he Project Gutenberg eBook of The Underground City, by Jules Verne

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The prize box toys for easter basketUnderground City

OR

THE BLACK INDIES

(Sometimes Called The Child of the Cavern)

By Jules Verne

Verne, Jules. Works of Jules Verne. Ed. Charles F. Horne.
Vol.9. New York: F. Tyler Daniels Company, 1911. 277-394.

Contents

THE UNDERGROUND CITY

CHAPTER I.
CONTRADICTORY LETTERS

To Mr. F. R. Starr, Engineer, 30 Canongate, Edinburgh.

If Mr. James Starr will come to-morrow to the Aberfoyle coal-mines, Dochartpit, Yarrow shaft, a communication of an interesting nature will be made tohim.

“Mr. James Starr will be awaited for, the whole day, at the Callanderstation, by Harry Ford, son of the old overman Simon Ford.”

“He is requested to keep this invitation secret.”

Such was the letter which James Starr received by the first post, on the 3rdDecember, 18—, the letter bearing the Aberfoyle postmark, county ofStirling, Scotland.

The engineer’s curiosity was excited to the highest pitch. It neveroccurred to him to doubt whether this letter might not be a hoax. For manyyears he had known Simon Ford, one of the former foremen of the Aberfoylemines, of which he, James Starr, had for twenty years, been the manager, or, ashe would be termed in English coal-mines, the viewer. James Starr was astrongly-constituted man, on whom his fifty-five years weighed no more heavilythan if they had been forty. He belonged to an old Edinburgh family, and wasone of its most distinguished members. His labors did credit to the body ofengineers who are gradually devouring the carboniferous subsoil of the UnitedKingdom, as much at Cardiff and Newcastle, as in the southern counties ofScotland. However, it was more particularly in the depths of the mysteriousmines of Aberfoyle, which border on the Alloa mines and occupy part of thecounty of Stirling, that the name of Starr had acquired the greatest renown.There, the greater part of his existence had been passed. Besides this, JamesStarr belonged to the Scottish Antiquarian Society, of which he had been madepresident. He was also included amongst the most active members of the RoyalInstitution; and the Edinburgh Reviewfrequently published cleverarticles signed by him. He was in fact one of those practical men to whom isdue the prosperity of England. He held a high rank in the old capital ofScotland, which not only from a physical but also from a moral point of view,well deserves the name of the Northern Athens.

We know that the English have given to their vast extent of coal-mines a verysignificant name. They very justly call them the “Black Indies,”and these Indies have contributed perhaps even more than the Eastern Indies toswell the surprising wealth of the United Kingdom.

At this period, the limit of time assigned by professional men for theexhaustion of coal-mines was far distant and there was no dread of scarcity.There were still extensive mines to be worked in the two Americas. Themanufactories, appropriated to so many different uses, locomotives, steamers,gas works, &c., were not likely to fail for want of the mineral fuel; butthe consumption had so increased during the last few years, that certain bedshad been exhausted even to their smallest veins. Now deserted, these minesperforated the ground with their useless shafts and forsaken galleries. Thiswas exactly the case with the pits of Aberfoyle.

Ten years before, the last butty had raised the last ton of coal from thiscolliery. The underground working stock, traction engines, trucks which run onrails along the galleries, subterranean tramways, frames to support the shaft,pipes—in short, all that constituted the machinery of a mine had beenbrought up from its depths. The exhausted mine was like the body of a hugefantastically-shaped mastodon, from which all the organs of life have beentaken, and only the skeleton remains.

Nothing was left but long wooden ladders, down the Yarrow shaft—the onlyone which now gave access to the lower galleries of the Dochart pit. Aboveground, the sheds, formerly sheltering the outside works, still marked the spotwhere the shaft of that pit had been sunk, it being now abandoned, as were theother pits, of which the whole constituted the mines of Aberfoyle.

