled James Starr was, not lest too much gas mingled with the\nair, but lest there should be little or none.\n\n\"Could they have been mistaken?\" he murmured. \"No: these men know what\nthey are about. And yet--\"\n\nHe waited, not without some anxiety, until Simon Ford's phenomenon\nshould have taken place. But just then it seemed that Harry, like\nhimself, had remarked the absence of the characteristic odor of\nfire-damp; for he exclaimed in an altered voice, \"Father, I should say\nthe gas was no longer escaping through the cracks!\"\n\n\"No longer!\" cried the old miner--and, pressing his lips tight together,\nhe snuffed the air several times.\n\nThen, all at once, with a sudden movement, \"Hand me your lamp, Harry,\"\nhe said.\n\nFord took the lamp with a trembling hand. He drew off the wire gauze\ncase which surrounded the wick, and the flame burned in the open air.\n\nAs they had expected, there was no explosion, but, what was more\nserious, there was not even the slight crackling which indicates the\npresence of a small quantity of firedamp. Simon took the stick which\nHarry was holding, fixed his lamp to the end of it, and raised it high\nabove his head, up to where the gas, by reason of its buoyancy, would\nnaturally accumulate. The flame of the lamp, burning straight and clear,\nrevealed no trace of the carburetted hydrogen.\n\n\"Close to the wall,\" said the engineer.\n\n\"Yes,\" responded Ford, carrying the lamp to that part of the wall at\nwhich he and his son had, the evening before, proved the escape of gas.\n\nThe old miner's arm trembled whilst he tried to hoist the lamp up. \"Take\nmy place, Harry,\" said he.\n\nHarry took the stick, and successively presented the lamp to the\ndifferent fissures in the rock; but he shook his head, for of that\nslight crackling peculiar to escaping fire-damp he heard nothing. There\nwas no flame. Evidently not a particle of gas was escaping through the\nrock.\n\n\"Nothing!\" cried Ford, clenching his fist with a gesture rather of anger\nthan disappointment.\n\nA cry escaped Harry.\n\n\"What's the matter?\" asked Starr quickly.\n\n\"Someone has stopped up the cracks in the schist!\"\n\n\"Is that true?\" exclaimed the old miner.\n\n\n\"Look, father!\" Harry was not mistaken. The obstruction of the fissures\nwas clearly visible by the light of the lamp. It had been recently done\nwith lime, leaving on the rock a long whitish mark, badly concealed with\ncoal dust.\n\n\"It's he!\" exclaimed Harry. \"It can only be he!\"\n\n\"He?\" repeated James Starr in amazement.\n\n\"Yes!\" returned the young man, \"that mysterious being who haunts our\ndomain, for whom I have watched a hundred times without being able to\nget at him--the author, we may now be certain, of that letter which was\nintended to hinder you from coming to see my father, Mr. Starr, and who\nfinally threw that stone at us in the gallery of the Yarrow shaft! Ah!\nthere's no doubt about it; there is a man's hand in all that!\"\n\nHarry spoke with such energy that conviction came instantly and fully\nto the engineer's mind. As to the old overman, he was already convinced.\nBesides, there they were in the presence of an undeniable fact--the\nstopping-up of cracks through which gas had escaped freely the night\nbefore.\n\n\"Take your pick, Harry,\" cried Ford; \"mount on my shoulders, my lad!\nI am still strong enough to bear you!\" The young man understood in an\ninstant. His father propped himself up against the rock. Harry got upon\nhis shoulders, so that with his pick he could reach the line of the\nfissure. Then with quick sharp blows he attacked it. Almost directly\nafterwards a slight sound was heard, like champagne escaping from a\nbottle--a sound commonly expressed by the word \"puff.\"\n\nHarry again seized his lamp, and held it to the opening. There was\na slight report; and a little red flame, rather blue at its outline,\nflickered over the rock like a Will-o'-the-Wisp.\n\nHarry leaped to the ground, and the old overman, unable to contain his\njoy, grasped the engineer's hands, exclaiming, \"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!\nMr. Starr. The fire-damp burns! the vein is there!\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII. NEW ABERFOYLE\n\n\nTHE old overman's experiment had succeeded. Firedamp, it is well known,\nis only generated in coal seams; therefore the existence of a vein of\nprecious combustible could no longer be doubted. As to its size and\nquality, that must be determined later.\n\n\"Yes,\" thought James Starr, \"behind that wall lies a carboniferous bed,\nundiscovered by our soundings. It is vexatious that all the apparatus\nof the mine, deserted for ten years, must be set up anew. Never mind. We\nhave found the vein which was thought to be exhausted, and this time it\nshall be worked to the end!\"\n\n\"Well, Mr. Starr,\" asked Ford, \"what do you think of our discovery? Was\nI wrong to trouble you? Are you sorry to have paid this visit to the\nDochart pit?\"\n\n\"No, no, my old friend!\" answered Starr. \"We have not lost our time;\nbut we shall be losing it now, if we do not return immediately to the\ncottage. To-morrow we will come back here. We will blast this wall\nwith dynamite. We will lay open the new vein, and after a series of\nsoundings, if the seam appears to be large, I will form a new Aberfoyle\nCompany, to the great satisfaction of the old shareholders. Before three\nmonths have passed, the first corves full of coal will have been taken\nfrom the new vein.\"\n\n\"Well said, sir!\" cried Simon Ford. \"The old mine will grow young again,\nlike a widow who remarries! The bustle of the old days will soon begin\nwith the blows of the pick, and mattock, blasts of powder, rumbling of\nwagons, neighing of horses, creaking of machines! I shall see it all\nagain! I hope, Mr. Starr, that you will not think me too old to resume\nmy duties of overman?\"\n\n\"No, Simon, no indeed! You wear better than I do, my old friend!\"\n\n\"And, sir, you shall be our viewer again. May the new working last\nfor many years, and pray Heaven I shall have the consolation of dying\nwithout seeing the end of it!\"\n\nThe old miner was overflowing with joy. James Starr fully entered into\nit; but he let Ford rave for them both. Harry alone remained thoughtful.\nTo his memory recurred the succession of singular, inexplicable\ncircumstances attending the discovery of the new bed. It made him uneasy\nabout the future.\n\nAn hour afterwards, James Starr and his two companions were back in\nthe cottage. The engineer supped with good appetite, listening with\nsatisfaction to all the plans unfolded by the old overman; and had it\nnot been for his excitement about the next day's work, he would never\nhave slept better than in the perfect stillness of the cottage.\n\nThe following day, after a substantial breakfast, James Starr, Simon\nFord, Harry, and even Madge herself, took the road already traversed\nthe day before. All looked like regular miners. They carried different\ntools, and some dynamite with which to blast the rock. Harry, besides a\nlarge lantern, took a safety lamp, which would burn for twelve hours.\nIt was more than was necessary for the journey there and back, including\nthe time for the working--supposing a working was possible.\n\n\"To work! to work!\" shouted Ford, when the party reached the further end\nof the passage; and he grasped a heavy crowbar and brandished it.\n\n\"Stop one instant,\" said Starr. \"Let us see if any change has taken\nplace, and if the fire-damp still escapes through the crevices.\"\n\n\"You are right, Mr. Starr,\" said Harry. \"Whoever stopped it up yesterday\nmay have done it again to-day!\"\n\nMadge, seated on a rock, carefully observed the excavation, and the wall\nwhich was to be blasted.\n\nIt was found that everything was just as they left it. The crevices\nhad undergone no alteration; the carburetted hydrogen still filtered\nthrough, though in a small stream, which was no doubt because it had had\na free passage since the day before. As the quantity was so small, it\ncould not have formed an explosive mixture with the air inside. James\nStarr and his companions could therefore proceed in security. Besides,\nthe air grew purer by rising to the heights of the Dochart pit; and the\nfire-damp, spreading through the atmosphere, would not be strong enough\nto make any explosion.\n\n\"To work, then!\" repeated Ford; and soon the rock flew in splinters\nunder his skillful blows. The break was chiefly composed of\npudding-stone, interspersed with sandstone and schist, such as is most\noften met with between the coal veins. James Starr picked up some of the\npieces, and examined them carefully, hoping to discover some trace of\ncoal.\n\nStarr having chosen the place where the holes were to be drilled, they\nwere rapidly bored by Harry. Some cartridges of dynamite were put into\nthem. As soon as the long, tarred safety match was laid, it was lighted\non a level with the ground. James Starr and his companions then went off\nto some distance.\n\n\"Oh! Mr. Starr,\" said Simon Ford, a prey to agitation, which he did not\nattempt to conceal, \"never, no, never has my old heart beaten so quick\nbefore! I am longing to get at the vein!\"\n\n\"Patience, Simon!\" responded the engineer. \"You don't mean to say that\nyou think you are going to find a passage all ready open behind that\ndyke?\"\n\n\"Excuse me, sir,\" answered the old overman; \"but of course I think so!\nIf there was good luck in the way Harry and I discovered this place, why\nshouldn't the good luck go on?\"\n\nAs he spoke, came the explosion. A sound as of thunder rolled through\nthe labyrinth of subterranean galleries. Starr, Madge, Harry, and Simon\nFord hastened towards the spot.\n\n\"Mr. Starr! Mr. Starr!\" shouted the overman. \"Look! the door is broken\nopen!\"\n\nFord's comparison was justified by the appearance of an excavation,\nthe depth of which could not be calculated. Harry was about to spring\nthrough the opening; but the engineer, though excessively surprised to\nfind this cavity, held him back. \"Allow time for the air in there to get\npure,\" said he.\n\n\"Yes! beware of the foul air!\" said Simon.\n\nA quarter of an hour was passed in anxious waiting. The lantern was then\nfastened to the end of a stick, and introduced into the cave, where it\ncontinued to burn with unaltered brilliancy. \"Now then, Harry, go,\" said\nStarr, \"and we will follow you.\"\n\nThe opening made by the dynamite was sufficiently large to allow a\nman to pass through. Harry, lamp in hand, entered unhesitatingly, and\ndisappeared in the darkness. His father, mother, and James Starr waited\nin silence. A minute--which seemed to them much longer--passed. Harry\ndid not reappear, did not call. Gazing into the opening, James\nStarr could not even see the light of his lamp, which ought to have\nilluminated the dark cavern.\n\nHad the ground suddenly given way under Harry's feet? Had the young\nminer fallen into some crevice? Could his voice no longer reach his\ncompanions?\n\nThe old overman, dead to their remonstrances, was about to enter the\nopening, when a light appeared, dim at first, but gradually growing\nbrighter, and Harry's voice was heard shouting, \"Come, Mr. Starr! come,\nfather! The road to New Aberfoyle is open!\"\n\nIf, by some superhuman power, engineers could have raised in a block,\na thousand feet thick, all that portion of the terrestrial crust which\nsupports the lakes, rivers, gulfs, and territories of the counties of\nStirling, Dumbarton, and Renfrew, they would have found, under that\nenormous lid, an immense excavation, to which but one other in the\nworld can be compared--the celebrated Mammoth caves of Kentucky. This\nexcavation was composed of several hundred divisions of all sizes and\nshapes. It might be called a hive with numberless ranges of cells,\ncapriciously arranged, but a hive on a vast scale, and which, instead\nof bees, might have lodged all the ichthyosauri, megatheriums, and\npterodactyles of the geological epoch.\n\nA labyrinth of galleries, some higher than the most lofty cathedrals,\nothers like cloisters, narrow and winding--these following a\nhorizontal line, those on an incline or running obliquely in all\ndirections--connected the caverns and allowed free communication between\nthem.\n\nThe pillars sustaining the vaulted roofs, whose curves allowed of every\nstyle, the massive walls between the passages, the naves themselves\nin this layer of secondary formation, were composed of sandstone and\nschistous rocks. But tightly packed between these useless strata ran\nvaluable veins of coal, as if the black blood of this strange mine had\ncirculated through their tangled network. These fields extended forty\nmiles north and south, and stretched even under the Caledonian\nCanal. The importance of this bed could not be calculated until\nafter soundings, but it would certainly surpass those of Cardiff and\nNewcastle.\n\nWe may add that the working of this mine would be singularly facilitated\nby the fantastic dispositions of the secondary earths; for by an\nunaccountable retreat of the mineral matter at the geological epoch,\nwhen the mass was solidifying, nature had already multiplied the\ngalleries and tunnels of New Aberfoyle.\n\nYes, nature alone! It might at first have been supposed that some works\nabandoned for centuries had been discovered afresh. Nothing of the sort.\nNo one would have deserted such riches. Human termites had never gnawed\naway this part of the Scottish subsoil; nature herself had done it\nall. But, we repeat, it could be compared to nothing but the celebrated\nMammoth caves, which, in an extent of more than twenty miles, contain\ntwo hundred and twenty-six avenues, eleven lakes, seven rivers, eight\ncataracts, thirty-two unfathomable wells, and fifty-seven domes, some\nof which are more than four hundred and fifty feet in height. Like\nthese caves, New Aberfoyle was not the work of men, but the work of the\nCreator.\n\nSuch was this new domain, of matchless wealth, the discovery of which\nbelonged entirely to the old overman. Ten years' sojourn in the deserted\nmine, an uncommon pertinacity in research, perfect faith, sustained by\na marvelous mining instinct--all these qualities together led him to\nsucceed where so many others had failed. Why had the soundings made\nunder the direction of James Starr during the last years of the working\nstopped just at that limit, on the very frontier of the new mine? That\nwas all chance, which takes great part in researches of this kind.\n\nHowever that might be, there was, under the Scottish subsoil, what might\nbe called a subterranean county, which, to be habitable, needed only the\nrays of the sun, or, for want of that, the light of a special planet.\n\nWater had collected in various hollows, forming vast ponds, or rather\nlakes larger than Loch Katrine, lying just above them. Of course the\nwaters of these lakes had no movement of currents or tides; no old\ncastle was reflected there; no birch or oak trees waved on their banks.\nAnd yet these deep lakes, whose mirror-like surface was never ruffled by\na breeze, would not be without charm by the light of some electric star,\nand, connected by a string of canals, would well complete the geography\nof this strange domain.\n\nAlthough unfit for any vegetable production, the place could be\ninhabited by a whole population. And who knows but that in this steady\ntemperature, in the depths of the mines of Aberfoyle, as well as in\nthose of Newcastle, Alloa, or Cardiff--when their contents shall have\nbeen exhausted--who knows but that the poorer classes of Great Britain\nwill some day find a refuge?\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII. EXPLORING\n\n\nAT Harry's call, James Starr, Madge, and Simon Ford entered through the\nnarrow orifice which put the Dochart pit in communication with the\nnew mine. They found themselves at the beginning of a tolerably wide\ngallery. One might well believe that it had been pierced by the hand of\nman, that the pick and mattock had emptied it in the working of a new\nvein. The explorers question whether, by a strange chance, they had not\nbeen transported into some ancient mine, of the existence of which even\nthe oldest miners in the county had ever known.\n\nNo! It was merely that the geological layers had left this passage when\nthe secondary earths were in course of formation. Perhaps some torrent\nhad formerly dashed through it; but now it was as dry as if it had been\ncut some thousand feet lower, through granite rocks. At the same time,\nthe air circulated freely, which showed that certain natural vents\nplaced it in communication with the exterior atmosphere.\n\nThis observation, made by the engineer, was correct, and it was evident\nthat the ventilation of the new mine would be easily managed. As to the\nfire-damp which had lately filtered through the schist, it seemed to\nhave been contained in a pocket now empty, and it was certain that\nthe atmosphere of the gallery was quite free from it. However, Harry\nprudently carried only the safety lamp, which would insure light for\ntwelve hours.\n\nJames Starr and his companions now felt perfectly happy. All their\nwishes were satisfied. There was nothing but coal around them. A sort\nof emotion kept them silent; even Simon Ford restrained himself. His joy\noverflowed, not in long phrases, but in short ejaculations.\n\nIt was perhaps imprudent to venture so far into the crypt. Pooh! they\nnever thought of how they were to get back.\n\nThe gallery was practicable, not very winding. They met with no noxious\nexhalations, nor did any chasm bar the path. There was no reason for\nstopping for a whole hour; James Starr, Madge, Harry, and Simon Ford\nwalked on, though there was nothing to show them what was the exact\ndirection of this unknown tunnel.\n\nAnd they would no doubt have gone farther still, if they had not\nsuddenly come to the end of the wide road which they had followed since\ntheir entrance into the mine.\n\nThe gallery ended in an enormous cavern, neither the height nor depth\nof which could be calculated. At what altitude arched the roof of this\nexcavation--at what distance was its opposite wall--the darkness totally\nconcealed; but by the light of the lamp the explorers could discover\nthat its dome covered a vast extent of still water--pond or lake--whose\npicturesque rocky banks were lost in obscurity.\n\n\"Halt!\" exclaimed Ford, stopping suddenly. \"Another step, and perhaps we\nshall fall into some fathomless pit.\"\n\n\"Let us rest awhile, then, my friends,\" returned the engineer. \"Besides,\nwe ought to be thinking of returning to the cottage.\"\n\n\"Our lamp will give light for another ten hours, sir,\" said Harry.\n\n\"Well, let us make a halt,\" replied Starr; \"I confess my legs have need\nof a rest. And you, Madge, don't you feel tired after so long a walk?\"\n\n\"Not over much, Mr. Starr,\" replied the sturdy Scotchwoman; \"we have\nbeen accustomed to explore the old Aberfoyle mine for whole days\ntogether.\"\n\n\"Tired? nonsense!\" interrupted Simon Ford; \"Madge could go ten times\nas far, if necessary. But once more, Mr. Starr, wasn't my communication\nworth your trouble in coming to hear it? Just dare to say no, Mr. Starr,\ndare to say no!\"\n\n\"Well, my old friend, I haven't felt so happy for a long while!\" replied\nthe engineer; \"the small part of this marvelous mine that we have\nexplored seems to show that its extent is very considerable, at least in\nlength.\"\n\n\"In width and in depth, too, Mr. Starr!\" returned Simon Ford.\n\n\"That we shall know later.\"\n\n\n\"And I can answer for it! Trust to the instinct of an old miner! It has\nnever deceived me!\"\n\n\"I wish to believe you, Simon,\" replied the engineer, smiling. \"As far\nas I can judge from this short exploration, we possess the elements of a\nworking which will last for centuries!\"\n\n\"Centuries!\" exclaimed Simon Ford; \"I believe you, sir! A thousand years\nand more will pass before the last bit of coal is taken out of our new\nmine!\"\n\n\"Heaven grant it!\" returned Starr. \"As to the quality of the coal which\ncrops out of these walls?\"\n\n\"Superb! Mr. Starr, superb!\" answered Ford; \"just look at it yourself!\"\n\nAnd so saying, with his pick he struck off a fragment of the black rock.\n\n\"Look! look!\" he repeated, holding it close to his lamp; \"the surface of\nthis piece of coal is shining! We have here fat coal, rich in bituminous\nmatter; and see how it comes in pieces, almost without dust! Ah, Mr.\nStarr! twenty years ago this seam would have entered into a strong\ncompetition with Swansea and Cardiff! Well, stokers will quarrel for it\nstill, and if it costs little to extract it from the mine, it will not\nsell at a less price outside.\"\n\n\"Indeed,\" said Madge, who had taken the fragment of coal and was\nexamining it with the air of a connoisseur; \"that's good quality of\ncoal. Carry it home, Simon, carry it back to the cottage! I want this\nfirst piece of coal to burn under our kettle.\"\n\n\"Well said, wife!\" answered the old overman, \"and you shall see that I\nam not mistaken.\"\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" asked Harry, \"have you any idea of the probable direction\nof this long passage which we have been following since our entrance\ninto the new mine?\"\n\n\"No, my lad,\" replied the engineer; \"with a compass I could perhaps find\nout its general bearing; but without a compass I am here like a sailor\nin open sea, in the midst of fogs, when there is no sun by which to\ncalculate his position.\"\n\n\"No doubt, Mr. Starr,\" replied Ford; \"but pray don't compare our\nposition with that of the sailor, who has everywhere and always an abyss\nunder his feet! We are on firm ground here, and need never be afraid of\nfoundering.\"\n\n\n\"I won't tease you, then, old Simon,\" answered James Starr. \"Far be it\nfrom me even in jest to depreciate the New Aberfoyle mine by an unjust\ncomparison! I only meant to say one thing, and that is that we don't\nknow where we are.\"\n\n\"We are in the subsoil of the county of Stirling, Mr. Starr,\" replied\nSimon Ford; \"and that I assert as if--\"\n\n\"Listen!\" said Harry, interrupting the old man. All listened, as the\nyoung miner was doing. His ears, which were very sharp, had caught\na dull sound, like a distant murmur. His companions were not long in\nhearing it themselves. It was above their heads, a sort of rolling\nsound, in which though it was so feeble, the successive CRESCENDO and\nDIMINUENDO could be distinctly heard.