It was a sad day, when for the last time the workmen quitted the mine, in whichthey had lived for so many years. The engineer, James Starr, had collected thehundreds of workmen which composed the active and courageous population of themine. Overmen, brakemen, putters, wastemen, barrowmen, masons, smiths,carpenters, outside and inside laborers, women, children, and old men, all werecollected in the great yard of the Dochart pit, formerly heaped with coal fromthe mine.

Many of these families had existed for generations in the mine of oldAberfoyle; they were now driven to seek the means of subsistence elsewhere, andthey waited sadly to bid farewell to the engineer.

James Starr stood upright, at the door of the vast shed in which he had for somany years superintended the powerful machines of the shaft. Simon Ford, theforeman of the Dochart pit, then fifty-five years of age, and other managersand overseers, surrounded him. James Starr took off his hat. The miners, cap inhand, kept a profound silence. This farewell scene was of a touching character,not wanting in grandeur.

“My friends,” said the engineer, “the time has come for us toseparate. The Aberfoyle mines, which for so many years have united us in acommon work, are now exhausted. All our researches have not led to thediscovery of a new vein, and the last block of coal has just been extractedfrom the Dochart pit.” And in confirmation of his words, James Starrpointed to a lump of coal which had been kept at the bottom of a basket.

“This piece of coal, my friends,” resumed James Starr, “islike the last drop of blood which has flowed through the veins of the mine! Weshall keep it, as the first fragment of coal is kept, which was extracted ahundred and fifty years ago from the bearings of Aberfoyle. Between these twopieces, how many generations of workmen have succeeded each other in our pits!Now, it is over! The last words which your engineer will address to you are afarewell. You have lived in this mine, which your hands have emptied. The workhas been hard, but not without profit for you. Our great family must disperse,and it is not probable that the future will ever again unite the scatteredmembers. But do not forget that we have lived together for a long time, andthat it will be the duty of the miners of Aberfoyle to help each other. Yourold masters will not forget you either. When men have worked together, theymust never be stranger to each other again. We shall keep our eye on you, andwherever you go, our recommendations shall follow you. Farewell then, myfriends, and may Heaven be with you!”

So saying, James Starr wrung the horny hand of the oldest miner, whose eyeswere dim with tears. Then the overmen of the different pits came forward toshake hands with him, whilst the miners waved their caps, shouting,“Farewell, James Starr, our master and our friend!”

This farewell would leave a lasting remembrance in all these honest hearts.Slowly and sadly the population quitted the yard. The black soil of the roadsleading to the Dochart pit resounded for the last time to the tread ofminers’ feet, and silence succeeded to the bustling life which had tillthen filled the Aberfoyle mines.

One man alone remained by James Starr. This was the overman, Simon Ford. Nearhim stood a boy, about fifteen years of age, who for some years already hadbeen employed down below.

James Starr and Simon Ford knew and esteemed each other well. “Good-by,Simon,” said the engineer.

“Good-by, Mr. Starr,” replied the overman, “let me add, tillwe meet again!”

“Yes, till we meet again. Ford!” answered James Starr. “Youknow that I shall be always glad to see you, and talk over old times.”

“I know that, Mr. Starr.”

“My house in Edinburgh is always open to you.”

“It’s a long way off, is Edinburgh!” answered the man shakinghis head. “Ay, a long way from the Dochart pit.”

“A long way, Simon? Where do you mean to live?”

“Even here, Mr. Starr! We’re not going to leave the mine, our goodold nurse, just because her milk is dried up! My wife, my boy, and myself, wemean to remain faithful to her!”

“Good-by then, Simon,” replied the engineer, whose voice, in spiteof himself, betrayed some emotion.

“No, I tell you, it’s till we meet again, Mr. Starr, and notJust ‘good-by,’” returned the foreman. “Mark my words,Aberfoyle will see you again!”

The engineer did not try to dispel the man’s illusion. He pattedHarry’s head, again wrung the father’s hand, and left the mine.

All this had taken place ten years ago; but, notwithstanding the wish which theoverman had expressed to see him again, during that time Starr had heardnothing of him. It was after ten years of separation that he got this letterfrom Simon Ford, requesting him to take without delay the road to the oldAberfoyle colliery.