\n\nAll four stood for some minutes, their ears on the stretch, without\nuttering a word. All at once Simon Ford exclaimed, \"Well, I declare! Are\ntrucks already running on the rails of New Aberfoyle?\"\n\n\"Father,\" replied Harry, \"it sounds to me just like the noise made by\nwaves rolling on the sea shore.\"\n\n\"We can't be under the sea though!\" cried the old overman.\n\n\"No,\" said the engineer, \"but it is not impossible that we should be\nunder Loch Katrine.\"\n\n\"The roof cannot have much thickness just here, if the noise of the\nwater is perceptible.\"\n\n\"Very little indeed,\" answered James Starr, \"and that is the reason this\ncavern is so huge.\"\n\n\"You must be right, Mr. Starr,\" said Harry.\n\n\"Besides, the weather is so bad outside,\" resumed Starr, \"that the\nwaters of the loch must be as rough as those of the Firth of Forth.\"\n\n\"Well! what does it matter after all?\" returned Simon Ford; \"the seam\nwon't be any the worse because it is under a loch. It would not be\nthe first time that coal has been looked for under the very bed of the\nocean! When we have to work under the bottom of the Caledonian Canal,\nwhere will be the harm?\"\n\n\"Well said, Simon,\" cried the engineer, who could not restrain a smile\nat the overman's enthusiasm; \"let us cut our trenches under the waters\nof the sea! Let us bore the bed of the Atlantic like a strainer; let\nus with our picks join our brethren of the United States through\nthe subsoil of the ocean! let us dig into the center of the globe if\nnecessary, to tear out the last scrap of coal.\"\n\n\"Are you joking, Mr. Starr?\" asked Ford, with a pleased but slightly\nsuspicious look.\n\n\"I joking, old man? no! but you are so enthusiastic that you carry\nme away into the regions of impossibility! Come, let us return to the\nreality, which is sufficiently beautiful; leave our picks here, where we\nmay find them another day, and let's take the road back to the cottage.\"\n\nNothing more could be done for the time. Later, the engineer,\naccompanied by a brigade of miners, supplied with lamps and all\nnecessary tools, would resume the exploration of New Aberfoyle. It was\nnow time to return to the Dochart pit. The road was easy, the gallery\nrunning nearly straight through the rock up to the orifice opened by the\ndynamite, so there was no fear of their losing themselves.\n\nBut as James Starr was proceeding towards the gallery Simon Ford stopped\nhim.\n\n\"Mr. Starr,\" said he, \"you see this immense cavern, this subterranean\nlake, whose waters bathe this strand at our feet? Well! it is to this\nplace I mean to change my dwelling, here I will build a new cottage,\nand if some brave fellows will follow my example, before a year is over\nthere will be one town more inside old England.\"\n\nJames Starr, smiling approval of Ford's plans, pressed his hand, and all\nthree, preceding Madge, re-entered the gallery, on their way back to\nthe Dochart pit. For the first mile no incident occurred. Harry walked\nfirst, holding his lamp above his head. He carefully followed the\nprincipal gallery, without ever turning aside into the narrow tunnels\nwhich radiated to the right and left. It seemed as if the returning was\nto be accomplished as easily as the going, when an unexpected accident\noccurred which rendered the situation of the explorers very serious.\n\nJust at a moment when Harry was raising his lamp there came a rush of\nair, as if caused by the flapping of invisible wings. The lamp escaped\nfrom his hands, fell on the rocky ground, and was broken to pieces.\n\nJames Starr and his companions were suddenly plunged in absolute\ndarkness. All the oil of the lamp was spilt, and it was of no further\nuse. \"Well, Harry,\" cried his father, \"do you want us all to break our\nnecks on the way back to the cottage?\"\n\nHarry did not answer. He wondered if he ought to suspect the hand of a\nmysterious being in this last accident? Could there possibly exist\nin these depths an enemy whose unaccountable antagonism would one day\ncreate serious difficulties? Had someone an interest in defending the\nnew coal field against any attempt at working it? In truth that seemed\nabsurd, yet the facts spoke for themselves, and they accumulated in such\na way as to change simple presumptions into certainties.\n\nIn the meantime the explorers' situation was bad enough. They had now,\nin the midst of black darkness, to follow the passage leading to the\nDochart pit for nearly five miles. There they would still have an hour's\nwalk before reaching the cottage.\n\n\"Come along,\" said Simon Ford. \"We have no time to lose. We must grope\nour way along, like blind men. There's no fear of losing our way. The\ntunnels which open off our road are only just like those in a molehill,\nand by following the chief gallery we shall of course reach the opening\nwe got in at. After that, it is the old mine. We know that, and it won't\nbe the first time that Harry and I have found ourselves there in the\ndark. Besides, there we shall find the lamps that we left. Forward then!\nHarry, go first. Mr. Starr, follow him. Madge, you go next, and I will\nbring up the rear. Above everything, don't let us get separated.\"\n\nAll complied with the old overman's instructions. As he said, by groping\ncarefully, they could not mistake the way. It was only necessary to make\nthe hands take the place of the eyes, and to trust to their instinct,\nwhich had with Simon Ford and his son become a second nature.\n\nJames Starr and his companions walked on in the order agreed. They did\nnot speak, but it was not for want of thinking. It became evident that\nthey had an adversary. But what was he, and how were they to defend\nthemselves against these mysteriously-prepared attacks? These\ndisquieting ideas crowded into their brains. However, this was not the\nmoment to get discouraged.\n\nHarry, his arms extended, advanced with a firm step, touching first one\nand then the other side of the passage.\n\nIf a cleft or side opening presented itself, he felt with his hand\nthat it was not the main way; either the cleft was too shallow, or the\nopening too narrow, and he thus kept in the right road.\n\nIn darkness through which the eye could not in the slightest degree\npierce, this difficult return lasted two hours. By reckoning the time\nsince they started, taking into consideration that the walking had not\nbeen rapid, Starr calculated that he and his companions were near the\nopening. In fact, almost immediately, Harry stopped.\n\n\"Have we got to the end of the gallery?\" asked Simon Ford.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the young miner.\n\n\"Well! have you not found the hole which connects New Aberfoyle with the\nDochart pit?\"\n\n\"No,\" replied Harry, whose impatient hands met with nothing but a solid\nwall.\n\nThe old overman stepped forward, and himself felt the schistous rock. A\ncry escaped him.\n\nEither the explorers had strayed from the right path on their return,\nor the narrow orifice, broken in the rock by the dynamite, had been\nrecently stopped up. James Starr and his companions were prisoners in\nNew Aberfoyle.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX. THE FIRE-MAIDENS\n\n\nA WEEK after the events just related had taken place, James Starr's\nfriends had become very anxious. The engineer had disappeared, and no\nreason could be brought forward to explain his absence. They learnt, by\nquestioning his servant, that he had embarked at Granton Pier. But from\nthat time there were no traces of James Starr. Simon Ford's letter had\nrequested secrecy, and he had said nothing of his departure for the\nAberfoyle mines.\n\nTherefore in Edinburgh nothing was talked of but the unaccountable\nabsence of the engineer. Sir W. Elphiston, the President of the Royal\nInstitution, communicated to his colleagues a letter which James Starr\nhad sent him, excusing himself from being present at the next meeting\nof the society. Two or three others produced similar letters. But though\nthese documents proved that Starr had left Edinburgh--which was known\nbefore--they threw no light on what had become of him. Now, on the part\nof such a man, this prolonged absence, so contrary to his usual habits,\nnaturally first caused surprise, and then anxiety.\n\nA notice was inserted in the principal newspapers of the United Kingdom\nrelative to the engineer James Starr, giving a description of him and\nthe date on which he left Edinburgh; nothing more could be done but to\nwait. The time passed in great anxiety. The scientific world of England\nwas inclined to believe that one of its most distinguished members\nhad positively disappeared. At the same time, when so many people\nwere thinking about James Starr, Harry Ford was the subject of no less\nanxiety. Only, instead of occupying public attention, the son of the old\noverman was the cause of trouble alone to the generally cheerful mind of\nJack Ryan.\n\nIt may be remembered that, in their encounter in the Yarrow shaft, Jack\nRyan had invited Harry to come a week afterwards to the festivities at\nIrvine. Harry had accepted and promised expressly to be there. Jack Ryan\nknew, having had it proved by many circumstances, that his friend was\na man of his word. With him, a thing promised was a thing done. Now, at\nthe Irvine merry-making, nothing was wanting; neither song, nor dance,\nnor fun of any sort--nothing but Harry Ford.\n\nThe notice relative to James Starr, published in the papers, had not\nyet been seen by Ryan. The honest fellow was therefore only worried by\nHarry's absence, telling himself that something serious could alone have\nprevented him from keeping his promise. So, the day after the Irvine\ngames, Jack Ryan intended to take the railway from Glasgow and go to the\nDochart pit; and this he would have done had he not been detained by an\naccident which nearly cost him his life. Something which occurred on the\nnight of the 12th of December was of a nature to support the opinions of\nall partisans of the supernatural, and there were many at Melrose Farm.\n\nIrvine, a little seaport of Renfrew, containing nearly seven thousand\ninhabitants, lies in a sharp bend made by the Scottish coast, near the\nmouth of the Firth of Clyde. The most ancient and the most famed ruins\non this part of the coast were those of this castle of Robert Stuart,\nwhich bore the name of Dundonald Castle.\n\nAt this period Dundonald Castle, a refuge for all the stray goblins\nof the country, was completely deserted. It stood on the top of a high\nrock, two miles from the town, and was seldom visited. Sometimes a\nfew strangers took it into their heads to explore these old historical\nremains, but then they always went alone. The inhabitants of Irvine\nwould not have taken them there at any price. Indeed, several legends\nwere based on the story of certain \"fire-maidens,\" who haunted the old\ncastle.\n\nThe most superstitious declared they had seen these fantastic creatures\nwith their own eyes. Jack Ryan was naturally one of them. It was a fact\nthat from time to time long flames appeared, sometimes on a broken piece\nof wall, sometimes on the summit of the tower which was the highest\npoint of Dundonald Castle.\n\nDid these flames really assume a human shape, as was asserted? Did they\nmerit the name of fire-maidens, given them by the people of the coast?\nIt was evidently just an optical delusion, aided by a good deal of\ncredulity, and science could easily have explained the phenomenon.\n\nHowever that might be, these fire-maidens had the reputation of\nfrequenting the ruins of the old castle and there performing wild\nstrathspeys, especially on dark nights. Jack Ryan, bold fellow though he\nwas, would never have dared to accompany those dances with the music of\nhis bagpipes.\n\n\"Old Nick is enough for them!\" said he. \"He doesn't need me to complete\nhis infernal orchestra.\"\n\nWe may well believe that these strange apparitions frequently furnished\na text for the evening stories. Jack Ryan was ending the evening with\none of these. His auditors, transported into the phantom world, were\nworked up into a state of mind which would believe anything.\n\nAll at once shouts were heard outside. Jack Ryan stopped short in the\nmiddle of his story, and all rushed out of the barn. The night was\npitchy dark. Squalls of wind and rain swept along the beach. Two or\nthree fishermen, their backs against a rock, the better to resist the\nwind, were shouting at the top of their voices.\n\nJack Ryan and his companions ran up to them. The shouts were, however,\nnot for the inhabitants of the farm, but to warn men who, without being\naware of it, were going to destruction. A dark, confused mass appeared\nsome way out at sea. It was a vessel whose position could be seen by\nher lights, for she carried a white one on her foremast, a green on\nthe starboard side, and a red on the outside. She was evidently running\nstraight on the rocks.\n\n\"A ship in distress?\" said Ryan.\n\n\"Ay,\" answered one of the fishermen, \"and now they want to tack, but\nit's too late!\"\n\n\"Do they want to run ashore?\" said another.\n\n\"It seems so,\" responded one of the fishermen, \"unless he has been\nmisled by some--\"\n\nThe man was interrupted by a yell from Jack. Could the crew have heard\nit? At any rate, it was too late for them to beat back from the line of\nbreakers which gleamed white in the darkness.\n\nBut it was not, as might be supposed, a last effort of Ryan's to warn\nthe doomed ship. He now had his back to the sea. His companions turned\nalso, and gazed at a spot situated about half a mile inland. It was\nDundonald Castle. A long flame twisted and bent under the gale, on the\nsummit of the old tower.\n\n\"The Fire-Maiden!\" cried the superstitious men in terror.\n\nClearly, it needed a good strong imagination to find any human likeness\nin that flame. Waving in the wind like a luminous flag, it seemed\nsometimes to fly round the tower, as if it was just going out, and a\nmoment after it was seen again dancing on its blue point.\n\n\"The Fire-Maiden! the Fire-Maiden!\" cried the terrified fishermen and\npeasants.\n\nAll was then explained. The ship, having lost her reckoning in the\nfog, had taken this flame on the top of Dundonald Castle for the Irvine\nlight. She thought herself at the entrance of the Firth, ten miles\nto the north, when she was really running on a shore which offered no\nrefuge.\n\nWhat could be done to save her, if there was still time? It was too\nlate. A frightful crash was heard above the tumult of the elements. The\nvessel had struck. The white line of surf was broken for an instant; she\nheeled over on her side and lay among the rocks.\n\n\nAt the same time, by a strange coincidence, the long flame disappeared,\nas if it had been swept away by a violent gust. Earth, sea, and sky were\nplunged in complete darkness.\n\n\"The Fire-Maiden!\" shouted Ryan, for the last time, as the apparition,\nwhich he and his companions believed supernatural, disappeared. But then\nthe courage of these superstitious Scotchmen, which had failed before a\nfancied danger, returned in face of a real one, which they were ready to\nbrave in order to save their fellow-creatures. The tempest did not deter\nthem. As heroic as they had before been credulous, fastening ropes round\ntheir waists, they rushed into the waves to the aid of those on the\nwreck.\n\nHappily, they succeeded in their endeavors, although some--and bold Jack\nRyan was among the number--were severely wounded on the rocks. But the\ncaptain of the vessel and the eight sailors who composed his crew were\nhauled up, safe and sound, on the beach.\n\nThe ship was the Norwegian brig MOTALA, laden with timber, and bound for\nGlasgow. Of the MOTALA herself nothing remained but a few spars, washed\nup by the waves, and dashed among the rocks on the beach.\n\nJack Ryan and three of his companions, wounded like himself, were\ncarried into a room of Melrose Farm, where every care was lavished on\nthem. Ryan was the most hurt, for when with the rope round his waist\nhe had rushed into the sea, the waves had almost immediately dashed him\nback against the rocks. He was brought, indeed, very nearly lifeless on\nto the beach.\n\nThe brave fellow was therefore confined to bed for several days, to his\ngreat disgust. However, as soon as he was given permission to sing as\nmuch as he liked, he bore his trouble patiently, and the farm echoed\nall day with his jovial voice. But from this adventure he imbibed a more\nlively sentiment of fear with regard to brownies and other goblins who\namuse themselves by plaguing mankind, and he made them responsible\nfor the catastrophe of the Motala. It would have been vain to try and\nconvince him that the Fire-Maidens did not exist, and that the flame,\nso suddenly appearing among the ruins, was but a natural phenomenon. No\nreasoning could make him believe it. His companions were, if possible,\nmore obstinate than he in their credulity. According to them, one of the\nFire-Maidens had maliciously attracted the MOTALA to the coast. As to\nwishing to punish her, as well try to bring the tempest to justice! The\nmagistrates might order what arrests they pleased, but a flame cannot\nbe imprisoned, an impalpable being can't be handcuffed. It must be\nacknowledged that the researches which were ultimately made gave ground,\nat least in appearance, to this superstitious way of explaining the\nfacts.\n\nThe inquiry was made with great care. Officials came to Dundonald\nCastle, and they proceeded to conduct a most vigorous search. The\nmagistrate wished first to ascertain if the ground bore any footprints,\nwhich could be attributed to other than goblins' feet. It was impossible\nto find the least trace, whether old or new. Moreover, the earth, still\ndamp from the rain of the day before, would have preserved the least\nvestige.\n\nThe result of all this was, that the magistrates only got for their\ntrouble a new legend added to so many others--a legend which would be\nperpetuated by the remembrance of the catastrophe of the MOTALA, and\nindisputably confirm the truth of the apparition of the Fire-Maidens.\n\nA hearty fellow like Jack Ryan, with so strong a constitution, could not\nbe long confined to his bed. A few sprains and bruises were not quite\nenough to keep him on his back longer than he liked. He had not time to\nbe ill.\n\nJack, therefore, soon got well. As soon as he was on his legs again,\nbefore resuming his work on the farm, he wished to go and visit his\nfriend Harry, and learn why he had not come to the Irvine merry-making.\nHe could not understand his absence, for Harry was not a man who would\nwillingly promise and not perform. It was unlikely, too, that the son of\nthe old overman had not heard of the wreck of the MOTALA, as it was in\nall the papers. He must know the part Jack had taken in it, and what had\nhappened to him, and it was unlike Harry not to hasten to the farm and\nsee how his old chum was going on.\n\nAs Harry had not come, there must have been something to prevent him.\nJack Ryan would as soon deny the existence of the Fire-Maidens as\nbelieve in Harry's indifference.\n\nTwo days after the catastrophe Jack left the farm merily, feeling\nnothing of his wounds. Singing in the fullness of his heart, he awoke\nthe echoes of the cliff, as he walked to the station of the railway,\nwhich VIA Glasgow would take him to Stirling and Callander.\n\nAs he was waiting for his train, his attention was attracted by a bill\nposted up on the walls, containing the following notice:\n\n\"On the 4th of December, the engineer, James Starr, of Edinburgh,\nembarked from Granton Pier, on board the Prince of Wales. He disembarked\nthe same day at Stirling. From that time nothing further has been heard\nof him.\n\n\"Any information concerning him is requested to be sent to the President\nof the Royal Institution, Edinburgh.\"\n\nJack Ryan, stopping before one of these advertisements, read it twice\nover, with extreme surprise.\n\n\"Mr. Starr!\" he exclaimed. \"Why, on the 4th of December I met him with\nHarry on the ladder of the Dochart pit! That was ten days ago! And he\nhas not been seen from that time! That explains why my chum didn't come\nto Irvine.\"\n\nAnd without taking time to inform the President of the Royal Institution\nby letter, what he knew relative to James Starr, Jack jumped into the\ntrain, determining to go first of all to the Yarrow shaft. There he\nwould descend to the depths of the pit, if necessary, to find Harry, and\nwith him was sure to be the engineer James Starr.\n\n\"They haven't turned up again,\" said he to himself. \"Why? Has anything\nprevented them? Could any work of importance keep them still at the\nbottom of the mine? I must find out!\" and Ryan, hastening his steps,\narrived in less than an hour at the Yarrow shaft.\n\nExternally nothing was changed. The same silence around. Not a living\ncreature was moving in that desert region. Jack entered the ruined shed\nwhich covered the opening of the shaft. He gazed down into the dark\nabyss--nothing was to be seen. He listened--nothing was to be heard.\n\n\"And my lamp!\" he exclaimed; \"suppose it isn't in its place!\" The lamp\nwhich Ryan used when he visited the pit was usually deposited in a\ncorner, near the landing of the topmost ladder. It had disappeared.\n\n\"Here is a nuisance!\" said Jack, beginning to feel rather uneasy. Then,\nwithout hesitating, superstitious though he was, \"I will go,\" said he,\n\"though it's as dark down there as in the lowest depths of the infernal\nregions!\"\n\nAnd he began to descend the long flight of ladders, which led down the\ngloomy shaft. Jack Ryan had not forgotten his old mining habits, and\nhe was well acquainted with the Dochart pit, or he would scarcely have\ndared to venture thus. He went very carefully, however. His foot tried\neach round, as some of them were worm-eaten. A false step would entail a\ndeadly fall, through this space of fifteen hundred feet. He counted each\nlanding as he passed it, knowing that he could not reach the bottom of\nthe shaft until he had left the thirtieth. Once there, he would have no\ntrouble, so he thought, in finding the cottage, built, as we have said,\nat the extremity of the principal passage.\n\nJack Ryan went on thus until he got to the twenty-sixth landing, and\nconsequently had two hundred feet between him and the bottom.\n\nHere he put down his leg to feel for the first rung of the\ntwenty-seventh ladder. But his foot swinging in space found nothing to\nrest on. He knelt down and felt about with his hand for the top of the\nladder. It was in vain.