A communication of an interesting nature, what could it be? Dochart pit. Yarrowshaft! What recollections of the past these names brought back to him! Yes,that was a fine time, that of work, of struggle,—the best part of theengineer’s life. Starr re-read his letter. He pondered over it in all itsbearings. He much regretted that just a line more had not been added by Ford.He wished he had not been quite so laconic.

Was it possible that the old foreman had discovered some new vein? No! Starrremembered with what minute care the mines had been explored before thedefinite cessation of the works. He had himself proceeded to the lowestsoundings without finding the least trace in the soil, burrowed in everydirection. They had even attempted to find coal under strata which are usuallybelow it, such as the Devonian red sandstone, but without result. James Starrhad therefore abandoned the mine with the absolute conviction that it did notcontain another bit of coal.

“No,” he repeated, “no! How is it possible that anythingwhich could have escaped my researches, should be revealed to those of SimonFord. However, the old overman must well know that such a discovery would bethe one thing in the world to interest me, and this invitation, which I mustkeep secret, to repair to the Dochart pit!” James Starr always came backto that.

On the other hand, the engineer knew Ford to be a clever miner, peculiarlyendowed with the instinct of his trade. He had not seen him since the time whenthe Aberfoyle colliery was abandoned, and did not know either what he was doingor where he was living, with his wife and his son. All that he now knew was,that a rendezvous had been appointed him at the Yarrow shaft, and that Harry,Simon Ford’s son, was to wait for him during the whole of the next day atthe Callander station.

“I shall go, I shall go!” said Starr, his excitement increasing asthe time drew near.

Our worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain is always on theboil, like a kettle on a hot fire. In some of these brain kettles the ideasbubble over, in others they just simmer quietly. Now on this day, JamesStarr’s ideas were boiling fast.

But suddenly an unexpected incident occurred. This was the drop of cold water,which in a moment was to condense all the vapors of the brain. About six in theevening, by the third post, Starr’s servant brought him a second letter.This letter was enclosed in a coarse envelope, and evidently directed by a handunaccustomed to the use of a pen. James Starr tore it open. It contained only ascrap of paper, yellowed by time, and apparently torn out of an old copy book.

On this paper was written a single sentence, thus worded:

“It is useless for the engineer James Starr to trouble himself, SimonFord’s letter being now without object.”

No signature.

CHAPTER II.
ON THE ROAD

The course of James Starr’s ideas was abruptly stopped, when he got thissecond letter contradicting the first.

“What does this mean?” said he to himself. He took up the tornenvelope, and examined it. Like the other, it bore the Aberfoyle postmark. Ithad therefore come from the same part of the county of Stirling. The old minerhad evidently not written it. But, no less evidently, the author of this secondletter knew the overman’s secret, since it expressly contradicted theinvitation to the engineer to go to the Yarrow shaft.

Was it really true that the first communication was now without object? Didsomeone wish to prevent James Starr from troubling himself either uselessly orotherwise? Might there not be rather a malevolent intention to thwartFord’s plans?

This was the conclusion at which James Starr arrived, after mature reflection.The contradiction which existed between the two letters only wrought in him amore keen desire to visit the Dochart pit. And besides, if after all it was ahoax, it was well worth while to prove it. Starr also thought it wiser to givemore credence to the first letter than to the second; that is to say, to therequest of such a man as Simon Ford, rather than to the warning of hisanonymous contradictor.

“Indeed,” said he, “the fact of anyone endeavoring toinfluence my resolution, shows that Ford’s communication must be of greatimportance. To-morrow, at the appointed time, I shall be at therendezvous.”

In the evening, Starr made his preparations for departure. As it might happenthat his absence would be prolonged for some days, he wrote to Sir W.Elphiston, President of the Royal Institution, that he should be unable to bepresent at the next meeting of the Society. He also wrote to excuse himselffrom two or three engagements which he had made for the week. Then, havingordered his servant to pack a traveling bag, he went to bed, more excited thanthe affair perhaps warranted.