\n\n\"Old Nick himself must have been down this way!\" said Jack, not without\na slight feeling of terror.\n\nHe stood considering for some time, with folded arms, and longing to be\nable to pierce the impenetrable darkness. Then it occurred to him that\nif he could not get down, neither could the inhabitants of the mine get\nup. There was now no communication between the depths of the pit and the\nupper regions. If the removal of the lower ladders of the Yarrow shaft\nhad been effected since his last visit to the cottage, what had become\nof Simon Ford, his wife, his son, and the engineer?\n\nThe prolonged absence of James Starr proved that he had not left the pit\nsince the day Ryan met with him in the shaft. How had the cottage been\nprovisioned since then? The food of these unfortunate people, imprisoned\nfifteen hundred feet below the surface of the ground, must have been\nexhausted by this time.\n\nAll this passed through Jack's mind, as he saw that by himself he could\ndo nothing to get to the cottage. He had no doubt but that communication\nhad been interrupted with a malevolent intention. At any rate, the\nauthorities must be informed, and that as soon as possible. Jack Ryan\nbent forward from the landing.\n\n\"Harry! Harry!\" he shouted with his powerful voice.\n\nHarry's name echoed and re-echoed among the rocks, and finally died away\nin the depths of the shaft.\n\nRyan rapidly ascended the upper ladders and returned to the light of\nday. Without losing a moment he reached the Callander station, just\ncaught the express to Edinburgh, and by three o'clock was before the\nLord Provost.\n\nThere his declaration was received. His account was given so clearly\nthat it could not be doubted. Sir William Elphiston, President of the\nRoyal Institution, and not only colleague, but a personal friend of\nStarr's, was also informed, and asked to direct the search which was\nto be made without delay in the mine. Several men were placed at his\ndisposal, supplied with lamps, picks, long rope ladders, not forgetting\nprovisions and cordials. Then guided by Jack Ryan, the party set out for\nthe Aberfoyle mines.\n\nThe same evening the expedition arrived at the opening of the Yarrow\nshaft, and descended to the twenty-seventh landing, at which Jack Ryan\nhad been stopped a few hours previously. The lamps, fastened to long\nropes, were lowered down the shaft, and it was thus ascertained that the\nfour last ladders were wanting.\n\nAs soon as the lamps had been brought up, the men fixed to the landing a\nrope ladder, which unrolled itself down the shaft, and all descended one\nafter the other. Jack Ryan's descent was the most difficult, for he went\nfirst down the swinging ladders, and fastened them for the others.\n\nThe space at the bottom of the shaft was completely deserted; but Sir\nWilliam was much surprised at hearing Jack Ryan exclaim, \"Here are bits\nof the ladders, and some of them half burnt!\"\n\n\"Burnt?\" repeated Sir William. \"Indeed, here sure enough are cinders\nwhich have evidently been cold a long time!\"\n\n\"Do you think, sir,\" asked Ryan, \"that Mr. Starr could have had any\nreason for burning the ladders, and thus breaking of communication with\nthe world?\"\n\n\"Certainly not,\" answered Sir William Elphiston, who had become very\nthoughtful. \"Come, my lad, lead us to the cottage. There we shall\nascertain the truth.\"\n\nJack Ryan shook his head, as if not at all convinced. Then, taking a\nlamp from the hands of one of the men, he proceeded with a rapid step\nalong the principal passage of the Dochart pit. The others all followed\nhim.\n\nIn a quarter of an hour the party arrived at the excavation in which\nstood Simon Ford's cottage. There was no light in the window. Ryan\ndarted to the door, and threw it open. The house was empty.\n\nThey examined all the rooms in the somber habitation. No trace of\nviolence was to be found. All was in order, as if old Madge had been\nstill there. There was even an ample supply of provisions, enough to\nlast the Ford family for several days.\n\nThe absence of the tenants of the cottage was quite unaccountable. But\nwas it not possible to find out the exact time they had quitted it? Yes,\nfor in this region, where there was no difference of day or night, Madge\nwas accustomed to mark with a cross each day in her almanac.\n\nThe almanac was pinned up on the wall, and there the last cross had been\nmade at the 6th of December; that is to say, a day after the arrival of\nJames Starr, to which Ryan could positively swear. It was clear that on\nthe 6th of December, ten days ago, Simon Ford, his wife, son, and\nguest, had quitted the cottage. Could a fresh exploration of the mine,\nundertaken by the engineer, account for such a long absence? Certainly\nnot.\n\nIt was intensely dark all round. The lamps held by the men gave light\nonly just where they were standing. Suddenly Jack Ryan uttered a cry.\n\"Look there, there!\"\n\nHis finger was pointing to a tolerably bright light, which was moving\nabout in the distance. \"After that light, my men!\" exclaimed Sir\nWilliam.\n\n\"It's a goblin light!\" said Ryan. \"So what's the use? We shall never\ncatch it.\"\n\nThe president and his men, little given to superstition, darted off in\nthe direction of the moving light. Jack Ryan, bravely following their\nexample, quickly overtook the head-most of the party.\n\nIt was a long and fatiguing chase. The lantern seemed to be carried by a\nbeing of small size, but singular agility.\n\nEvery now and then it disappeared behind some pillar, then was seen\nagain at the end of a cross gallery. A sharp turn would place it out of\nsight, and it seemed to have completely disappeared, when all at once\nthere would be the light as bright as ever. However, they gained very\nlittle on it, and Ryan's belief that they could never catch it seemed\nfar from groundless.\n\nAfter an hour of this vain pursuit Sir William Elphiston and his\ncompanions had gone a long way in the southwest direction of the pit,\nand began to think they really had to do with an impalpable being. Just\nthen it seemed as if the distance between the goblin and those who\nwere pursuing it was becoming less. Could it be fatigued, or did this\ninvisible being wish to entice Sir William and his companions to the\nplace where the inhabitants of the cottage had perhaps themselves been\nenticed. It was hard to say.\n\nThe men, seeing that the distance lessened, redoubled their efforts. The\nlight which had before burnt at a distance of more than two hundred\nfeet before them was now seen at less than fifty. The space continued\nto diminish. The bearer of the lamp became partially visible. Sometimes,\nwhen it turned its head, the indistinct profile of a human face could be\nmade out, and unless a sprite could assume bodily shape, Jack Ryan was\nobliged to confess that here was no supernatural being. Then, springing\nforward,--\n\n\"Courage, comrades!\" he exclaimed; \"it is getting tired! We shall soon\ncatch it up now, and if it can talk as well as it can run we shall hear\na fine story.\"\n\nBut the pursuit had suddenly become more difficult. They were in\nunknown regions of the mine; narrow passages crossed each other like\nthe windings of a labyrinth. The bearer of the lamp might escape them as\neasily as possible, by just extinguishing the light and retreating into\nsome dark refuge.\n\n\"And indeed,\" thought Sir William, \"if it wishes to avoid us, why does\nit not do so?\"\n\nHitherto there had evidently been no intention to avoid them, but\njust as the thought crossed Sir William's mind the light suddenly\ndisappeared, and the party, continuing the pursuit, found themselves\nbefore an extremely narrow natural opening in the schistous rocks.\n\n\nTo trim their lamps, spring forward, and dart through the opening, was\nfor Sir William and his party but the work of an instant. But before\nthey had gone a hundred paces along this new gallery, much wider and\nloftier than the former, they all stopped short. There, near the wall,\nlay four bodies, stretched on the ground--four corpses, perhaps!\n\n\"James Starr!\" exclaimed Sir William Elphiston.\n\n\"Harry! Harry!\" cried Ryan, throwing himself down beside his friend.\n\nIt was indeed the engineer, Madge, Simon, and Harry Ford who were lying\nthere motionless. But one of the bodies moved slightly, and Madge's\nvoice was heard faintly murmuring, \"See to the others! help them first!\"\n\nSir William, Jack, and their companions endeavored to reanimate the\nengineer and his friends by getting them to swallow a few drops of\nbrandy. They very soon succeeded. The unfortunate people, shut up in\nthat dark cavern for ten days, were dying of starvation. They must have\nperished had they not on three occasions found a loaf of bread and a jug\nof water set near them. No doubt the charitable being to whom they owed\ntheir lives was unable to do more for them.\n\nSir William wondered whether this might not have been the work of the\nstrange sprite who had allured them to the very spot where James Starr\nand his companions lay.\n\nHowever that might be, the engineer, Madge, Simon, and Harry Ford were\nsaved. They were assisted to the cottage, passing through the narrow\nopening which the bearer of the strange light had apparently wished to\npoint out to Sir William. This was a natural opening. The passage which\nJames Starr and his companions had made for themselves with dynamite had\nbeen completely blocked up with rocks laid one upon another.\n\nSo, then, whilst they had been exploring the vast cavern, the way back\nhad been purposely closed against them by a hostile hand.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X. COAL TOWN\n\n\nTHREE years after the events which have just been related, the\nguide-books recommended as a \"great attraction,\" to the numerous\ntourists who roam over the county of Stirling, a visit of a few hours to\nthe mines of New Aberfoyle.\n\nNo mine in any country, either in the Old or New World, could present a\nmore curious aspect.\n\nTo begin with, the visitor was transported without danger or fatigue to\na level with the workings, at fifteen hundred feet below the surface of\nthe ground. Seven miles to the southwest of Callander opened a slanting\ntunnel, adorned with a castellated entrance, turrets and battlements.\nThis lofty tunnel gently sloped straight to the stupendous crypt,\nhollowed out so strangely in the bowels of the earth.\n\nA double line of railway, the wagons being moved by hydraulic power,\nplied from hour to hour to and from the village thus buried in the\nsubsoil of the county, and which bore the rather ambitious title of Coal\nTown.\n\nArrived in Coal Town, the visitor found himself in a place where\nelectricity played a principal part as an agent of heat and light.\nAlthough the ventilation shafts were numerous, they were not sufficient\nto admit much daylight into New Aberfoyle, yet it had abundance of\nlight. This was shed from numbers of electric discs; some suspended from\nthe vaulted roofs, others hanging on the natural pillars--all, whether\nsuns or stars in size, were fed by continuous currents produced from\nelectro-magnetic machines. When the hour of rest arrived, an artificial\nnight was easily produced all over the mine by disconnecting the wires.\n\nBelow the dome lay a lake of an extent to be compared to the Dead Sea\nof the Mammoth caves--a deep lake whose transparent waters swarmed with\neyeless fish, and to which the engineer gave the name of Loch Malcolm.\n\nThere, in this immense natural excavation, Simon Ford built his new\ncottage, which he would not have exchanged for the finest house in\nPrince's Street, Edinburgh. This dwelling was situated on the shores\nof the loch, and its five windows looked out on the dark waters, which\nextended further than the eye could see. Two months later a second\nhabitation was erected in the neighborhood of Simon Ford's cottage: this\nwas for James Starr. The engineer had given himself body and soul to New\nAberfoyle, and nothing but the most imperative necessity ever caused\nhim to leave the pit. There, then, he lived in the midst of his mining\nworld.\n\nOn the discovery of the new field, all the old colliers had hastened to\nleave the plow and harrow, and resume the pick and mattock. Attracted\nby the certainty that work would never fail, allured by the high wages\nwhich the prosperity of the mine enabled the company to offer for labor,\nthey deserted the open air for an underground life, and took up their\nabode in the mines.\n\nThe miners' houses, built of brick, soon grew up in a picturesque\nfashion; some on the banks of Loch Malcolm, others under the arches\nwhich seemed made to resist the weight that pressed upon them, like the\npiers of a bridge. So was founded Coal Town, situated under the eastern\npoint of Loch Katrine, to the north of the county of Stirling. It was a\nregular settlement on the banks of Loch Malcolm. A chapel, dedicated\nto St. Giles, overlooked it from the top of a huge rock, whose foot was\nlaved by the waters of the subterranean sea.\n\nWhen this underground town was lighted up by the bright rays thrown from\nthe discs, hung from the pillars and arches, its aspect was so strange,\nso fantastic, that it justified the praise of the guide-books, and\nvisitors flocked to see it.\n\nIt is needless to say that the inhabitants of Coal Town were proud of\ntheir place. They rarely left their laboring village--in that imitating\nSimon Ford, who never wished to go out again. The old overman maintained\nthat it always rained \"up there,\" and, considering the climate of the\nUnited Kingdom, it must be acknowledged that he was not far wrong. All\nthe families in New Aberfoyle prospered well, having in three years\nobtained a certain competency which they could never have hoped to\nattain on the surface of the county. Dozens of babies, who were born at\nthe time when the works were resumed, had never yet breathed the outer\nair.\n\nThis made Jack Ryan remark, \"It's eighteen months since they were\nweaned, and they have not yet seen daylight!\"\n\nIt may be mentioned here, that one of the first to run at the engineer's\ncall was Jack Ryan. The merry fellow had thought it his duty to return\nto his old trade. But though Melrose farm had lost singer and piper it\nmust not be thought that Jack Ryan sung no more. On the contrary, the\nsonorous echoes of New Aberfoyle exerted their strong lungs to answer\nhim.\n\nJack Ryan took up his abode in Simon Ford's new cottage. They offered\nhim a room, which he accepted without ceremony, in his frank and hearty\nway. Old Madge loved him for his fine character and good nature. She in\nsome degree shared his ideas on the subject of the fantastic beings\nwho were supposed to haunt the mine, and the two, when alone, told each\nother stories wild enough to make one shudder--stories well worthy of\nenriching the hyperborean mythology.\n\nJack thus became the life of the cottage. He was, besides being a jovial\ncompanion, a good workman. Six months after the works had begun, he was\nmade head of a gang of hewers.\n\n\"That was a good work done, Mr. Ford,\" said he, a few days after his\nappointment. \"You discovered a new field, and though you narrowly\nescaped paying for the discovery with your life--well, it was not too\ndearly bought.\"\n\n\"No, Jack, it was a good bargain we made that time!\" answered the old\noverman. \"But neither Mr. Starr nor I have forgotten that to you we owe\nour lives.\"\n\n\"Not at all,\" returned Jack. \"You owe them to your son Harry, when he\nhad the good sense to accept my invitation to Irvine.\"\n\n\"And not to go, isn't that it?\" interrupted Harry, grasping his\ncomrade's hand. \"No, Jack, it is to you, scarcely healed of your\nwounds--to you, who did not delay a day, no, nor an hour, that we owe\nour being found still alive in the mine!\"\n\n\"Rubbish, no!\" broke in the obstinate fellow. \"I won't have that said,\nwhen it's no such thing. I hurried to find out what had become of you,\nHarry, that's all. But to give everyone his due, I will add that without\nthat unapproachable goblin--\"\n\n\"Ah, there we are!\" cried Ford. \"A goblin!\"\n\n\"A goblin, a brownie, a fairy's child,\" repeated Jack Ryan, \"a cousin of\nthe Fire-Maidens, an Urisk, whatever you like! It's not the less certain\nthat without it we should never have found our way into the gallery,\nfrom which you could not get out.\"\n\n\"No doubt, Jack,\" answered Harry. \"It remains to be seen whether this\nbeing was as supernatural as you choose to believe.\"\n\n\"Supernatural!\" exclaimed Ryan. \"But it was as supernatural as a\nWill-o'-the-Wisp, who may be seen skipping along with his lantern in\nhis hand; you may try to catch him, but he escapes like a fairy, and\nvanishes like a shadow! Don't be uneasy, Harry, we shall see it again\nsome day or other!\"\n\n\"Well, Jack,\" said Simon Ford, \"Will-o'-the-Wisp or not, we shall try to\nfind it, and you must help us.\"\n\n\"You'll get into a scrap if you don't take care, Mr. Ford!\" responded\nJack Ryan.\n\n\"We'll see about that, Jack!\"\n\nWe may easily imagine how soon this domain of New Aberfoyle became\nfamiliar to all the members of the Ford family, but more particularly to\nHarry. He learnt to know all its most secret ins and outs. He could even\nsay what point of the surface corresponded with what point of the mine.\nHe knew that above this seam lay the Firth of Clyde, that there extended\nLoch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Those columns supported a spur of the\nGrampian mountains. This vault served as a basement to Dumbarton. Above\nthis large pond passed the Balloch railway. Here ended the Scottish\ncoast. There began the sea, the tumult of which could be distinctly\nheard during the equinoctial gales. Harry would have been a first-rate\nguide to these natural catacombs, and all that Alpine guides do on\ntheir snowy peaks in daylight he could have done in the dark mine by the\nwonderful power of instinct.\n\nHe loved New Aberfoyle. Many times, with his lamp stuck in his hat,\ndid he penetrate its furthest depths. He explored its ponds in a\nskillfully-managed canoe. He even went shooting, for numerous birds had\nbeen introduced into the crypt--pintails, snipes, ducks, who fed on the\nfish which swarmed in the deep waters. Harry's eyes seemed made for\nthe dark, just as a sailor's are made for distances. But all this while\nHarry felt irresistibly animated by the hope of finding the mysterious\nbeing whose intervention, strictly speaking, had saved himself and his\nfriends. Would he succeed? He certainly would, if presentiments were to\nbe trusted; but certainly not, if he judged by the success which had as\nyet attended his researches.\n\nThe attacks directed against the family of the old overman, before the\ndiscovery of New Aberfoyle, had not been renewed.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI. HANGING BY A THREAD\n\n\nALTHOUGH in this way the Ford family led a happy and contented life, yet\nit was easy to see that Harry, naturally of a grave disposition, became\nmore and more quiet and reserved. Even Jack Ryan, with all his good\nhumor and usually infectious merriment, failed to rouse him to gayety of\nmanner.\n\nOne Sunday--it was in the month of June--the two friends were walking\ntogether on the shores of Loch Malcolm. Coal Town rested from labor. In\nthe world above, stormy weather prevailed. Violent rains fell, and\ndull sultry vapors brooded over the earth; the atmosphere was most\noppressive.\n\nDown in Coal Town there was perfect calm; no wind, no rain. A soft and\npleasant temperature existed instead of the strife of the elements which\nraged without. What wonder then, that excursionists from Stirling came\nin considerable numbers to enjoy the calm fresh air in the recesses of\nthe mine?\n\nThe electric discs shed a brilliancy of light which the British sun,\noftener obscured by fogs than it ought to be, might well envy. Jack Ryan\nkept talking of these visitors, who passed them in noisy crowds, but\nHarry paid very little attention to what he said.\n\n\"I say, do look, Harry!\" cried Jack. \"See what numbers of people come\nto visit us! Cheer up, old fellow! Do the honors of the place a little\nbetter. If you look so glum, you'll make all these outside folks think\nyou envy their life above-ground.\"\n\n\"Never mind me, Jack,\" answered Harry. \"You are jolly enough for two,\nI'm sure; that's enough.\"\n\n\"I'll be hanged if I don't feel your melancholy creeping over me\nthough!\" exclaimed Jack. \"I declare my eyes are getting quite dull, my\nlips are drawn together, my laugh sticks in my throat; I'm forgetting\nall my songs. Come, man, what's the matter with you?\"\n\n\"You know well enough, Jack.\"\n\n\"What? the old story?\"\n\n\"Yes, the same thoughts haunt me.\"\n\n\"Ah, poor fellow!\" said Jack, shrugging his shoulders. \"If you would\nonly do like me, and set all the queer things down to the account of the\ngoblins of the mine, you would be easier in your mind.\"\n\n\"But, Jack, you know very well that these goblins exist only in your\nimagination, and that, since the works here have been reopened, not a\nsingle one has been seen.\"\n\n\"That's true, Harry; but if no spirits have been seen, neither has\nanyone else to whom you could attribute the extraordinary doings we want\nto account for.\"\n\n\"I shall discover them.\"\n\n\"Ah, Harry! Harry! it's not so easy to catch the spirits of New\nAberfoyle!\"\n\n\"I shall find out the spirits as you call them,\" said Harry, in a tone\nof firm conviction.\n\n\"Do you expect to be able to punish them?\"\n\n\"Both punish and reward. Remember, if one hand shut us up in that\npassage, another hand delivered us! I shall not soon forget that.\"\n\n\"But, Harry, how can we be sure that these two hands do not belong to\nthe same body?\"\n\n\"What can put such a notion in your head, Jack?\" asked Harry.\n\n\"Well, I don't know. Creatures that live in these holes, Harry, don't\nyou see? they can't be made like us, eh?\"\n\n\"But they ARE just like us, Jack.\"\n\n\"Oh, no! don't say that, Harry! Perhaps some madman managed to get in\nfor a time.\"\n\n\"A madman! No madman would have formed such connected plans, or done\nsuch continued mischief as befell us after the breaking of the ladders.\"\n\n\"Well, but anyhow he has done no harm for the last three years, either\nto you, Harry, or any of your people.\"\n\n\"No matter, Jack,\" replied Harry; \"I am persuaded that this malignant\nbeing, whoever he is, has by no means given up his evil intentions. I\ncan hardly say on what I found my convictions. But at any rate, for\nthe sake of the new works, I must and will know who he is and whence he\ncomes.\"\n\n\"For the sake of the new works did you say?\" asked Jack, considerably\nsurprised.\n\n\"I said so, Jack,\" returned Harry. \"I may be mistaken, but, to me, all\nthat has happened proves the existence of an interest in this mine in\nstrong opposition to ours. Many a time have I considered the matter; I\nfeel almost sure of it. Just consider the whole series of inexplicable\ncircumstances, so singularly linked together. To begin with, the\nanonymous letter, contradictory to that of my father, at once proves\nthat some man had become aware of our projects, and wished to prevent\ntheir accomplishment. Mr. Starr comes to see us at the Dochart pit. No\nsooner does he enter it with me than an immense stone is cast upon us,\nand communication is interrupted by the breaking of the ladders in\nthe Yarrow shaft. We commence exploring. An experiment, by which the\nexistence of a new vein would be proved, is rendered impossible by\nstoppage of fissures. Notwithstanding this, the examination is carried\nout, the vein discovered. We return as we came, a prodigious gust of air\nmeets us, our lamp is broken, utter darkness surrounds us. Nevertheless,\nwe make our way along the gloomy passage until, on reaching the\nentrance, we find it blocked up. There we were--imprisoned. Now, Jack,\ndon't you see in all these things a malicious intention? Ah, yes,\nbelieve me, some being hitherto invisible, but not supernatural, as you\nwill persist in thinking, was concealed in the mine. For some reason,\nknown only to himself, he strove to keep us out of it. WAS there, did\nI say? I feel an inward conviction that he IS there still, and probably\nprepares some terrible disaster for us. Even at the risk of my life,\nJack, I am resolved to discover him.\"\n\nHarry spoke with an earnestness which strongly impressed his companion.\n\"Well, Harry,\" said he, \"if I am forced to agree with you in certain\npoints, won't you admit that some kind fairy or brownie, by bringing\nbread and water to you, was the means of--\"\n\n\"Jack, my friend,\" interrupted Harry, \"it is my belief that the friendly\nperson, whom you will persist in calling a spirit, exists in the mine as\ncertainly as the criminal we speak of, and I mean to seek them both in\nthe most distant recesses of the mine.\"\n\n\"But,\" inquired Jack, \"have you any possible clew to guide your search?\"\n\n\"Perhaps I have. Listen to me! Five miles west of New Aberfoyle, under\nthe solid rock which supports Ben Lomond, there exists a natural shaft\nwhich descends perpendicularly into the vein beneath. A week ago I went\nto ascertain the depth of this shaft. While sounding it, and bending\nover the opening as my plumb-line went down, it seemed to me that the\nair within was agitated, as though beaten by huge wings.\"\n\n\"Some bird must have got lost among the lower galleries,\" replied Jack.\n\n\"But that is not all, Jack. This very morning I went back to the place,\nand, listening attentively, I thought I could detect a sound like a sort\nof groaning.\"\n\n\"Groaning!\" cried Jack, \"that must be nonsense; it was a current of\nair--unless indeed some ghost--\"\n\n\"I shall know to-morrow what it was,\" said Harry.\n\n\"To-morrow?\" answered Jack, looking at his friend.\n\n\"Yes; to-morrow I am going down into that abyss.\"\n\n\"Harry! that will be a tempting of Providence.\"\n\n\"No, Jack, Providence will aid me in the attempt. Tomorrow, you and some\nof our comrades will go with me to that shaft. I will fasten myself to\na long rope, by which you can let me down, and draw me up at a given\nsignal. I may depend upon you, Jack?\"\n\n\"Well, Harry,\" said Jack, shaking his head, \"I will do as you wish me;\nbut I tell you all the same, you are very wrong.\"\n\n\"Nothing venture nothing win,\" said Harry, in a tone of decision.\n\"To-morrow morning, then, at six o'clock. Be silent, and farewell!\"\n\nIt must be admitted that Jack Ryan's fears were far from groundless.\nHarry would expose himself to very great danger, supposing the enemy\nhe sought for lay concealed at the bottom of the pit into which he\nwas going to descend. It did not seem likely that such was the case,\nhowever.\n\n\"Why in the world,\" repeated Jack Ryan, \"should he take all this trouble\nto account for a set of facts so very easily and simply explained by the\nsupernatural intervention of the spirits of the mine?\"\n\nBut, notwithstanding his objections to the scheme, Jack Ryan and three\nminers of his gang arrived next morning with Harry at the mouth of the\nopening of the suspicious shaft. Harry had not mentioned his intentions\neither to James Starr or to the old overman. Jack had been discreet\nenough to say nothing.\n\nHarry had provided himself with a rope about 200 feet long. It was not\nparticularly thick, but very strong--sufficiently so to sustain his\nweight. His friends were to let him down into the gulf, and his pulling\nthe cord was to be the signal to withdraw him.\n\nThe opening into this shaft or well was twelve feet wide. A beam was\nthrown across like a bridge, so that the cord passing over it should\nhang down the center of the opening, and save Harry from striking\nagainst the sides in his descent.\n\nHe was ready.\n\n\"Are you still determined to explore this abyss?\" whispered Jack Ryan.\n\n\"Yes, I am, Jack.\"\n\nThe cord was fastened round Harry's thighs and under his arms, to keep\nhim from rocking. Thus supported, he was free to use both his hands. A\nsafety-lamp hung at his belt, also a large, strong knife in a leather\nsheath.\n\nHarry advanced to the middle of the beam, around which the cord was\npassed. Then his friends began to let him down, and he slowly sank into\nthe pit. As the rope caused him to swing gently round and round, the\nlight of his lamp fell in turns on all points of the side walls, so\nthat he was able to examine them carefully. These walls consisted of pit\ncoal, and so smooth that it would be impossible to ascend them.\n\nHarry calculated that he was going down at the rate of about a foot\nper second, so that he had time to look about him, and be ready for any\nevent.\n\nDuring two minutes--that is to say, to the depth of about 120 feet, the\ndescent continued without any incident.\n\nNo lateral gallery opened from the side walls of the pit, which was\ngradually narrowing into the shape of a funnel. But Harry began to feel\na fresher air rising from beneath, whence he concluded that the bottom\nof the pit communicated with a gallery of some description in the lowest\npart of the mine.\n\nThe cord continued to unwind. Darkness and silence were complete. If\nany living being whatever had sought refuge in the deep and mysterious\nabyss, he had either left it, or, if there, by no movement did he in the\nslightest way betray his presence.\n\nHarry, becoming more suspicious the lower he got, now drew his knife and\nheld it in his right hand. At a depth of 180 feet, his feet touched the\nlower point and the cord slackened and unwound no further.\n\nHarry breathed more freely for a moment. One of the fears he entertained\nhad been that, during his descent, the cord might be cut above him, but\nhe had seen no projection from the walls behind which anyone could have\nbeen concealed.\n\nThe bottom of the abyss was quite dry. Harry, taking the lamp from his\nbelt, walked round the place, and perceived he had been right in his\nconjectures.\n\nAn extremely narrow passage led aside out of the pit. He had to stoop\nto look into it, and only by creeping could it be followed; but as\nhe wanted to see in which direction it led, and whether another abyss\nopened from it, he lay down on the ground and began to enter it on hands\nand knees.\n\nAn obstacle speedily arrested his progress. He fancied he could perceive\nby touching it, that a human body lay across the passage. A sudden\nthrill of horror and surprise made him hastily draw back, but he again\nadvanced and felt more carefully.\n\nHis senses had not deceived him; a body did indeed lie there; and he\nsoon ascertained that, although icy cold at the extremities, there was\nsome vital heat remaining. In less time than it takes to tell it, Harry\nhad drawn the body from the recess to the bottom of the shaft, and,\nseizing his lamp, he cast its lights on what he had found, exclaiming\nimmediately, \"Why, it is a child!\"\n\nThe child still breathed, but so very feebly that Harry expected it to\ncease every instant. Not a moment was to be lost; he must carry this\npoor little creature out of the pit, and take it home to his mother as\nquickly as he could. He eagerly fastened the cord round his waist, stuck\non his lamp, clasped the child to his breast with his left arm, and,\nkeeping his right hand free to hold the knife, he gave the signal agreed\non, to have the rope pulled up.\n\nIt tightened at once; he began the ascent. Harry looked around him with\nredoubled care, for more than his own life was now in danger.\n\nFor a few minutes all went well, no accident seemed to threaten him,\nwhen suddenly he heard the sound of a great rush of air from beneath;\nand, looking down, he could dimly perceive through the gloom a broad\nmass arising until it passed him, striking him as it went by.\n\nIt was an enormous bird--of what sort he could not see; it flew upwards\non mighty wings, then paused, hovered, and dashed fiercely down upon\nHarry, who could only wield his knife in one hand. He defended himself\nand the child as well as he could, but the ferocious bird seemed to aim\nall its blows at him alone. Afraid of cutting the cord, he could not\nstrike it as he wished, and the struggle was prolonged, while Harry\nshouted with all his might in hopes of making his comrades hear.\n\nHe soon knew they did, for they pulled the rope up faster; a distance\nof about eighty feet remained to be got over. The bird ceased its direct\nattack, but increased the horror and danger of his situation by rushing\nat the cord, clinging to it just out of his reach, and endeavoring, by\npecking furiously, to cut it.\n\nHarry felt overcome with terrible dread. One strand of the rope gave\nway, and it made them sink a little.\n\nA shriek of despair escaped his lips.\n\nA second strand was divided, and the double burden now hung suspended by\nonly half the cord.\n\nHarry dropped his knife, and by a superhuman effort succeeded, at the\nmoment the rope was giving way, in catching hold of it with his right\nhand above the cut made by the beak of the bird. But, powerfully as he\nheld it in his iron grasp, he could feel it gradually slipping through\nhis fingers.\n\nHe might have caught it, and held on with both hands by sacrificing the\nlife of the child he supported in his left arm. The idea crossed him,\nbut was banished in an instant, although he believed himself quite\nunable to hold out until drawn to the surface. For a second he closed\nhis eyes, believing they were about to plunge back into the abyss.\n\nHe looked up once more; the huge bird had disappeared; his hand was\nat the very extremity of the broken rope--when, just as his convulsive\ngrasp was failing, he was seized by the men, and with the child was\nplaced on the level ground.\n\nThe fearful strain of anxiety removed, a reaction took place, and Harry\nfell fainting into the arms of his friends.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII. NELL ADOPTED\n\n\nA COUPLE of hours later, Harry still unconscious, and the child in a\nvery feeble state, were brought to the cottage by Jack Ryan and his\ncompanions. The old overman listened to the account of their adventures,\nwhile Madge attended with the utmost care to the wants of her son, and\nof the poor creature whom he had rescued from the pit.\n\nHarry imagined her a mere child, but she was a maiden of the age of\nfifteen or sixteen years.\n\nShe gazed at them with vague and wondering eyes; and the thin face,\ndrawn by suffering, the pallid complexion, which light could never have\ntinged, and the fragile, slender figure, gave her an appearance at once\nsingular and attractive. Jack Ryan declared that she seemed to him to be\nan uncommonly interesting kind of ghost.\n\nIt must have been due to the strange and peculiar circumstances under\nwhich her life hitherto had been led, that she scarcely seemed to belong\nto the human race. Her countenance was of a very uncommon cast, and her\neyes, hardly able to bear the lamp-light in the cottage, glanced around\nin a confused and puzzled way, as if all were new to them.\n\nAs this singular being reclined on Madge's bed and awoke to\nconsciousness, as from a long sleep, the old Scotchwoman began to\nquestion her a little.\n\n\"What do they call you, my dear?\" said she.\n\n\"Nell,\" replied the girl.\n\n\"Do you feel anything the matter with you, Nell?\"\n\n\"I am hungry. I have eaten nothing since--since--\"\n\n\nNell uttered these few words like one unused to speak much. They were\nin the Gaelic language, which was often spoken by Simon and his family.\nMadge immediately brought her some food; she was evidently famished. It\nwas impossible to say how long she might have been in that pit.\n\n\"How many days had you been down there, dearie?\" inquired Madge.\n\nNell made no answer; she seemed not to understand the question.\n\n\"How many days, do you think?\"\n\n\"Days?\" repeated Nell, as though the word had no meaning for her, and\nshe shook her head to signify entire want of comprehension.\n\nMadge took her hand, and stroked it caressingly. \"How old are you, my\nlassie?\" she asked, smiling kindly at her.\n\nNell shook her head again.\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" continued Madge, \"how many years old?\"\n\n\"Years?\" replied Nell. She seemed to understand that word no better than\ndays! Simon, Harry, Jack, and the rest, looked on with an air of mingled\ncompassion, wonder, and sympathy. The state of this poor thing, clothed\nin a miserable garment of coarse woolen stuff, seemed to impress them\npainfully.\n\nHarry, more than all the rest, seemed attracted by the very peculiarity\nof this poor stranger. He drew near, took Nell's hand from his mother,\nand looked directly at her, while something like a smile curved her\nlip. \"Nell,\" he said, \"Nell, away down there--in the mine--were you all\nalone?\"\n\n\"Alone! alone!\" cried the girl, raising herself hastily. Her features\nexpressed terror; her eyes, which had appeared to soften as Harry looked\nat her, became quite wild again. \"Alone!\" repeated she, \"alone!\"--and\nshe fell back on the bed, as though deprived of all strength.\n\n\"The poor bairn is too weak to speak to us,\" said Madge, when she had\nadjusted the pillows. \"After a good rest, and a little more food, she\nwill be stronger. Come away, Simon and Harry, and all the rest of you,\nand let her go to sleep.\" So Nell was left alone, and in a very few\nminutes slept profoundly.\n\nThis event caused a great sensation, not only in the coal mines, but in\nStirlingshire, and ultimately throughout the kingdom. The strangeness of\nthe story was exaggerated; the affair could not have made more commotion\nhad they found the girl enclosed in the solid rock, like one of those\nantediluvian creatures who have occasionally been released by a stroke\nof the pickax from their stony prison. Nell became a fashionable wonder\nwithout knowing it. Superstitious folks made her story a new subject for\nlegendary marvels, and were inclined to think, as Jack Ryan told Harry,\nthat Nell was the spirit of the mines.\n\n\"Be it so, Jack,\" said the young man; \"but at any rate she is the good\nspirit. It can have been none but she who brought us bread and water\nwhen we were shut up down there; and as to the bad spirit, who must\nstill be in the mine, we'll catch him some day.\"\n\nOf course James Starr had been at once informed of all this, and came,\nas soon as the young girl had sufficiently recovered her strength, to\nsee her, and endeavor to question her carefully.\n\nShe appeared ignorant of nearly everything relating to life, and,\nalthough evidently intelligent, was wanting in many elementary ideas,\nsuch as time, for instance. She had never been used to its division, and\nthe words signifying hours, days, months, and years were unknown to her.\n\nHer eyes, accustomed to the night, were pained by the glare of the\nelectric discs; but in the dark her sight was wonderfully keen, the\npupil dilated in a remarkable manner, and she could see where to others\nthere appeared profound obscurity. It was certain that her brain had\nnever received any impression of the outer world, that her eyes had\nnever looked beyond the mine, and that these somber depths had been all\nthe world to her.\n\nThe poor girl probably knew not that there were a sun and stars, towns\nand counties, a mighty universe composed of myriads of worlds. But\nuntil she comprehended the significance of words at present conveying no\nprecise meaning to her, it was impossible to ascertain what she knew.\n\nAs to whether or not Nell had lived alone in the recesses of New\nAberfoyle, James Starr was obliged to remain uncertain; indeed, any\nallusion to the subject excited evident alarm in the mind of this\nstrange girl. Either Nell could not or would not reply to questions, but\nthat some secret existed in connection with the place, which she could\nhave explained, was manifest.\n\n\"Should you like to stay with us? Should you like to go back to where we\nfound you?\" asked James Starr.\n\n\"Oh, yes!\" exclaimed the maiden, in answer to his first question; but a\ncry of terror was all she seemed able to say to the second.\n\nJames Starr, as well as Simon and Harry Ford, could not help feeling\na certain amount of uneasiness with regard to this persistent silence.\nThey found it impossible to forget all that had appeared so inexplicable\nat the time they made the discovery of the coal mine; and although that\nwas three years ago, and nothing new had happened, they always expected\nsome fresh attack on the part of the invisible enemy.\n\nThey resolved to explore the mysterious well, and did so, well armed\nand in considerable numbers. But nothing suspicious was to be seen; the\nshaft communicated with lower stages of the crypt, hollowed out in the\ncarboniferous bed.\n\nMany a time did James Starr, Simon, and Harry talk over these things. If\none or more malevolent beings were concealed in the coal-pit, and there\nconcocted mischief, Nell surely could have warned them of it, yet she\nsaid nothing. The slightest allusion to her past life brought on such\nfits of violent emotion, that it was judged best to avoid the subject\nfor the present. Her secret would certainly escape her by-and-by.\n\nBy the time Nell had been a fortnight in the cottage, she had become a\nmost intelligent and zealous assistant to old Madge. It was clear that\nshe instinctively felt she should remain in the dwelling where she had\nbeen so charitably received, and perhaps never dreamt of quitting it.\nThis family was all in all to her, and to the good folks themselves Nell\nhad seemed an adopted child from the moment when she first came beneath\ntheir roof. Nell was in truth a charming creature; her new mode of\nexistence added to her beauty, for these were no doubt the first happy\ndays of her life, and her heart was full of gratitude towards those to\nwhom she owed them. Madge felt towards her as a mother would; the old\nwoman doted upon her; in short, she was beloved by everybody. Jack Ryan\nonly regretted one thing, which was that he had not saved her himself.\nFriend Jack often came to the cottage. He sang, and Nell, who had never\nheard singing before, admired it greatly; but anyone might see that she\npreferred to Jack's songs the graver conversation of Harry, from whom by\ndegrees she learnt truths concerning the outer world, of which hitherto\nshe had known nothing.\n\nIt must be said that, since Nell had appeared in her own person, Jack\nRyan had been obliged to admit that his belief in hobgoblins was in a\nmeasure weakened. A couple of months later his credulity experienced\na further shock. About that time Harry unexpectedly made a discovery\nwhich, in part at least, accounted for the apparition of the\nfire-maidens among the ruins of Dundonald Castle at Irvine.\n\nDuring several days he had been engaged in exploring the remote\ngalleries of the prodigious excavation towards the south. At last he\nscrambled with difficulty up a narrow passage which branched off through\nthe upper rock. To his great astonishment, he suddenly found himself in\nthe open air. The passage, after ascending obliquely to the surface of\nthe ground, led out directly among the ruins of Dundonald Castle.\n\nThere was, therefore, a communication between New Aberfoyle and the\nhills crowned by this ancient castle. The upper entrance to this\ngallery, being completely concealed by stones and brushwood, was\ninvisible from without; at the time of their search, therefore, the\nmagistrates had been able to discover nothing.\n\nA few days afterwards, James Starr, guided by Harry, came himself to\ninspect this curious natural opening into the coal mine. \"Well,\"\nsaid he, \"here is enough to convince the most superstitious among us.\nFarewell to all their brownies, goblins, and fire-maidens now!\"\n\n\"I hardly think, Mr. Starr, we ought to congratulate ourselves,\" replied\nHarry. \"Whatever it is we have instead of these things, it can't be\nbetter, and may be worse than they are.\"\n\n\"That's true, Harry,\" said the engineer; \"but what's to be done? It is\nplain that, whatever the beings are who hide in the mine, they reach\nthe surface of the earth by this passage. No doubt it was the light of\ntorches waved by them during that dark and stormy night which attracted\nthe MOTALA towards the rocky coast, and like the wreckers of former\ndays, they would have plundered the unfortunate vessel, had it not been\nfor Jack Ryan and his friends. Anyhow, so far it is evident, and here\nis the mouth of the den. As to its occupants, the question is--Are they\nhere still?\"\n\n\"I say yes; because Nell trembles when we mention them--yes, because\nNell will not, or dare not, speak about them,\" answered Harry in a tone\nof decision.\n\nHarry was surely in the right. Had these mysterious denizens of the pit\nabandoned it, or ceased to visit the spot, what reason could the girl\nhave had for keeping silence?