The next day, at five o’clock, James Starr jumped out of bed, dressedhimself warmly, for a cold rain was falling, and left his house in theCanongate, to go to Granton Pier to catch the steamer, which in three hourswould take him up the Forth as far as Stirling.

For the first time in his life, perhaps, in passing along the Canongate, he didnot turn to look at Holyrood, the palace of the former sovereigns ofScotland. He did not notice the sentinels who stood before its gateways,dressed in the uniform of their Highland regiment, tartan kilt, plaid andsporran complete. His whole thought was to reach Callander where Harry Ford wassupposedly awaiting him.

The better to understand this narrative, it will be as well to hear a few wordson the origin of coal. During the geological epoch, when the terrestrialspheroid was still in course of formation, a thick atmosphere surrounded it,saturated with watery vapors, and copiously impregnated with carbonic acid. Thevapors gradually condensed in diluvial rains, which fell as if they had leaptfrom the necks of thousands of millions of seltzer water bottles. This liquid,loaded with carbonic acid, rushed in torrents over a deep soft soil, subject tosudden or slow alterations of form, and maintained in its semi-fluid state asmuch by the heat of the sun as by the fires of the interior mass. The internalheat had not as yet been collected in the center of the globe. The terrestrialcrust, thin and incompletely hardened, allowed it to spread through its pores.This caused a peculiar form of vegetation, such as is probably produced on thesurface of the inferior planets, Venus or Mercury, which revolve nearer thanour earth around the radiant sun of our system.

The soil of the continents was covered with immense forests. Carbonic acid, sosuitable for the development of the vegetable kingdom, abounded. The feet ofthese trees were drowned in a sort of immense lagoon, kept continually full bycurrents of fresh and salt waters. They eagerly assimilated to themselves thecarbon which they, little by little, extracted from the atmosphere, as yetunfit for the function of life, and it may be said that they were destined tostore it, in the form of coal, in the very bowels of the earth.

It was the earthquake period, caused by internal convulsions, which suddenlymodified the unsettled features of the terrestrial surface. Here, anintumescence which was to become a mountain, there, an abyss which was to befilled with an ocean or a sea. There, whole forests sunk through theearth’s crust, below the unfixed strata, either until they found aresting-place, such as the primitive bed of granitic rock, or, settlingtogether in a heap, they formed a solid mass.

As the waters were contained in no bed, and were spread over every part of theglobe, they rushed where they liked, tearing from the scarcely-formed rocksmaterial with which to compose schists, sandstones, and limestones. This theroving waves bore over the submerged and now peaty forests, and deposited abovethem the elements of rocks which were to superpose the coal strata. In courseof time, periods of which include millions of years, these earths hardened inlayers, and enclosed under a thick carapace of pudding-stone, schist, compactor friable sandstone, gravel and stones, the whole of the massive forests.

And what went on in this gigantic crucible, where all this vegetable matter hadaccumulated, sunk to various depths? A regular chemical operation, a sort ofdistillation. All the carbon contained in these vegetables had agglomerated,and little by little coal was forming under the double influence of enormouspressure and the high temperature maintained by the internal fires, at thistime so close to it.

Thus there was one kingdom substituted for another in this slow butirresistible reaction. The vegetable was transformed into a mineral. Plantswhich had lived the vegetative life in all the vigor of first creation becamepetrified. Some of the substances enclosed in this vast herbal left theirimpression on the other more rapidly mineralized products, which pressed themas an hydraulic press of incalculable power would have done.

Thus also shells, zoophytes, star-fish, polypi, spirifores, even fish andlizards brought by the water, left on the yet soft coal their exact likeness,“admirably taken off.”

Pressure seems to have played a considerable part in the formation ofcarboniferous strata. In fact, it is to its degree of power that are due thedifferent sorts of coal, of which industry makes use. Thus in the lowest layersof the coal ground appears the anthracite, which, being almost destitute ofvolatile matter, contains the greatest quantity of carbon. In the higher bedsare found, on the contrary, lignite and fossil wood, substances in which thequantity of carbon is infinitely less. Between these two beds, according to thedegree of pressure to which they have been subjected, are found veins ofgraphite and rich or poor coal. It may be asserted that it is for want ofsufficient pressure that beds of peaty bog have not been completely changedinto coal. So then, the origin of coal mines, in whatever part of the globethey have been discovered, is this: the absorption through the terrestrialcrust of the great forests of the geological period; then, the mineralizationof the vegetables obtained in the course of time, under the influence ofpressure and heat, and under the action of carbonic acid.