\n\nJames Starr could not rest till he had penetrated this mystery. He\nforesaw that the whole future of the new excavations must depend upon\nit. Renewed and strict precautions were therefore taken. The authorities\nwere informed of the discovery of the entrance. Watchers were placed\namong the ruins of the castle. Harry himself lay hid for several nights\nin the thickets of brushwood which clothed the hill-side.\n\nNothing was discovered--no human being emerged from the opening. So\nmost people came to the conclusion that the villains had been finally\ndislodged from the mine, and that, as to Nell, they must suppose her to\nbe dead at the bottom of the shaft where they had left her.\n\nWhile it remained unworked, the mine had been a safe enough place of\nrefuge, secure from all search or pursuit. But now, circumstances being\naltered, it became difficult to conceal this lurking-place, and it might\nreasonably be hoped they were gone, and that nothing for the future was\nto be dreaded from them.\n\nJames Starr, however, could not feel sure about it; neither could Harry\nbe satisfied on the subject, often repeating, \"Nell has clearly been\nmixed up with all this secret business. If she had nothing more to fear,\nwhy should she keep silence? It cannot be doubted that she is happy with\nus. She likes us all--she adores my mother. Her absolute silence as to\nher former life, when by speaking out she might benefit us, proves to me\nthat some awful secret, which she dares not reveal, weighs on her\nmind. It may also be that she believes it better for us, as well as\nfor herself, that she should remain mute in a way otherwise so\nunaccountable.\"\n\n\nIn consequence of these opinions, it was agreed by common consent\nto avoid all allusion to the maiden's former mode of life. One day,\nhowever, Harry was led to make known to Nell what James Starr, his\nfather, mother, and himself believed they owed to her interference.\n\nIt was a fete-day. The miners made holiday on the surface of the\ncounty of Stirling as well as in its subterraneous domains. Parties of\nholiday-makers were moving about in all directions. Songs resounded in\nmany places beneath the sonorous vaults of New Aberfoyle. Harry and Nell\nleft the cottage, and slowly walked along the left bank of Loch Malcolm.\n\nThen the electric brilliance darted less vividly, and the rays were\ninterrupted with fantastic effect by the sharp angles of the picturesque\nrocks which supported the dome. This imperfect light suited Nell, to\nwhose eyes a glare was very unpleasant.\n\n\"Nell,\" said Harry, \"your eyes are not fit for daylight yet, and could\nnot bear the brightness of the sun.\"\n\n\"Indeed they could not,\" replied the girl; \"if the sun is such as you\ndescribe it to me, Harry.\"\n\n\"I cannot by any words, Nell, give you an idea either of his splendor\nor of the beauty of that universe which your eyes have never beheld. But\ntell me, is it really possible that, since the day when you were born in\nthe depths of the coal mine, you never once have been up to the surface\nof the earth?\"\n\n\"Never once, Harry,\" said she; \"I do not believe that, even as an\ninfant, my father or mother ever carried me thither. I am sure I should\nhave retained some impression of the open air if they had.\"\n\n\"I believe you would,\" answered Harry. \"Long ago, Nell, many children\nused to live altogether in the mine; communication was then difficult,\nand I have met with more than one young person, quite as ignorant as you\nare of things above-ground. But now the railway through our great tunnel\ntakes us in a few minutes to the upper regions of our country. I long,\nNell, to hear you say, 'Come, Harry, my eyes can bear daylight, and I\nwant to see the sun! I want to look upon the works of the Almighty.'\"\n\n\"I shall soon say so, Harry, I hope,\" replied the girl; \"I shall soon go\nwith you to the world above; and yet--\"\n\n\n\"What are you going to say, Nell?\" hastily cried Harry; \"can you\npossibly regret having quitted that gloomy abyss in which you spent your\nearly years, and whence we drew you half dead?\"\n\n\"No, Harry,\" answered Nell; \"I was only thinking that darkness is\nbeautiful as well as light. If you but knew what eyes accustomed to its\ndepth can see! Shades flit by, which one longs to follow; circles mingle\nand intertwine, and one could gaze on them forever; black hollows, full\nof indefinite gleams of radiance, lie deep at the bottom of the mine.\nAnd then the voice-like sounds! Ah, Harry! one must have lived down\nthere to understand what I feel, what I can never express.\"\n\n\"And were you not afraid, Nell, all alone there?\"\n\n\"It was just when I was alone that I was not afraid.\"\n\nNell's voice altered slightly as she said these words; however, Harry\nthought he might press the subject a little further, so he said, \"But\none might be easily lost in these great galleries, Nell. Were you not\nafraid of losing your way?\"\n\n\"Oh, no, Harry; for a long time I had known every turn of the new mine.\"\n\n\"Did you never leave it?\"\n\n\"Yes, now and then,\" answered the girl with a little hesitation;\n\"sometimes I have been as far as the old mine of Aberfoyle.\"\n\n\"So you knew our old cottage?\"\n\n\"The cottage! oh, yes; but the people who lived there I only saw at a\ngreat distance.\"\n\n\"They were my father and mother,\" said Harry; \"and I was there too; we\nhave always lived there--we never would give up the old dwelling.\"\n\n\"Perhaps it would have been better for you if you had,\" murmured the\nmaiden.\n\n\"Why so, Nell? Was it not just because we were obstinately resolved to\nremain that we ended by discovering the new vein of coal? And did not\nthat discovery lead to the happy result of providing work for a large\npopulation, and restoring them to ease and comfort? and did it not\nenable us to find you, Nell, to save your life, and give you the love of\nall our hearts?\"\n\n\"Ah, yes, for me indeed it is well, whatever may happen,\" replied Nell\nearnestly; \"for others--who can tell?\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"Oh, nothing--nothing. But it used to be very dangerous at that time to\ngo into the new cutting--yes, very dangerous indeed, Harry! Once some\nrash people made their way into these chasms. They got a long, long way;\nthey were lost!\"\n\n\"They were lost?\" said Harry, looking at her.\n\n\"Yes, lost!\" repeated Nell in a trembling voice. \"They could not find\ntheir way out.\"\n\n\"And there,\" cried Harry, \"they were imprisoned during eight long\ndays! They were at the point of death, Nell; and, but for a kind and\ncharitable being--an angel perhaps--sent by God to help them, who\nsecretly brought them a little food; but for a mysterious guide, who\nafterwards led to them their deliverers, they never would have escaped\nfrom that living tomb!\"\n\n\"And how do you know about that?\" demanded the girl.\n\n\"Because those men were James Starr, my father, and myself, Nell!\"\n\nNell looked up hastily, seized the young man's hand, and gazed so\nfixedly into his eyes that his feelings were stirred to their depths.\n\"You were there?\" at last she uttered.\n\n\"I was indeed,\" said Harry, after a pause, \"and she to whom we owe our\nlives can have been none other than yourself, Nell!\"\n\nNell hid her face in her hands without speaking. Harry had never seen\nher so much affected.\n\n\"Those who saved your life, Nell,\" added he in a voice tremulous with\nemotion, \"already owed theirs to you; do you think they will ever forget\nit?\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII. ON THE REVOLVING LADDER\n\n\nTHE mining operations at New Aberfoyle continued to be carried on very\nsuccessfully. As a matter of course, the engineer, James Starr, as well\nas Simon Ford, the discoverers of this rich carboniferous region, shared\nlargely in the profits.\n\nIn time Harry became a partner. But he never thought of quitting\nthe cottage. He took his father's place as overman, and diligently\nsuperintended the works of this colony of miners. Jack Ryan was proud\nand delighted at the good fortune which had befallen his comrade. He\nhimself was getting on very well also.\n\nThey frequently met, either at the cottage or at the works in the pit.\nJack did not fail to remark the sentiments entertained by Harry towards\nNell. Harry would not confess to them; but Jack only laughed at him when\nhe shook his head and tried to deny any special interest in her.\n\nIt must be noted that Jack Ryan had the greatest possible wish to be of\nthe party when Nell should pay her first visit to the upper surface of\nthe county of Stirling. He wished to see her wonder and admiration on\nfirst beholding the yet unknown face of Nature. He very much hoped that\nHarry would take him with them when the excursion was made. As yet,\nhowever, the latter had made no proposal of the kind to him, which\ncaused him to feel a little uneasy as to his intentions.\n\nOne morning Jack Ryan was descending through a shaft which led from the\nsurface to the lower regions of the pit. He did so by means of one of\nthose ladders which, continually revolving by machinery, enabled persons\nto ascend and descend without fatigue. This apparatus had lowered\nhim about a hundred and fifty feet, when at a narrow landing-place he\nperceived Harry, who was coming up to his labors for the day.\n\n\"Well met, my friend!\" cried Jack, recognizing his comrade by the light\nof the electric lamps.\n\n\"Ah, Jack!\" replied Harry, \"I am glad to see you. I've got something to\npropose.\"\n\n\"I can listen to nothing till you tell me how Nell is,\" interrupted Jack\nRyan.\n\n\"Nell is all right, Jack--so much so, in fact, that I hope in a month or\nsix weeks--\"\n\n\"To marry her, Harry?\"\n\n\"Jack, you don't know what you are talking about!\"\n\n\"Ah, that's very likely; but I know quite well what I shall do.\"\n\n\"What will you do?\"\n\n\"Marry her myself, if you don't; so look sharp,\" laughed Jack. \"By Saint\nMungo! I think an immense deal of bonny Nell! A fine young creature like\nthat, who has been brought up in the mine, is just the very wife for a\nminer. She is an orphan--so am I; and if you don't care much for her,\nand if she will have me--\"\n\nHarry looked gravely at Jack, and let him talk on without trying to\nstop him. \"Don't you begin to feel jealous, Harry?\" asked Jack in a more\nserious tone.\n\n\"Not at all,\" answered Harry quietly.\n\n\"But if you don't marry Nell yourself, you surely can't expect her to\nremain a spinster?\"\n\n\"I expect nothing,\" said Harry.\n\nA movement of the ladder machinery now gave the two friends the\nopportunity--one to go up, the other down the shaft. However, they\nremained where they were.\n\n\"Harry,\" quoth Jack, \"do you think I spoke in earnest just now about\nNell?\"\n\n\"No, that I don't, Jack.\"\n\n\"Well, but now I will!\"\n\n\"You? speak in earnest?\"\n\n\"My good fellow, I can tell you I am quite capable of giving a friend a\nbit of advice.\"\n\n\"Let's hear, then, Jack!\"\n\n\"Well, look here! You love Nell as heartily as she deserves. Old Simon,\nyour father, and old Madge, your mother, both love her as if she were\ntheir daughter. Why don't you make her so in reality? Why don't you\nmarry her?\"\n\n\"Come, Jack,\" said Harry, \"you are running on as if you knew how Nell\nfelt on the subject.\"\n\n\"Everybody knows that,\" replied Jack, \"and therefore it is impossible to\nmake you jealous of any of us. But here goes the ladder again--I'm off!\"\n\n\"Stop a minute, Jack!\" cried Harry, detaining his companion, who was\nstepping onto the moving staircase.\n\n\"I say! you seem to mean me to take up my quarters here altogether!\"\n\n\"Do be serious and listen, Jack! I want to speak in earnest myself now.\"\n\n\"Well, I'll listen till the ladder moves again, not a minute longer.\"\n\n\"Jack,\" resumed Harry, \"I need not pretend that I do not love Nell; I\nwish above all things to make her my wife.\"\n\n\n\"That's all right!\"\n\n\"But for the present I have scruples of conscience as to asking her to\nmake me a promise which would be irrevocable.\"\n\n\"What can you mean, Harry?\"\n\n\"I mean just this--that, it being certain Nell has never been outside\nthis coal mine in the very depths of which she was born, it stands to\nreason that she knows nothing, and can comprehend nothing of what exists\nbeyond it. Her eyes--yes, and perhaps also her heart--have everything\nyet to learn. Who can tell what her thoughts will be, when perfectly new\nimpressions shall be made upon her mind? As yet she knows nothing of\nthe world, and to me it would seem like deceiving her, if I led her to\ndecide in ignorance, upon choosing to remain all her life in the coal\nmine. Do you understand me, Jack?\"\n\n\"Hem!--yes--pretty well. What I understand best is that you are going to\nmake me miss another turn of the ladder.\"\n\n\"Jack,\" replied Harry gravely, \"if this machinery were to stop\naltogether, if this landing-place were to fall beneath our feet, you\nmust and shall hear what I have to say.\"\n\n\"Well done, Harry! that's how I like to be spoken to! Let's settle,\nthen, that, before you marry Nell, she shall go to school in Auld\nReekie.\"\n\n\"No indeed, Jack; I am perfectly able myself to educate the person who\nis to be my wife.\"\n\n\"Sure that will be a great deal better, Harry!\"\n\n\"But, first of all,\" resumed Harry, \"I wish that Nell should gain a real\nknowledge of the upper world. To illustrate my meaning, Jack, suppose\nyou were in love with a blind girl, and someone said to you, 'In a\nmonth's time her sight will be restored,' would you not wait till after\nshe was cured, to marry her?\"\n\n\"Faith, to be sure I would!\" exclaimed Jack.\n\n\"Well, Jack, Nell is at present blind; and before she marries me, I wish\nher to see what I am, and what the life really is to which she would\nbind herself. In short, she must have daylight let in upon the subject!\"\n\n\"Well said, Harry! Very well said indeed!\" cried Jack. \"Now I see what\nyou are driving at. And when may we expect the operation to come off?\"\n\n\n\"In a month, Jack,\" replied Harry. \"Nell is getting used to the light of\nour reflectors. That is some preparation. In a month she will, I hope,\nhave seen the earth and its wonders--the sky and its splendors. She will\nperceive that the limits of the universe are boundless.\"\n\nBut while Harry was thus giving the rein to his imagination, Jack Ryan,\nquitting the platform, had leaped on the step of the moving machinery.\n\n\"Hullo, Jack! Where are you?\"\n\n\"Far beneath you,\" laughed the merry fellow. \"While you soar to the\nheights, I plunge into the depths.\"\n\n\"Fare ye well. Jack!\" returned Harry, himself laying hold of the rising\nladder; \"mind you say nothing about what I have been telling you.\"\n\n\"Not a word,\" shouted Jack, \"but I make one condition.\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\n\"That I may be one of the party when Nell's first excursion to the face\nof the earth comes off!\"\n\n\"So you shall, Jack, I promise you!\"\n\nA fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more considerable distance\nbetween the friends. Their voices sounded faintly to each other. Harry,\nhowever, could still hear Jack shouting:\n\n\"I say! do you know what Nell will like better than either sun, moon, or\nstars, after she's seen the whole of them?\"\n\n\"No, Jack!\"\n\n\"Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!\" And Jack's voice\ndied away in a prolonged \"Hurrah!\"\n\nHarry, after this, applied himself diligently, during all his spare\ntime, to the work of Nell's education. He taught her to read and to\nwrite, and such rapid progress did she make, it might have been said\nthat she learnt by instinct. Never did keen intelligence more quickly\ntriumph over utter ignorance. It was the wonder of all beholders.\n\nSimon and Madge became every day more and more attached to their adopted\nchild, whose former history continued to puzzle them a good deal. They\nplainly saw the nature of Harry's feelings towards her, and were far\nfrom displeased thereat. They recollected that Simon had said to the\nengineer on his first visit to the old cottage, \"How can our son ever\nthink of marrying? Where could a wife possibly be found suitable for a\nlad whose whole life must be passed in the depths of a coal mine?\"\n\nWell! now it seemed as if the most desirable companion in the world had\nbeen led to him by Providence. Was not this like a blessing direct from\nHeaven? So the old man made up his mind that, if the wedding did take\nplace, the miners of New Aberfoyle should have a merry-making at Coal\nTown, which they would never during their lives forget. Simon Ford\nlittle knew what he was saying!\n\nIt must be remarked that another person wished for this union of Harry\nand Nell as much as Simon did--and that was James Starr, the engineer.\nOf course he was really interested in the happiness of the two young\npeople. But another motive, connected with wider interests, influenced\nhim to desire it.\n\nIt has been said that James Starr continued to entertain a certain\namount of apprehension, although for the present nothing appeared to\njustify it. Yet that which had been might again be. This mystery about\nthe new cutting--Nell was evidently the only person acquainted with it.\nNow, if fresh dangers were in store for the miners of Aberfoyle, how\nwere they possibly to be guarded against, without so much as knowing the\ncause of them?\n\n\"Nell has persisted in keeping silence,\" said James Starr very often,\n\"but what she has concealed from others, she will not long hide from her\nhusband. Any danger would be danger to Harry as well as to the rest\nof us. Therefore, a marriage which brings happiness to the lovers, and\nsafety to their friends, will be a good marriage, if ever there is such\na thing here below.\"\n\nThus, not illogically, reasoned James Starr. He communicated his ideas\nto old Simon, who decidedly appreciated them. Nothing, then, appeared to\nstand in the way of the match. What, in fact, was there to prevent it?\nThey loved each other; the parents desired nothing better for their son.\nHarry's comrades envied his good fortune, but freely acknowledged that\nhe deserved it. The maiden depended on no one else, and had but to give\nthe consent of her own heart.\n\nWhy, then, if there were none to place obstacles in the way of this\nunion--why, as night came on, and, the labors of the day being over, the\nelectric lights in the mine were extinguished, and all the inhabitants\nof Coal Town at rest within their dwellings--why did a mysterious form\nalways emerge from the gloomier recesses of New Aberfoyle, and silently\nglide through the darkness?\n\nWhat instinct guided this phantom with ease through passages so narrow\nas to appear to be impracticable?\n\nWhy should the strange being, with eyes flashing through the deepest\ndarkness, come cautiously creeping along the shores of Lake Malcolm? Why\nso directly make his way towards Simon's cottage, yet so carefully\nas hitherto to avoid notice? Why, bending towards the windows, did he\nstrive to catch, by listening, some fragment of the conversation within\nthe closed shutters?\n\nAnd, on catching a few words, why did he shake his fist with a menacing\ngesture towards the calm abode, while from between his set teeth issued\nthese words in muttered fury, \"She and he? Never! never!\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV. A SUNRISE\n\n\nA MONTH after this, on the evening of the 20th of August, Simon Ford and\nMadge took leave, with all manner of good wishes, of four tourists, who\nwere setting forth from the cottage.\n\nJames Starr, Harry, and Jack Ryan were about to lead Nell's steps over\nyet untrodden paths, and to show her the glories of nature by a light to\nwhich she was as yet a stranger. The excursion was to last for two days.\nJames Starr, as well as Harry, considered that during these eight\nand forty hours spent above ground, the maiden would be able to see\neverything of which she must have remained ignorant in the gloomy pit;\nall the varied aspects of the globe, towns, plains, mountains, rivers,\nlakes, gulfs, and seas would pass, panorama-like, before her eyes.\n\nIn that part of Scotland lying between Edinburgh and Glasgow, nature\nwould seem to have collected and set forth specimens of every one of\nthese terrestrial beauties. As to the heavens, they would be spread\nabroad as over the whole earth, with their changeful clouds, serene or\nveiled moon, their radiant sun, and clustering stars. The expedition had\nbeen planned so as to combine a view of all these things.\n\nSimon and Madge would have been glad to go with Nell; but they never\nleft their cottage willingly, and could not make up their minds to quit\ntheir subterranean home for a single day.\n\nJames Starr went as an observer and philosopher, curious to note, from\na psychological point of view, the novel impressions made upon Nell;\nperhaps also with some hope of detecting a clue to the mysterious events\nconnected with her childhood. Harry, with a little trepidation, asked\nhimself whether it was not possible that this rapid initiation into the\nthings of the exterior world would change the maiden he had known and\nloved hitherto into quite a different girl. As for Jack Ryan, he was as\njoyous as a lark rising in the first beams of the sun. He only trusted\nthat his gayety would prove contagious, and enliven his traveling\ncompanions, thus rewarding them for letting him join them. Nell was\npensive and silent.\n\nJames Starr had decided, very sensibly, to set off in the evening.\nIt would be very much better for the girl to pass gradually from the\ndarkness of night to the full light of day; and that would in this way\nbe managed, since between midnight and noon she would experience the\nsuccessive phases of shade and sunshine, to which her sight had to get\naccustomed.\n\nJust as they left the cottage, Nell took Harry's hand saying, \"Harry, is\nit really necessary for me to leave the mine at all, even for these few\ndays?\"\n\n\"Yes, it is, Nell,\" replied the young man. \"It is needful for both of\nus.\"\n\n\"But, Harry,\" resumed Nell, \"ever since you found me, I have been as\nhappy as I can possibly be. You have been teaching me. Why is that not\nenough? What am I going up there for?\"\n\nHarry looked at her in silence. Nell was giving utterance to nearly his\nown thoughts.\n\n\"My child,\" said James Starr, \"I can well understand the hesitation you\nfeel; but it will be good for you to go with us. Those who love you are\ntaking you, and they will bring you back again. Afterwards you will be\nfree, if you wish it, to continue your life in the coal mine, like\nold Simon, and Madge, and Harry. But at least you ought to be able\nto compare what you give up with what you choose, then decide freely.\nCome!\"\n\n\"Come, dear Nell!\" cried Harry.\n\n\"Harry, I am willing to follow you,\" replied the maiden. At nine\no'clock the last train through the tunnel started to convey Nell and\nher companions to the surface of the earth. Twenty minutes later they\nalighted on the platform where the branch line to New Aberfoyle joins\nthe railway from Dumbarton to Stirling.\n\nThe night was already dark. From the horizon to the zenith, light\nvapory clouds hurried through the upper air, driven by a refreshing\nnorthwesterly breeze. The day had been lovely; the night promised to be\nso likewise.\n\nOn reaching Stirling, Nell and her friends, quitting the train, left the\nstation immediately. Just before them, between high trees, they could\nsee a road which led to the banks of the river Forth.\n\nThe first physical impression on the girl was the purity of the air\ninhaled eagerly by her lungs.\n\n\"Breathe it freely, Nell,\" said James Starr; \"it is fragrant with all\nthe scents of the open country.\"\n\n\"What is all that smoke passing over our heads?\" inquired Nell.\n\n\"Those are clouds,\" answered Harry, \"blown along by the westerly wind.\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said Nell, \"how I should like to feel myself carried along in that\nsilent whirl! And what are those shining sparks which glance here and\nthere between rents in the clouds?\"\n\n\"Those are the stars I have told you about, Nell. So many suns they are,\nso many centers of worlds like our own, most likely.\"\n\nThe constellations became more clearly visible as the wind cleared the\nclouds from the deep blue of the firmament. Nell gazed upon the myriad\nstars which sparkled overhead. \"But how is it,\" she said at length,\n\"that if these are suns, my eyes can endure their brightness?\"\n\n\"My child,\" replied James Starr, \"they are indeed suns, but suns at an\nenormous distance. The nearest of these millions of stars, whose rays\ncan reach us, is Vega, that star in Lyra which you observe near the\nzenith, and that is fifty thousand millions of leagues distant. Its\nbrightness, therefore, cannot affect your vision. But our own sun, which\nwill rise to-morrow, is only distant thirty-eight millions of leagues,\nand no human eye can gaze fixedly upon that, for it is brighter than the\nblaze of any furnace. But come, Nell, come!\"\n\nThey pursued their way, James Starr leading the maiden, Harry walking\nby her side, while Jack Ryan roamed about like a young dog, impatient of\nthe slow pace of his masters. The road was lonely. Nell kept looking at\nthe great trees, whose branches, waving in the wind, made them seem to\nher like giants gesticulating wildly. The sound of the breeze in the\ntree-tops, the deep silence during a lull, the distant line of the\nhorizon, which could be discerned when the road passed over open\nlevels--all these things filled her with new sensations, and left\nlasting impressions on her mind.\n\nAfter some time she ceased to ask questions, and her companions\nrespected her silence, not wishing to influence by any words of theirs\nthe girl's highly sensitive imagination, but preferring to allow ideas\nto arise spontaneously in her soul.\n\nAt about half past eleven o'clock, they gained the banks of the river\nForth. There a boat, chartered by James Starr, awaited them. In a few\nhours it would convey them all to Granton. Nell looked at the clear\nwater which flowed up to her feet, as the waves broke gently on the\nbeach, reflecting the starlight. \"Is this a lake?\" said she.\n\n\"No,\" replied Harry, \"it is a great river flowing towards the sea, and\nsoon opening so widely as to resemble a gulf. Taste a little of the\nwater in the hollow of your hand, Nell, and you will perceive that it is\nnot sweet like the waters of Lake Malcolm.\"\n\nThe maiden bent towards the stream, and, raising a little water to her\nlips, \"This is quite salt,\" said she.\n\n\"Yes, the tide is full; the sea water flows up the river as far as\nthis,\" answered Harry.\n\n\"Oh, Harry! Harry!\" exclaimed the maiden, \"what can that red glow on the\nhorizon be? Is it a forest on fire?\"\n\n\"No, it is the rising moon, Nell.\"\n\n\"To be sure, that's the moon,\" cried Jack Ryan, \"a fine big silver\nplate, which the spirits of air hand round and round the sky to collect\nthe stars in, like money.\"\n\n\"Why, Jack,\" said the engineer, laughing, \"I had no idea you could\nstrike out such bold comparisons!\"\n\n\"Well, but, Mr. Starr, it is a just comparison. Don't you see the stars\ndisappear as the moon passes on? so I suppose they drop into it.\"\n\n\"What you mean to say, Jack, is that the superior brilliancy of the moon\neclipses that of stars of the sixth magnitude, therefore they vanish as\nshe approaches.\"\n\n\"How beautiful all this is!\" repeated Nell again and again, with her\nwhole soul in her eyes. \"But I thought the moon was round?\"\n\n\"So she is, when 'full,'\" said James Starr; \"that means when she is just\nopposite to the sun. But to-night the moon is in the last quarter, shorn\nof her just proportions, and friend Jack's grand silver plate looks more\nlike a barber's basin.\"\n\n\"Oh, Mr. Starr, what a base comparison!\" he exclaimed, \"I was just going\nto begin a sonnet to the moon, but your barber's basin has destroyed all\nchance of an inspiration.\"\n\nGradually the moon ascended the heavens. Before her light the lingering\nclouds fled away, while stars still sparkled in the west, beyond\nthe influence of her radiance. Nell gazed in silence on the glorious\nspectacle. The soft silvery light was pleasant to her eyes, and her\nlittle trembling hand expressed to Harry, who clasped it, how deeply she\nwas affected by the scene.\n\n\"Let us embark now,\" said James Starr. \"We have to get to the top of\nArthur's Seat before sunrise.\"\n\nThe boat was moored to a post on the bank. A boatman awaited them. Nell\nand her friends took their seats; the sail was spread; it quickly filled\nbefore the northwesterly breeze, and they sped on their way.\n\nWhat a new sensation was this for the maiden! She had been rowed on the\nwaters of Lake Malcolm; but the oar, handled ever so lightly by Harry,\nalways betrayed effort on the part of the oarsman. Now, for the first\ntime, Nell felt herself borne along with a gliding movement, like that\nof a balloon through the air. The water was smooth as a lake, and\nNell reclined in the stern of the boat, enjoying its gentle rocking.\nOccasionally the effect of the moonlight on the waters was as though the\nboat sailed across a glittering silver field. Little wavelets rippled\nalong the banks. It was enchanting.\n\nAt length Nell was overcome with drowsiness, her eyelids drooped, her\nhead sank on Harry's shoulder--she slept. Harry, sorry that she should\nmiss any of the beauties of this magnificent night, would have aroused\nher.\n\n\"Let her sleep!\" said the engineer. \"She will better enjoy the novelties\nof the day after a couple of hours' rest.\"\n\nAt two o'clock in the morning the boat reached Granton pier. Nell awoke.\n\"Have I been asleep?\" inquired she.\n\n\"No, my child,\" said James Starr. \"You have been dreaming that you\nslept, that's all.\"\n\nThe night continued clear. The moon, riding in mid-heaven, diffused\nher rays on all sides. In the little port of Granton lay two or three\nfishing boats; they rocked gently on the waters of the Firth. The wind\nfell as the dawn approached. The atmosphere, clear of mists, promised\none of those fine autumn days so delicious on the sea coast.\n\nA soft, transparent film of vapor lay along the horizon; the first\nsunbeam would dissipate it; to the maiden it exhibited that aspect of\nthe sea which seems to blend it with the sky. Her view was now enlarged,\nwithout producing the impression of the boundless infinity of ocean.\n\nHarry taking Nell's hand, they followed James Starr and Jack Ryan as\nthey traversed the deserted streets. To Nell, this suburb of the capital\nappeared only a collection of gloomy dark houses, just like Coal Town,\nonly that the roof was higher, and gleamed with small lights.\n\nShe stepped lightly forward, and easily kept pace with Harry. \"Are you\nnot tired, Nell?\" asked he, after half an hour's walking.\n\n\"No! my feet seem scarcely to touch the earth,\" returned she. \"This sky\nabove us seems so high up, I feel as if I could take wing and fly!\"\n\n\"I say! keep hold of her!\" cried Jack Ryan. \"Our little Nell is too good\nto lose. I feel just as you describe though, myself, when I have not\nleft the pit for a long time.\"\n\n\"It is when we no longer experience the oppressive effect of the vaulted\nrocky roof above Coal Town,\" said James Starr, \"that the spacious\nfirmament appears to us like a profound abyss into which we have, as it\nwere, a desire to plunge. Is that what you feel, Nell?\"\n\n\"Yes, Mr. Starr, it is exactly like that,\" said Nell. \"It makes me feel\ngiddy.\"\n\n\"Ah! you will soon get over that, Nell,\" said Harry. \"You will get used\nto the outer world, and most likely forget all about our dark coal pit.\"\n\n\"No, Harry, never!\" said Nell, and she put her hand over her eyes, as\nthough she would recall the remembrance of everything she had lately\nquitted.\n\nBetween the silent dwellings of the city, the party passed along Leith\nWalk, and went round the Calton Hill, where stood, in the light of the\ngray dawn, the buildings of the Observatory and Nelson's Monument. By\nRegent's Bridge and the North Bridge they at last reached the lower\nextremity of the Canongate. The town still lay wrapt in slumber.\n\nNell pointed to a large building in the center of an open space, asking,\n\"What great confused mass is that?\"\n\n\"That confused mass, Nell, is the palace of the ancient kings of\nScotland; that is Holyrood, where many a sad scene has been enacted! The\nhistorian can here invoke many a royal shade; from those of the early\nScottish kings to that of the unhappy Mary Stuart, and the French king,\nCharles X. When day breaks, however, Nell, this palace will not look\nso very gloomy. Holyrood, with its four embattled towers, is not unlike\nsome handsome country house. But let us pursue our way. There, just\nabove the ancient Abbey of Holyrood, are the superb cliffs called\nSalisbury Crags. Arthur's Seat rises above them, and that is where\nwe are going. From the summit of Arthur's Seat, Nell, your eyes shall\nbehold the sun appear above the horizon seaward.\"\n\nThey entered the King's Park, then, gradually ascending they passed\nacross the Queen's Drive, a splendid carriageway encircling the hill,\nwhich we owe to a few lines in one of Sir Walter Scott's romances.\n\nArthur's Seat is in truth only a hill, seven hundred and fifty feet\nhigh, which stands alone amid surrounding heights. In less than half\nan hour, by an easy winding path, James Starr and his party reached the\ncrest of the crouching lion, which, seen from the west, Arthur's Seat so\nmuch resembles. There, all four seated themselves; and James Starr, ever\nready with quotations from the great Scottish novelist, simply said,\n\"Listen to what is written by Sir Walter Scott in the eighth chapter\nof the Heart of Mid-Lothian. 'If I were to choose a spot from which the\nrising or setting sun could be seen to the greatest possible advantage,\nit would be from this neighborhood.' Now watch, Nell! the sun will soon\nappear, and for the first time you will contemplate its splendor.\"\n\nThe maiden turned her eyes eastward. Harry, keeping close beside\nher, observed her with anxious interest. Would the first beams of day\noverpower her feelings? All remained quiet, even Jack Ryan. A faint\nstreak of pale rose tinted the light vapors of the horizon. It was the\nfirst ray of light attacking the laggards of the night. Beneath the hill\nlay the silent city, massed confusedly in the twilight of dawn. Here and\nthere lights twinkled among the houses of the old town. Westward rose\nmany hill-tops, soon to be illuminated by tips of fire.\n\nNow the distant horizon of the sea became more plainly visible. The\nscale of colors fell into the order of the solar. Every instant they\nincreased in intensity, rose color became red, red became fiery,\ndaylight dawned. Nell now glanced towards the city, of which the\noutlines became more distinct. Lofty monuments, slender steeples emerged\nfrom the gloom; a kind of ashy light was spread abroad. At length one\nsolitary ray struck on the maiden's sight. It was that ray of green\nwhich, morning or evening, is reflected upwards from the sea when the\nhorizon is clear.\n\nAn instant afterwards, Nell turned, and pointing towards a bright\nprominent point in the New Town, \"Fire!\" cried she.\n\n\"No, Nell, that is no fire,\" said Harry. \"The sun has touched with gold\nthe top of Sir Walter Scott's monument\"--and, indeed, the extreme point\nof the monument blazed like the light of a pharos.\n\nIt was day--the sun arose--his disc seemed to glitter as though he\nindeed emerged from the waters of the sea. Appearing at first very large\nfrom the effects of refraction, he contracted as he rose and assumed the\nperfectly circular form. Soon no eye could endure the dazzling splendor;\nit was as though the mouth of a furnace was opened through the sky.\n\nNell closed her eyes, but her eyelids could not exclude the glare, and\nshe pressed her fingers over them. Harry advised her to turn in the\nopposite direction. \"Oh, no,\" said she, \"my eyes must get used to look\nat what yours can bear to see!\"\n\nEven through her hands Nell perceived a rosy light, which became more\nwhite as the sun rose above the horizon. As her sight became accustomed\nto it, her eyelids were raised, and at length her eyes drank in the\nlight of day.\n\nThe good child knelt down, exclaiming, \"Oh Lord God! how beautiful is\nThy creation!\" Then she rose and looked around. At her feet extended the\npanorama of Edinburgh--the clear, distinct lines of streets in the New\nTown, and the irregular mass of houses, with their confused network of\nstreets and lanes, which constitutes Auld Reekie, properly so called.\nTwo heights commanded the entire city; Edinburgh Castle, crowning its\nhuge basaltic rock, and the Calton Hill, bearing on its rounded summit,\namong other monuments, ruins built to represent those of the Parthenon\nat Athens.\n\nFine roadways led in all directions from the capital. To the north, the\ncoast of the noble Firth of Forth was indented by a deep bay, in which\ncould be seen the seaport town of Leith, between which and this Modern\nAthens of the north ran a street, straight as that leading to the\nPiraeus.\n\nBeyond the wide Firth could be seen the soft outlines of the county\nof Fife, while beneath the spectator stretched the yellow sands of\nPortobello and Newhaven.\n\nNell could not speak. Her lips murmured a word or two indistinctly; she\ntrembled, became giddy, her strength failed her; overcome by the purity\nof the air and the sublimity of the scene, she sank fainting into\nHarry's arms, who, watching her closely, was ready to support her.\n\nThe youthful maiden, hitherto entombed in the massive depths of the\nearth, had now obtained an idea of the universe--of the works both of\nGod and of man. She had looked upon town and country, and beyond these,\ninto the immensity of the sea, the infinity of the heavens.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV. LOCH LOMOND AND LOCH KATRINE\n\n\nHARRY bore Nell carefully down the steeps of Arthur's Seat, and,\naccompanied by James Starr and Jack Ryan, they reached Lambert's Hotel.\nThere a good breakfast restored their strength, and they began to make\nfurther plans for an excursion to the Highland lakes.\n\nNell was now refreshed, and able to look boldly forth into the sunshine,\nwhile her lungs with ease inhaled the free and healthful air. Her eyes\nlearned gladly to know the harmonious varieties of color as they rested\non the green trees, the azure skies, and all the endless shades of\nlovely flowers and plants.\n\nThe railway train, which they entered at the Waverley Station, conveyed\nNell and her friends to Glasgow. There, from the new bridge across the\nClyde, they watched the curious sea-like movement of the river. After\na night's rest at Comrie's Royal Hotel, they betook themselves to the\nterminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, from whence a train would\nrapidly carry them, by way of Dumbarton and Balloch, to the southern\nextremity of Loch Lomond.\n\n\"Now for the land of Rob Roy and Fergus MacIvor!--the scenery\nimmortalized by the poetical descriptions of Walter Scott,\" exclaimed\nJames Starr. \"You don't know this country, Jack?\"\n\n\"Only by its songs, Mr. Starr,\" replied Jack; \"and judging by those, it\nmust be grand.\"\n\n\"So it is, so it is!\" cried the engineer, \"and our dear Nell shall see\nit to the best advantage.\"\n\nA steamboat, the SINCLAIR by name, awaited tourists about to make the\nexcursion to the lakes. Nell and her companions went on board. The day\nhad begun in brilliant sunshine, free from the British fogs which so\noften veil the skies.\n\nThe passengers were determined to lose none of the beauties of nature to\nbe displayed during the thirty miles' voyage. Nell, seated between James\nStarr and Harry, drank in with every faculty the magnificent poetry\nwith which lovely Scottish scenery is fraught. Numerous small isles and\nislets soon appeared, as though thickly sown on the bosom of the lake.\nThe SINCLAIR steamed her way among them, while between them glimpses\ncould be had of quiet valleys, or wild rocky gorges on the mainland.\n\n\"Nell,\" said James Starr, \"every island here has its legend, perhaps\nits song, as well as the mountains which overshadow the lake. One may,\nwithout much exaggeration, say that the history of this country is\nwritten in gigantic characters of mountains and islands.\"\n\nNell listened, but these fighting stories made her sad. Why all that\nbloodshed on plains which to her seemed enormous, and where surely there\nmust have been room for everybody?\n\nThe shores of the lake form a little harbor at Luss. Nell could for a\nmoment catch sight of the old tower of its ancient castle. Then, the\nSINCLAIR turning northward, the tourists gazed upon Ben Lomond, towering\nnearly 3,000 feet above the level of the lake.\n\n\"Oh, what a noble mountain!\" cried Nell; \"what a view there must be from\nthe top!\"\n\n\"Yes, Nell,\" answered James Starr; \"see how haughtily its peak rises\nfrom amidst the thicket of oaks, birches, and heather, which clothe the\nlower portion of the mountain! From thence one may see two-thirds of old\nCaledonia. This eastern side of the lake was the special abode of the\nclan McGregor. At no great distance, the struggles of the Jacobites and\nHanoverians repeatedly dyed with blood these lonely glens. Over these\nscenes shines the pale moon, called in old ballads 'Macfarlane's\nlantern.' Among these rocks still echo the immortal names of Rob Roy and\nMcGregor Campbell.\"\n\nAs the SINCLAIR advanced along the base of the mountain, the country\nbecame more and more abrupt in character. Trees were only scattered\nhere and there; among them were the willows, slender wands of which were\nformerly used for hanging persons of low degree.\n\n\"To economize hemp,\" remarked James Starr.\n\nThe lake narrowed very much as it stretched northwards.\n\nThe steamer passed a few more islets, Inveruglas, Eilad-whow, where\nstand some ruins of a stronghold of the clan MacFarlane. At length the\nhead of the loch was reached, and the SINCLAIR stopped at Inversnaid.\n\nLeaving Loch Arklet on the left, a steep ascent led to the Inn of\nStronachlacar, on the banks of Loch Katrine.\n\n\nThere, at the end of a light pier, floated a small steamboat, named,\nas a matter of course, the Rob Roy. The travelers immediately went on\nboard; it was about to start. Loch Katrine is only ten miles in length;\nits width never exceeds two miles. The hills nearest it are full of a\ncharacter peculiar to themselves.\n\n\"Here we are on this famous lake,\" said James Starr. \"It has been\ncompared to an eel on account of its length and windings: and justly so.\nThey say that it never freezes. I know nothing about that, but what we\nwant to think of is, that here are the scenes of the adventures in the\nLady of the Lake. I believe, if friend Jack looked about him carefully,\nhe might see, still gliding over the surface of the water, the shade of\nthe slender form of sweet Ellen Douglas.\"\n\n\"To be sure, Mr. Starr,\" replied Jack; \"why should I not? I may just as\nwell see that pretty girl on the waters of Loch Katrine, as those ugly\nghosts on Loch Malcolm in the coal pit.\"\n\nIt was by this time three o'clock in the afternoon. The less hilly\nshores of Loch Katrine westward extended like a picture framed between\nBen An and Ben Venue. At the distance of half a mile was the entrance to\nthe narrow bay, where was the landing-place for our tourists, who meant\nto return to Stirling by Callander.\n\nNell appeared completely worn out by the continued excitement of the\nday. A faint ejaculation was all she was able to utter in token of\nadmiration as new objects of wonder or beauty met her gaze. She required\nsome hours of rest, were it but to impress lastingly the recollection of\nall she had seen.\n\nHer hand rested in Harry's, and, looking earnestly at her, he said,\n\"Nell, dear Nell, we shall soon be home again in the gloomy region of\nthe coal mine. Shall you not pine for what you have seen during these\nfew hours spent in the glorious light of day?\"\n\n\"No, Harry,\" replied the girl; \"I shall like to think about it, but I am\nglad to go back with you to our dear old home.\"\n\n\"Nell!\" said Harry, vainly attempting to steady his voice, \"are you\nwilling to be bound to me by the most sacred tie? Could you marry me,\nNell?\"\n\n\n\"Yes, Harry, I could, if you are sure that I am able to make you happy,\"\nanswered the maiden, raising her innocent eyes to his.\n\nScarcely had she pronounced these words when an unaccountable phenomenon\ntook place. The Rob Roy, still half a mile from land, experienced a\nviolent shock. She suddenly grounded. No efforts of the engine could\nmove her.\n\nThe cause of this accident was simply that Loch Katrine was all at once\nemptied, as though an enormous fissure had opened in its bed. In a few\nseconds it had the appearance of a sea beach at low water. Nearly the\nwhole of its contents had vanished into the bosom of the earth.\n\n\"My friends!