Now, at the time when the events related in this story took place, some of themost important mines of the Scottish coal beds had been exhausted by too rapidworking. In the region which extends between Edinburgh and Glasgow, for adistance of ten or twelve miles, lay the Aberfoyle colliery, of which theengineer, James Starr, had so long directed the works. For ten years thesemines had been abandoned. No new seams had been discovered, although thesoundings had been carried to a depth of fifteen hundred or even of twothousand feet, and when James Starr had retired, it was with the fullconviction that even the smallest vein had been completely exhausted.

Under these circumstances, it was plain that the discovery of a new seam ofcoal would be an important event. Could Simon Ford’s communication relateto a fact of this nature? This question James Starr could not cease askinghimself. Was he called to make conquest of another corner of these richtreasure fields? Fain would he hope it was so.

The second letter had for an instant checked his speculations on this subject,but now he thought of that letter no longer. Besides, the son of the oldoverman was there, waiting at the appointed rendezvous. The anonymous letterwas therefore worth nothing.

The moment the engineer set foot on the platform at the end of his journey, theyoung man advanced towards him.

“Are you Harry Ford?” asked the engineer quickly.

“Yes, Mr. Starr.”

“I should not have known you, my lad. Of course in ten years you havebecome a man!”

“I knew you directly, sir,” replied the young miner, cap in hand.“You have not changed. You look just as you did when you bade us good-byin the Dochart pit. I haven’t forgotten that day.”

“Put on your cap, Harry,” said the engineer. “It’spouring, and politeness needn’t make you catch cold.”

“Shall we take shelter anywhere, Mr. Starr?” asked young Ford.

“No, Harry. The weather is settled. It will rain all day, and I am in ahurry. Let us go on.”

“I am at your orders,” replied Harry.

“Tell me, Harry, is your father well?”

“Very well, Mr. Starr.”

“And your mother?”

“She is well, too.”

“Was it your father who wrote telling me to come to the Yarrowshaft?”

“No, it was I.”

“Then did Simon Ford send me a second letter to contradict thefirst?” asked the engineer quickly.

“No, Mr. Starr,” answered the young miner.

“Very well,” said Starr, without speaking of the anonymous letter.Then, continuing, “And can you tell me what you father wants withme?”

“Mr. Starr, my father wishes to tell you himself.”

“But you know what it is?”

“I do, sir.”

“Well, Harry, I will not ask you more. But let us get on, for I’manxious to see Simon Ford. By-the-bye, where does he live?”

“In the mine.”

“What! In the Dochart pit?”

“Yes, Mr. Starr,” replied Harry.

“Really! has your family never left the old mine since the cessation ofthe works?”

“Not a day, Mr. Starr. You know my father. It is there he was born, it isthere he means to die!”

“I can understand that, Harry. I can understand that! His native mine! Hedid not like to abandon it! And are you happy there?”

“Yes, Mr. Starr,” replied the young miner, “for we love oneanother, and we have but few wants.”

“Well, Harry,” said the engineer, “lead the way.”

And walking rapidly through the streets of Callander, in a few minutes they hadleft the town behind them.

CHAPTER III.
THE DOCHART PIT

Harry Ford was a fine, strapping fellow of five and twenty. His grave looks,his habitually passive expression, had from childhood been noticed among hiscomrades in the mine. His regular features, his deep blue eyes, his curly hair,rather chestnut than fair, the natural grace of his person, altogether made hima fine specimen of a lowlander. Accustomed from his earliest days to the workof the mine, he was strong and hardy, as well as brave and good. Guided by hisfather, and impelled by his own inclinations, he had early begun his education,and at an age when most lads are little more than apprentices, he had managedto make himself of some importance, a leader, in fact, among his fellows, andfew are very ignorant in a country which does all it can to remove ignorance.Though, during the first years of his youth, the pick was never out ofHarry’s hand, nevertheless the young miner was not long in acquiringsufficient knowledge to raise him into the upper class of the miners, and hewould certainly have succeeded his father as overman of the Dochart pit, if thecolliery had not been abandoned.