\" exclaimed James Starr, as the cause of this marvel became\nsuddenly clear to him, \"God help New Aberfoyle!\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI. A FINAL THREAT\n\n\nON that day, in the colliery of New Aberfoyle, work was going on in the\nusual regular way. In the distance could be heard the crash of great\ncharges of dynamite, by which the carboniferous rocks were blasted.\nHere masses of coal were loosened by pick-ax and crowbar; there the\nperforating machines, with their harsh grating, bored through the masses\nof sandstone and schist.\n\nHollow, cavernous noises resounded on all sides. Draughts of air rushed\nalong the ventilating galleries, and the wooden swing-doors slammed\nbeneath their violent gusts. In the lower tunnels, trains of trucks\nkept passing along at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, while at their\napproach electric bells warned the workmen to cower down in the refuge\nplaces. Lifts went incessantly up and down, worked by powerful engines\non the surface of the soil. Coal Town was throughout brilliantly lighted\nby the electric lamps at full power.\n\nMining operations were being carried on with the greatest activity; coal\nwas being piled incessantly into the trucks, which went in hundreds\nto empty themselves into the corves at the bottom of the shaft. While\nparties of miners who had labored during the night were taking needful\nrest, the others worked without wasting an hour.\n\nOld Simon Ford and Madge, having finished their dinner, were resting at\nthe door of their cottage. Simon smoked a good pipe of tobacco, and from\ntime to time the old couple spoke of Nell, of their boy, of Mr. Starr,\nand wondered how they liked their trip to the surface of the earth.\nWhere would they be now? What would they be doing? How could they stay\nso long away from the mine without feeling homesick?\n\nJust then a terrific roaring noise was heard. It was like the sound of a\nmighty cataract rushing down into the mine. The old people rose hastily.\nThey perceived at once that the waters of Loch Malcolm were rising. A\ngreat wave, unfurling like a billow, swept up the bank and broke against\nthe walls of the cottage. Simon caught his wife in his arms, and carried\nher to the upper part of their dwelling.\n\nAt the same moment, cries arose from all parts of Coal Town, which was\nthreatened by a sudden inundation. The inhabitants fled for safety to\nthe top of the schist rocks bordering the lake; terror spread in all\ndirections; whole families in frantic haste rushed towards the tunnel in\norder to reach the upper regions of the pit.\n\nIt was feared that the sea had burst into the colliery, for its\ngalleries and passages penetrated as far as the Caledonian Canal. In\nthat case the entire excavation, vast as it was, would be completely\nflooded. Not a single inhabitant of New Aberfoyle would escape death.\n\nBut when the foremost fugitives reached the entrance to the tunnel, they\nencountered Simon Ford, who had quitted his cottage. \"Stop, my friends,\nstop!\" shouted the old man; \"if our town is to be overwhelmed, the\nfloods will rush faster than you can; no one can possibly escape. But\nsee! the waters are rising no further! it appears to me the danger is\nover.\"\n\n\"And our comrades at the far end of the works--what about them?\" cried\nsome of the miners.\n\n\"There is nothing to fear for them,\" replied Simon; \"they are working on\na higher level than the bed of the loch.\"\n\nIt was soon evident that the old man was in the right. The sudden influx\nof water had rushed to the very lowest bed of the vast mine, and its\nonly ultimate effect was to raise the level of Loch Malcolm a few feet.\nCoal Town was uninjured, and it was reasonable to hope that no one had\nperished in the flood of water which had descended to the depths of the\nmine never yet penetrated by the workmen.\n\nSimon and his men could not decide whether this inundation was owing to\nthe overflow of a subterranean sheet of water penetrating fissures in\nthe solid rock, or to some underground torrent breaking through its worn\nbed, and precipitating itself to the lowest level of the mine. But that\nvery same evening they knew what to think about it, for the local papers\npublished an account of the marvelous phenomenon which Loch Katrine had\nexhibited.\n\nThe surprising news was soon after confirmed by the four travelers, who,\nreturning with all possible speed to the cottage, learned with extreme\nsatisfaction that no serious damage was done in New Aberfoyle.\n\nThe bed of Loch Katrine had fairly given way. The waters had suddenly\nbroken through by an enormous fissure into the mine beneath. Of Sir\nWalter Scott's favorite loch there was not left enough to wet the pretty\nfoot of the Lady of the Lake; all that remained was a pond of a few\nacres at the further extremity.\n\nThis singular event made a profound sensation in the country. It was a\nthing unheard of that a lake should in the space of a few minutes empty\nitself, and disappear into the bowels of the earth. There was nothing\nfor it but to erase Loch Katrine from the map of Scotland until (by\npublic subscription) it could be refilled, care being of course taken,\nin the first place, to stop the rent up tight. This catastrophe would\nhave been the death of Sir Walter Scott, had he still been in the world.\n\nThe accident was explicable when it was ascertained that, between the\nbed of the lake and the vast cavity beneath, the geological strata\nhad become reduced to a thin layer, incapable of longer sustaining the\nweight of water.\n\nNow, although to most people this event seemed plainly due to natural\ncauses, yet to James Starr and his friends, Simon and Harry Ford, the\nquestion constantly recurred, was it not rather to be attributed to\nmalevolence? Uneasy suspicions continually harassed their minds. Was\ntheir evil genius about to renew his persecution of those who ventured\nto work this rich mine?\n\nAt the cottage, some days later, James Starr thus discussed the matter\nwith the old man and his son: \"Well, Simon,\" said he, \"to my thinking\nwe must class this circumstance with the others for which we still seek\nelucidation, although it is no doubt possible to explain it by natural\ncauses.\"\n\n\"I am quite of your mind, Mr. James,\" replied Simon, \"but take my\nadvice, and say nothing about it; let us make all researches ourselves.\"\n\n\"Oh, I know the result of such research beforehand!\" cried the engineer.\n\n\"And what will it be, then?\"\n\n\"We shall find proofs of malevolence, but not the malefactor.\"\n\n\"But he exists! he is there! Where can he lie concealed? Is it possible\nto conceive that the most depraved human being could, single-handed,\ncarry out an idea so infernal as that of bursting through the bed of a\nlake? I believe I shall end by thinking, like Jack Ryan, that the evil\ndemon of the mine revenges himself on us for having invaded his domain.\"\n\nNell was allowed to hear as little as possible of these discussions.\nIndeed, she showed no desire to enter into them, although it was very\nevident that she shared in the anxieties of her adopted parents. The\nmelancholy in her countenance bore witness to much mental agitation.\n\nIt was at length resolved that James Starr, together with Simon and\nHarry, should return to the scene of the disaster, and endeavor to\nsatisfy themselves as to the cause of it. They mentioned their project\nto no one. To those unacquainted with the group of facts on which it\nwas based, the opinion of Starr and his friends could not fail to appear\nwholly inadmissible.\n\nA few days later, the three friends proceeded in a small boat to examine\nthe natural pillars on which had rested the solid earth forming the\nbasin of Loch Katrine. They discovered that they had been right in\nsuspecting that the massive columns had been undermined by blasting.\nThe blackened traces of explosion were to be seen, the waters having\nsubsided below the level of these mysterious operations Thus the fall of\na portion of the vast vaulted dome was proved to have been premeditated\nby man, and by man's hand had it been effected.\n\n\"It is impossible to doubt it,\" said James Starr; \"and who can say what\nmight not have happened had the sea, instead of a little loch, been let\nin upon us?\"\n\n\"You may well say that,\" cried the old overman, with a feeling of pride\nin his beloved mine; \"for nothing less than a sea would have drowned our\nAberfoyle. But, once more, what possible interest could any human being\nhave in the destruction of our works?\"\n\n\"It is quite incomprehensible,\" replied James Starr. \"This case is\nsomething perfectly unlike that of a band of common criminals, who,\nconcealing themselves in dens and caves, go forth to rob and pillage the\nsurrounding country. The evil deeds of such men would certainly, in the\ncourse of three years have betrayed their existence and lurking-places.\nNeither can it be, as I sometimes used to think, that smugglers or\ncoiners carried on their illegal practices in some distant and unknown\ncorner of these prodigious caverns, and were consequently anxious to\ndrive us out of them. But no one coins false money or obtains contraband\ngoods only to conceal them!\n\n\"Yet it is clear that an implacable enemy has sworn the ruin of New\nAberfoyle, and that some interest urges him to seek in every possible\nway to wreak his hatred upon us. He appears to be too weak to act\nopenly, and lays his schemes in secret; but displays such intelligence\nas to render him a most formidable foe.\n\n\"My friends, he must understand better than we do the secrets of our\ndomain, since he has all this time eluded our vigilance. He must be\na man experienced in mining, skilled beyond the most skillful--that's\ncertain, Simon! We have proof enough of that.\n\n\"Let me see! Have you never had a personal enemy, to whom your\nsuspicions might point? Think well! There is such a thing as hatred\nwhich time never softens. Go back to recollections of your earliest\ndays. What befalls us appears the work of a stern and patient will, and\nto explain it demands every effort of thought and memory.\"\n\nSimon did not answer immediately--his mind evidently engaged in a close\nand candid survey of his past life. Presently, raising his head, \"No,\"\nsaid he; \"no! Heaven be my witness, neither Madge nor I have ever\ninjured anybody. We cannot believe that we have a single enemy in the\nworld.\"\n\n\"Ah! if Nell would only speak!\" cried the engineer.\n\n\"Mr. Starr--and you, father,\" said Harry, \"I do beg of you to keep\nsilence on this matter, and not to question my poor Nell. I know she\nis very anxious and uneasy; and I feel positive that some great secret\npainfully oppresses her heart. Either she knows nothing it would be of\nany use for us to hear, or she considers it her duty to be silent. It is\nimpossible to doubt her affection for us--for all of us. If at a future\ntime she informs me of what she has hitherto concealed from us, you\nshall know about it immediately.\"\n\n\"So be it, then, Harry,\" answered the engineer; \"and yet I must say\nNell's silence, if she knows anything, is to me perfectly inexplicable.\"\n\nHarry would have continued her defense; but the engineer stopped him,\nsaying, \"All right, Harry; we promise to say no more about it to your\nfuture wife.\"\n\n\"With my father's consent she shall be my wife without further delay.\"\n\n\"My boy,\" said old Simon, \"your marriage shall take place this very day\nmonth. Mr. Starr, will you undertake the part of Nell's father?\"\n\n\"You may reckon upon me for that, Simon,\" answered the engineer.\n\nThey then returned to the cottage, but said not a word of the result of\ntheir examinations in the mine, so that to the rest of its inhabitants,\nthe bursting in of the vaulted roof of the caverns continued to be\nregarded as a mere accident. There was but a loch the less in Scotland.\n\nNell gradually resumed her customary duties, and Harry made good use of\nher little visit to the upper air, in the instructions he gave her. She\nenjoyed the recollections of life above ground, yet without regretting\nit. The somber region she had loved as a child, and in which her wedded\nlife would be spent, was as dear to her as ever.\n\nThe approaching marriage created great excitement in New Aberfoyle. Good\nwishes poured in on all sides, and foremost among them were Jack Ryan's.\nHe was detected busily practicing his best songs in preparation for the\ngreat day, which was to be celebrated by the whole population of Coal\nTown.\n\nDuring the month preceding the wedding-day, there were more accidents\noccurring in New Aberfoyle than had ever been known in the place. One\nwould have thought the approaching union of Harry and Nell actually\nprovoked one catastrophe after another. These misfortunes happened\nchiefly at the further and lowest extremity of the works, and the cause\nof them was always in some way mysterious.\n\nThus, for instance, the wood-work of a distant gallery was discovered to\nbe in flames, which were extinguished by Harry and his companions at the\nrisk of their lives, by employing engines filled with water and carbonic\nacid, always kept ready in case of necessity. The lamp used by the\nincendiary was found; but no clew whatever as to who he could be.\n\nAnother time an inundation took place in consequence of the stanchions\nof a water-tank giving way; and Mr. Starr ascertained beyond a doubt\nthat these supports had first of all been partially sawn through. Harry,\nwho had been overseeing the works near the place at the time, was buried\nin the falling rubbish, and narrowly escaped death.\n\nA few days afterwards, on the steam tramway, a train of trucks, which\nHarry was passing along, met with an obstacle on the rails, and was\noverturned. It was then discovered that a beam had been laid across the\nline. In short, events of this description became so numerous that\nthe miners were seized with a kind of panic, and it required all the\ninfluence of their chiefs to keep them on the works.\n\n\"You would think that there was a whole band of these ruffians,\" Simon\nkept saying, \"and we can't lay hands on a single one of them.\"\n\nSearch was made in all directions. The county police were on the alert\nnight and day, yet discovered nothing. The evil intentions seeming\nspecially designed to injure Harry. Starr forbade him to venture alone\nbeyond the ordinary limits of the works.\n\nThey were equally careful of Nell, although, at Harry's entreaty, these\nmalicious attempts to do harm were concealed from her, because they\nmight remind her painfully of former times. Simon and Madge watched over\nher by day and by night with a sort of stern solicitude. The poor\nchild yielded to their wishes, without a remark or a complaint. Did she\nperceive that they acted with a view to her interest? Probably she did.\nAnd on her part, she seemed to watch over others, and was never easy\nunless all whom she loved were together in the cottage.\n\nWhen Harry came home in the evening, she could not restrain expressions\nof child-like joy, very unlike her usual manner, which was rather\nreserved than demonstrative. As soon as day broke, she was astir before\nanyone else, and her constant uneasiness lasted all day until the hour\nof return home from work.\n\nHarry became very anxious that their marriage should take place. He\nthought that, when the irrevocable step was taken, malevolence would be\ndisarmed, and that Nell would never feel safe until she was his wife.\nJames Starr, Simon, and Madge, were all of the same opinion, and\neveryone counted the intervening days, for everyone suffered from the\nmost uncomfortable forebodings.\n\nIt was perfectly evident that nothing relating to Nell was indifferent\nto this hidden foe, whom it was impossible to meet or to avoid.\nTherefore it seemed quite possible that the solemn act of her marriage\nwith Harry might be the occasion of some new and dreadful outbreak of\nhis hatred.\n\nOne morning, a week before the day appointed for the ceremony, Nell,\nrising early, went out of the cottage before anyone else. No sooner had\nshe crossed the threshold than a cry of indescribable anguish escaped\nher lips.\n\nHer voice was heard throughout the dwelling; in a moment, Madge, Harry,\nand Simon were at her side. Nell was pale as death, her countenance\nagitated, her features expressing the utmost horror. Unable to speak,\nher eyes were riveted on the door of the cottage, which she had just\nopened.\n\nWith rigid fingers she pointed to the following words traced upon it\nduring the night: \"Simon Ford, you have robbed me of the last vein in\nour old pit. Harry, your son, has robbed me of Nell. Woe betide you! Woe\nbetide you all! Woe betide New Aberfoyle!--SILFAX.\"\n\n\"Silfax!\" exclaimed Simon and Madge together.\n\n\n\"Who is this man?\" demanded Harry, looking alternately at his father and\nat the maiden.\n\n\"Silfax!\" repeated Nell in tones of despair, \"Silfax!\"--and, murmuring\nthis name, her whole frame shuddering with fear and agitation, she was\nborne away to her chamber by old Madge.\n\nJames Starr, hastening to the spot, read the threatening sentences again\nand again.\n\n\"The hand which traced these lines,\" said he at length, \"is the same\nwhich wrote me the letter contradicting yours, Simon. The man calls\nhimself Silfax. I see by your troubled manner that you know him. Who is\nthis Silfax?\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII. THE \"MONK\"\n\n\nTHIS name revealed everything to the old overman. It was that of the\nlast \"monk\" of the Dochart pit.\n\nIn former days, before the invention of the safety-lamp, Simon had known\nthis fierce man, whose business it was to go daily, at the risk of his\nlife, to produce partial explosions of fire-damp in the passages. He\nused to see this strange solitary being, prowling about the mine, always\naccompanied by a monstrous owl, which he called Harfang, who assisted\nhim in his perilous occupation, by soaring with a lighted match to\nplaces Silfax was unable to reach.\n\nOne day this old man disappeared, and at the same time also, a little\norphan girl born in the mine, who had no relation but himself, her\ngreat-grandfather. It was perfectly evident now that this child was\nNell. During the fifteen years, up to the time when she was saved by\nHarry, they must have lived in some secret abyss of the mine.\n\nThe old overman, full of mingled compassion and anger, made known to the\nengineer and Harry all that the name of Silfax had revealed to him. It\nexplained the whole mystery. Silfax was the mysterious being so long\nvainly sought for in the depths of New Aberfoyle.\n\n\"So you knew him, Simon?\" demanded Mr. Starr.\n\n\"Yes, that I did,\" replied the overman. \"The Harfang man, we used to\ncall him. Why, he was old then! He must be fifteen or twenty years older\nthan I am. A wild, savage sort of fellow, who held aloof from everyone\nand was known to fear nothing--neither fire nor water. It was his own\nfancy to follow the trade of 'monk,' which few would have liked.\nThe constant danger of the business had unsettled his brain. He was\nprodigiously strong, and he knew the mine as no one else--at any rate,\nas well as I did. He lived on a small allowance. In faith, I believed\nhim dead years ago.\"\n\n\"But,\" resumed James Starr, \"what does he mean by those words, 'You have\nrobbed me of the last vein of our old mine'?\"\n\n\"Ah! there it is,\" replied Simon; \"for a long time it had been a fancy\nof his--I told you his mind was deranged--that he had a right to the\nmine of Aberfoyle; so he became more and more savage in temper the\ndeeper the Dochart pit--his pit!--was worked out. It just seemed as if\nit was his own body that suffered from every blow of the pickax. You\nmust remember that, Madge?\"\n\n\"Ay, that I do, Simon,\" replied she.\n\n\"I can recollect all this,\" resumed Simon, \"since I have seen the name\nof Silfax on the door. But I tell you, I thought the man was dead, and\nnever imagined that the spiteful being we have so long sought for could\nbe the old fireman of the Dochart pit.\"\n\n\"Well, now, then,\" said Starr, \"it is all quite plain. Chance made known\nto Silfax the new vein of coal. With the egotism of madness, he believed\nhimself the owner of a treasure he must conceal and defend. Living in\nthe mine, and wandering about day and night, he perceived that you had\ndiscovered the secret, and had written in all haste to beg me to come.\nHence the letter contradicting yours; hence, after my arrival, all the\naccidents that occurred, such as the block of stone thrown at Harry, the\nbroken ladder at the Yarrow shaft, the obstruction of the openings into\nthe wall of the new cutting; hence, in short, our imprisonment, and then\nour deliverance, brought about by the kind assistance of Nell, who acted\nof course without the knowledge of this man Silfax, and contrary to his\nintentions.\"\n\n\"You describe everything exactly as it must have happened, Mr. Starr,\"\nreturned old Simon. \"The old 'Monk' is mad enough now, at any rate!\"\n\n\"All the better,\" quoth Madge.\n\n\n\"I don't know that,\" said Starr, shaking his head; \"it is a terrible\nsort of madness this.\"\n\n\"Ah! now I understand that the very thought of him must have terrified\npoor little Nell, and also I see that she could not bear to denounce her\ngrandfather. What a miserable time she must have had of it with the old\nman!\"\n\n\"Miserable with a vengeance,\" replied Simon, \"between that savage and\nhis owl, as savage as himself. Depend upon it, that bird isn't dead.\nThat was what put our lamp out, and also so nearly cut the rope by which\nHarry and Nell were suspended.\"\n\n\"And then, you see,\" said Madge, \"this news of the marriage of our son\nwith his granddaughter added to his rancor and ill-will.\"\n\n\"To be sure,\" said Simon. \"To think that his Nell should marry one of\nthe robbers of his own coal mine would just drive him wild altogether.\"\n\n\"He will have to make up his mind to it, however,\" cried Harry. \"Mad as\nhe is, we shall manage to convince him that Nell is better off with us\nhere than ever she was in the caverns of the pit. I am sure, Mr. Starr,\nif we could only catch him, we should be able to make him listen to\nreason.\"\n\n\"My poor Harry! there is no reasoning with a madman,\" replied the\nengineer. \"Of course it is better to know your enemy than not; but you\nmust not fancy all is right because we have found out who he is. We must\nbe on our guard, my friends; and to begin with, Harry, you positively\nmust question Nell. She will perceive that her silence is no longer\nreasonable. Even for her grandfather's own interest, she ought to speak\nnow. For his own sake, as well as for ours, these insane plots must be\nput a stop to.\"\n\n\"I feel sure, Mr. Starr,\" answered Harry, \"that Nell will of herself\npropose to tell you what she knows. You see it was from a sense of duty\nthat she has been silent hitherto. My mother was very right to take her\nto her room just now. She much needed time to recover her spirits; but\nnow I will go for her.\"\n\n\"You need not do so, Harry,\" said the maiden in a clear and firm voice,\nas she entered at that moment the room in which they were. Nell was very\npale; traces of tears were in her eyes; but her whole manner showed that\nshe had nerved herself to act as her loyal heart dictated as her duty.\n\n\n\"Nell!\" cried Harry, springing towards her.\n\nThe girl arrested her lover by a gesture, and continued, \"Your father\nand mother, and you, Harry, must now know all. And you too, Mr. Starr,\nmust remain ignorant of nothing that concerns the child you have\nreceived, and whom Harry--unfortunately for him, alas!--drew from the\nabyss.\"\n\n\"Oh, Nell! what are you saying?\" cried Harry.\n\n\"Allow her to speak,\" said James Starr in a decided tone.\n\n\"I am the granddaughter of old Silfax,\" resumed Nell. \"I never knew a\nmother till the day I came here,\" added she, looking at Madge.\n\n\"Blessed be that day, my daughter!\" said the old woman.\n\n\"I knew no father till I saw Simon Ford,\" continued Nell; \"nor friend\ntill the day when Harry's hand touched mine. Alone with my grandfather\nI have lived during fifteen years in the remote and most solitary depths\nof the mine. I say WITH my grandfather, but I can scarcely use\nthe expression, for I seldom saw him. When he disappeared from Old\nAberfoyle, he concealed himself in caverns known only to himself. In his\nway he was kind to me, dreadful as he was; he fed me with whatever he\ncould procure from outside the mine; but I can dimly recollect that in\nmy earliest years I was the nursling of a goat, the death of which was\na bitter grief to me. My grandfather, seeing my distress, brought me\nanother animal--a dog he said it was. But, unluckily, this dog was\nlively, and barked. Grandfather did not like anything cheerful. He had\na horror of noise, and had taught me to be silent; the dog he could\nnot teach to be quiet, so the poor animal very soon disappeared. My\ngrandfather's companion was a ferocious bird, Harfang, of which, at\nfirst, I had a perfect horror; but this creature, in spite of my dislike\nto it, took such a strong affection for me, that I could not help\nreturning it. It even obeyed me better than its master, which used to\nmake me quite uneasy, for my grandfather was jealous. Harfang and I\ndid not dare to let him see us much together; we both knew it would be\ndangerous. But I am talking too much about myself: the great thing is\nabout you.\"\n\n\"No, my child,\" said James Starr, \"tell us everything that comes to your\nmind.\"\n\n\n\"My grandfather,\" continued Nell, \"always regarded your abode in the\nmine with a very evil eye--not that there was any lack of space. His\nchosen refuge was far--very far from you. But he could not bear to feel\nthat you were there. If I asked any questions about the people up above\nus, his face grew dark, he gave no answer, and continued quite silent\nfor a long time afterwards. But when he perceived that, not content with\nthe old domain, you seemed to think of encroaching upon his, then indeed\nhis anger burst forth. He swore that, were you to succeed in reaching\nthe new mine, you should assuredly perish. Notwithstanding his great\nage, his strength is astonishing, and his threats used to make me\ntremble.\"\n\n\"Go on, Nell, my child,\" said Simon to the girl, who paused as though to\ncollect her thoughts.\n\n\"On the occasion of your first attempt,\" resumed Nell, \"as soon as my\ngrandfather saw that you were fairly inside the gallery leading to New\nAberfoyle, he stopped up the opening, and turned it into a prison for\nyou. I only knew you as shadows dimly seen in the gloom of the pit, but\nI could not endure the idea that you would die of hunger in these horrid\nplaces; and so, at the risk of being detected, I succeeded in obtaining\nbread and water for you during some days. I should have liked to help\nyou to escape, but it was so difficult to avoid the vigilance of my\ngrandfather. You were about to die. Then arrived Jack Ryan and the\nothers. By the providence of God I met with them, and instantly guided\nthem to where you were. When my grandfather discovered what I had done,\nhis rage against me was terrible. I expected death at his hands. After\nthat my life became insupportable to me. My grandfather completely lost\nhis senses. He proclaimed himself King of Darkness and Flame; and when\nhe heard your tools at work on coal-beds which he considered entirely\nhis own, he became furious and beat me cruelly. I would have fled from\nhim, but it was impossible, so narrowly did he watch me. At last, in\na fit of ungovernable fury, he threw me down into the abyss where you\nfound me, and disappeared, vainly calling on Harfang, which faithfully\nstayed by me, to follow him. I know not how long I remained there, but I\nfelt I was at the point of death when you, my Harry, came and saved me.\nBut now you all see that the grandchild of old Silfax can never be the\nwife of Harry Ford, because it would be certain death to you all!\"\n\n\"Nell!\" cried Harry.\n\n\"No,\" continued the maiden, \"my resolution is taken. By one means only\ncan your ruin be averted; I must return to my grandfather. He threatens\nto destroy the whole of New Aberfoyle. His is a soul incapable of mercy\nor forgiveness, and no mortal can say to what horrid deed the spirit of\nrevenge will lead him. My duty is clear; I should be the most despicable\ncreature on earth did I hesitate to perform it. Farewell! I thank you\nall heartily. You only have taught me what happiness is. Whatever may\nbefall, believe that my whole heart remains with you.\"\n\nAt these words, Simon, Madge, and Harry started up in an agony of grief,\nexclaiming in tones of despair, \"What, Nell! is it possible you would\nleave us?\"\n\nJames Starr put them all aside with an air of authority, and, going\nstraight up to Nell, he took both her hands in his, saying quietly,\n\"Very right, my child; you have said exactly what you ought to say;\nand now listen to what we have to say in reply. We shall not let you go\naway; if necessary, we shall keep you by force. Do you think we could be\nso base as to accept of your generous proposal? These threats of Silfax\nare formidable--no doubt about it! But, after all, a man is but a man,\nand we can take precautions. You will tell us, will you not, even for\nhis own sake, all you can about his habits and his lurking-places? All\nwe want to do is to put it out of his power to do harm, and perhaps\nbring him to reason.\"\n\n\"You want to do what is quite impossible,\" said Nell. \"My grandfather\nis everywhere and nowhere. I have never seen his retreats. I have never\nseen him sleep. If he meant to conceal himself, he used to leave me\nalone, and vanish. When I took my resolution, Mr. Starr, I was aware of\neverything you could say against it. Believe me, there is but one way to\nrender Silfax powerless, and that will be by my return to him. Invisible\nhimself, he sees everything that goes on. Just think whether it is\nlikely he could discover your very thoughts and intentions, from\nthat time when the letter was written to Mr. Starr, up to now that\nmy marriage with Harry has been arranged, if he did not possess the\nextraordinary faculty of knowing everything. As far as I am able to\njudge, my grandfather, in his very insanity, is a man of most powerful\nmind. He formerly used to talk to me on very lofty subjects. He taught\nme the existence of God, and never deceived me but on one point, which\nwas--that he made me believe that all men were base and perfidious,\nbecause he wished to inspire me with his own hatred of all the human\nrace. When Harry brought me to the cottage, you thought I was simply\nignorant of mankind, but, far beyond that, I was in mortal fear of you\nall. Ah, forgive me! I assure you, for many days I believed myself in\nthe power of wicked wretches, and I longed to escape. You, Madge, first\nled me to perceive the truth, not by anything you said, but by the\nsight of your daily life, for I saw that your husband and son loved and\nrespected you! Then all these good and happy workmen, who so revere and\ntrust Mr. Starr, I used to think they were slaves; and when, for the\nfirst time, I saw the whole population of Aberfoyle come to church and\nkneel down to pray to God, and praise Him for His infinite goodness, I\nsaid to myself, 'My grandfather has deceived me.' But now, enlightened\nby all you have taught me, I am inclined to think he himself is\ndeceived. I mean to return to the secret passages I formerly frequented\nwith him. He is certain to be on the watch. I will call to him; he will\nhear me, and who knows but that, by returning to him, I may be able to\nbring him to the knowledge of the truth?\"\n\nThe maiden spoke without interruption, for all felt that it was good for\nher to open her whole heart to her friends.\n\nBut when, exhausted by emotion, and with eyes full of tears, she ceased\nspeaking, Harry turned to old Madge and said, \"Mother, what should you\nthink of the man who could forsake the noble girl whose words you have\nbeen listening to?\"\n\n\"I should think he was a base coward,\" said Madge, \"and, were he my son,\nI should renounce and curse him.\"\n\n\"Nell, do you hear what our mother says?\" resumed Harry. \"Wherever you\ngo I will follow you. If you persist in leaving us, we will go away\ntogether.\"\n\n\"Harry! Harry!\" cried Nell.\n\nOvercome by her feelings, the girl's lips blanched, and she sank into\nthe arms of Madge, who begged she might be left alone with her.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII. NELL'S WEDDING\n\n\nIT was agreed that the inhabitants of the cottage must keep more on\ntheir guard than ever. The threats of old Silfax were too serious to be\ndisregarded. It was only too possible that he possessed some terrible\nmeans by which the whole of Aberfoyle might be annihilated.\n\nArmed sentinels were posted at the various entrances to the mine, with\norders to keep strict watch day and night. Any stranger entering the\nmine was brought before James Starr, that he might give an account of\nhimself. There being no fear of treason among the inhabitants of Coal\nTown, the threatened danger to the subterranean colony was made known\nto them. Nell was informed of all the precautions taken, and became\nmore tranquil, although she was not free from uneasiness. Harry's\ndetermination to follow her wherever she went compelled her to promise\nnot to escape from her friends.\n\nDuring the week preceding the wedding, no accident whatever occurred\nin Aberfoyle. The system of watching was carefully maintained, but the\nminers began to recover from the panic, which had seriously interrupted\nthe work of excavation. James Starr continued to look out for Silfax.\nThe old man having vindictively declared that Nell should never marry\nSimon's son, it was natural to suppose that he would not hesitate to\ncommit any violent deed which would hinder their union.\n\nThe examination of the mine was carried on minutely. Every passage and\ngallery was searched, up to those higher ranges which opened out among\nthe ruins of Dundonald Castle. It was rightly supposed that through\nthis old building Silfax passed out to obtain what was needful for the\nsupport of his miserable existence (which he must have done, either by\npurchasing or thieving).\n\nAs to the \"fire-maidens,\" James Starr began to think that appearance\nmust have been produced by some jet of fire-damp gas which, issuing from\nthat part of the pit, could be lighted by Silfax. He was not far wrong;\nbut all search for proof of this was fruitless, and the continued strain\nof anxiety in this perpetual effort to detect a malignant and invisible\nbeing rendered the engineer--outwardly calm--an unhappy man.\n\nAs the wedding-day approached, his dread of some catastrophe increased,\nand he could not but speak of it to the old overman, whose uneasiness\nsoon more than equaled his own. At length the day came. Silfax had given\nno token of existence.\n\nBy daybreak the entire population of Coal Town was astir. Work was\nsuspended; overseers and workmen alike desired to do honor to Simon Ford\nand his son. They all felt they owed a large debt of gratitude to these\nbold and persevering men, by whose means the mine had been restored to\nits former prosperity. The ceremony was to take place at eleven o'clock,\nin St. Giles's chapel, which stood on the shores of Loch Malcolm.\n\nAt the appointed time, Harry left the cottage, supporting his mother\non his arm, while Simon led the bride. Following them came Starr, the\nengineer, composed in manner, but in reality nerved to expect the worst,\nand Jack Ryan, stepping superb in full Highland piper's costume. Then\ncame the other mining engineers, the principal people of Coal Town,\nthe friends and comrades of the old overman--every member of this great\nfamily of miners forming the population of New Aberfoyle.\n\nIn the outer world, the day was one of the hottest of the month of\nAugust, peculiarly oppressive in northern countries. The sultry air\npenetrated the depths of the coal mine, and elevated the temperature.\nThe air which entered through the ventilating shafts, and the great\ntunnel of Loch Malcolm, was charged with electricity, and the barometer,\nit was afterwards remarked, had fallen in a remarkable manner. There\nwas, indeed, every indication that a storm might burst forth beneath the\nrocky vault which formed the roof of the enormous crypt of the very mine\nitself.\n\nBut the inhabitants were not at that moment troubling themselves about\nthe chances of atmospheric disturbance above ground. Everybody, as a\nmatter of course, had put on his best clothes for the occasion. Madge\nwas dressed in the fashion of days gone by, wearing the \"toy\" and the\n\"rokelay,\" or Tartan plaid, of matrons of the olden time, old Simon wore\na coat of which Bailie Nicol Jarvie himself would have approved.\n\nNell had resolved to show nothing of her mental agitation; she forbade\nher heart to beat, or her inward terrors to betray themselves, and the\nbrave girl appeared before all with a calm and collected aspect. She had\ndeclined every ornament of dress, and the very simplicity of her attire\nadded to the charming elegance of her appearance. Her hair was bound\nwith the \"snood,\" the usual head-dress of Scottish maidens.\n\nAll proceeded towards St. Giles's chapel, which had been handsomely\ndecorated for the occasion.\n\nThe electric discs of light which illuminated Coal Town blazed like so\nmany suns. A luminous atmosphere pervaded New Aberfoyle. In the chapel,\nelectric lamps shed a glow over the stained-glass windows, which shone\nlike fiery kaleidoscopes. At the porch of the chapel the minister\nawaited the arrival of the wedding party.\n\nIt approached, after having passed in stately procession along the shore\nof Loch Malcolm. Then the tones of the organ were heard, and, preceded\nby the minister, the group advanced into the chapel. The Divine blessing\nwas first invoked on all present. Then Harry and Nell remained alone\nbefore the minister, who, holding the sacred book in his hand, proceeded\nto say, \"Harry, will you take Nell to be your wife, and will you promise\nto love her always?\"\n\n\"I promise,\" answered the young man in a firm and steady voice.\n\n\"And you, Nell,\" continued the minister, \"will you take Harry to be your\nhusband, and--\"\n\nBefore he could finish the sentence, a prodigious noise resounded from\nwithout. One of the enormous rocks, on which was formed the terrace\noverhanging the banks of Loch Malcolm, had suddenly given way and opened\nwithout explosion, disclosing a profound abyss, into which the waters\nwere now wildly plunging.\n\nIn another instant, among the shattered rocks and rushing waves appeared\na canoe, which a vigorous arm propelled along the surface of the lake.\nIn the canoe was seen the figure of an old man standing upright. He was\nclothed in a dark mantle, his hair was dishevelled, a long white beard\nfell over his breast, and in his hand he bore a lighted Davy safety\nlamp, the flame being protected by the metallic gauze of the apparatus.\n\nIn a loud voice this old man shouted, \"The fire-damp is upon you!\nWoe--woe betide ye all!\"\n\n\nAt the same moment the slight smell peculiar to carburetted hydrogen was\nperceptibly diffused through the atmosphere. And, in truth, the fall\nof the rock had made a passage of escape for an enormous quantity of\nexplosive gas, accumulated in vast cavities, the openings to which had\nhitherto been blocked up.\n\nJets and streams of the fire-damp now rose upward in the vaulted dome;\nand well did that fierce old man know that the consequence of what he\nhad done would be to render explosive the whole atmosphere of the mine.\n\nJames Starr and several others, having hastily quitted the chapel, and\nperceived the imminence of the danger, now rushed back, crying out in\naccents of the utmost alarm, \"Fly from the mine! Fly instantly from the\nmine!\"\n\n\"Now for the fire-damp! Here comes the fire-damp!\" yelled the old man,\nurging his canoe further along the lake.\n\nHarry with his bride, his father and his mother, left the chapel in\nhaste and in terror.\n\n\"Fly! fly for your lives!\" repeated James Starr. Alas! it was too late\nto fly! Old Silfax stood there, prepared to fulfill his last dreadful\nthreat--prepared to stop the marriage of Nell and Harry by overwhelming\nthe entire population of the place beneath the ruins of the coal mine.\n\nAs he stood ready to accomplish this act of vengeance, his enormous\nowl, whose white plumage was marked with black spots, was seen hovering\ndirectly above his head.\n\nAt that moment a man flung himself into the waters of the lake, and swam\nvigorously towards the canoe.\n\nIt was Jack Ryan, fully determined to reach the madman before he could\ndo the dreadful deed of destruction.\n\nSilfax saw him coming. Instantly he smashed the glass of his lamp, and,\nsnatching out the burning wick, waved it in the air.\n\nSilence like death fell upon the astounded multitude. James Starr, in\nthe calmness of despair, marvelled that the inevitable explosion was\neven for a moment delayed.\n\nSilfax, gazing upwards with wild and contracted features, appeared\nto become aware that the gas, lighter than the lower atmosphere, was\naccumulating far up under the dome; and at a sign from him the owl,\nseizing in its claw the lighted match, soared upwards to the vaulted\nroof, towards which the madman pointed with outstretched arm.\n\n\nAnother second and New Aberfoyle would be no more.\n\nSuddenly Nell sprang from Harry's arms, and, with a bright look of\ninspiration, she ran to the very brink of the waters of the lake.\n\"Harfang! Harfang!\" cried she in a clear voice; \"here! come to me!\"\n\nThe faithful bird, surprised, appeared to hesitate in its flight.\nPresently, recognizing Nell's voice, it dropped the burning match into\nthe water, and, describing a wide circle, flew downwards, alighting at\nthe maiden's feet.\n\nThen a terrible cry echoed through the vaulted roofs. It was the last\nsound uttered by old Silfax.\n\nJust as Jack Ryan laid his hand on the edge of the canoe, the old man,\nfoiled in his purpose of revenge, cast himself headlong into the waters\nof the lake.\n\n\"Save him! oh, save him!\" shrieked Nell in a voice of agony. Immediately\nHarry plunged into the water, and, swimming towards Jack Ryan, he dived\nrepeatedly.\n\nBut his efforts were useless. The waters of Loch Malcolm yielded not\ntheir prey: they closed forever over Silfax.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX. THE LEGEND OF OLD SILFAX\n\n\nSix months after these events, the marriage, so strangely interrupted,\nwas finally celebrated in St. Giles's chapel, and the young couple, who\nstill wore mourning garments, returned to the cottage. James Starr\nand Simon Ford, henceforth free from the anxieties which had so long\ndistressed them, joyously presided over the entertainment which followed\nthe ceremony, and prolonged it to the following day.\n\nOn this memorable occasion, Jack Ryan, in his favorite character of\npiper, and in all the glory of full dress, blew up his chanter, and\nastonished the company by the unheard of achievement of playing,\nsinging, and dancing all at once.\n\nIt is needless to say that Harry and Nell were happy. These loving\nhearts, after the trials they had gone through found in their union the\nhappiness they deserved.\n\nAs to Simon Ford, the ex-overman of New Aberfoyle, he began to talk of\ncelebrating his golden wedding, after fifty years of marriage with good\nold Madge, who liked the idea immensely herself.\n\n\"And after that, why not golden wedding number two?\"\n\n\"You would like a couple of fifties, would you, Mr. Simon?\" said Jack\nRyan.\n\n\"All right, my boy,\" replied the overman quietly, \"I see nothing against\nit in this fine climate of ours, and living far from the luxury and\nintemperance of the outer world.\"\n\nWill the dwellers in Coal Town ever be called to witness this second\nceremony? Time will show. Certainly the strange bird of old Silfax\nseemed destined to attain a wonderful longevity. The Harfang continued\nto haunt the gloomy recesses of the cave. After the old man's death,\nNell had attempted to keep the owl, but in a very few days he flew away.\nHe evidently disliked human society as much as his master had done, and,\nbesides that, he appeared to have a particular spite against Harry. The\njealous bird seemed to remember and hate him for having carried off Nell\nfrom the deep abyss, notwithstanding all he could do to prevent him.\nStill, at long intervals, Nell would see the creature hovering above\nLoch Malcolm.\n\nCould he possibly be watching for his friend of yore? Did he strive to\npierce, with keen eye, the depths which had engulfed his master?\n\nThe history of the Harfang became legendary, and furnished Jack Ryan\nwith many a tale and song. Thanks to him, the story of old Silfax and\nhis bird will long be preserved, and handed down to future generations\nof the Scottish peasantry."