James Starr was still a good walker, yet he could not easily have kept up withhis guide, if the latter had not slackened his pace. The young man, carryingthe engineer’s bag, followed the left bank of the river for about a mile.Leaving its winding course, they took a road under tall, dripping trees. Widefields lay on either side, around isolated farms. In one field a herd ofhornless cows were quietly grazing; in another sheep with silky wool, likethose in a child’s toy sheep fold.

The Yarrow shaft was situated four miles from Callander. Whilst walking, JamesStarr could not but be struck with the change in the country. He had not seenit since the day when the last ton of Aberfoyle coal had been emptied intorailway trucks to be sent to Glasgow. Agricultural life had now taken the placeof the more stirring, active, industrial life. The contrast was all the greaterbecause, during winter, field work is at a standstill. But formerly, atwhatever season, the mining population, above and below ground, filled thescene with animation. Great wagons of coal used to be passing night and day.The rails, with their rotten sleepers, now disused, were then constantly groundby the weight of wagons. Now stony roads took the place of the old miningtramways. James Starr felt as if he was traversing a desert.

The engineer gazed about him with a saddened eye. He stopped now and then totake breath. He listened. The air was no longer filled with distant whistlingsand the panting of engines. None of those black vapors which the manufacturerloves to see, hung in the horizon, mingling with the clouds. No tallcylindrical or prismatic chimney vomited out smoke, after being fed from themine itself; no blast-pipe was puffing out its white vapor. The ground,formerly black with coal dust, had a bright look, to which James Starr’seyes were not accustomed.

When the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also. The young miner waitedin silence. He felt what was passing in his companion’s mind, and heshared his feelings; he, a child of the mine, whose whole life had been passedin its depths.

“Yes, Harry, it is all changed,” said Starr. “But at the ratewe worked, of course the treasures of coal would have been exhausted some day.Do you regret that time?”

“I do regret it, Mr. Starr,” answered Harry. “The work washard, but it was interesting, as are all struggles.”

“No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers oflandslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps of thunder.One had to guard against all those perils! You say well! It was a struggle, andconsequently an exciting life.”

“The miners of Alva have been more favored than the miners of Aberfoyle,Mr. Starr!”

“Ay, Harry, so they have,” replied the engineer.

“Indeed,” cried the young man, “it’s a pity that allthe globe was not made of coal; then there would have been enough to lastmillions of years!”

“No doubt there would, Harry; it must be acknowledged, however, thatnature has shown more forethought by forming our sphere principally ofsandstone, limestone, and granite, which fire cannot consume.”

“Do you mean to say, Mr. Starr, that mankind would have ended by burningtheir own globe?”

“Yes! The whole of it, my lad,” answered the engineer. “Theearth would have passed to the last bit into the furnaces of engines, machines,steamers, gas factories; certainly, that would have been the end of our worldone fine day!”

“There is no fear of that now, Mr. Starr. But yet, the mines will beexhausted, no doubt, and more rapidly than the statistics make out!”

“That will happen, Harry; and in my opinion England is very wrong inexchanging her fuel for the gold of other nations! I know well,” addedthe engineer, “that neither hydraulics nor electricity has yet shown allthey can do, and that some day these two forces will be more completelyutilized. But no matter! Coal is of a very practical use, and lends itselfeasily to the various wants of industry. Unfortunately man cannot produce it atwill. Though our external forests grow incessantly under the influence of heatand water, our subterranean forests will not be reproduced, and if they were,the globe would never be in the state necessary to make them into coal.”

James Starr and his guide, whilst talking, had continued their walk at a rapidpace. An hour after leaving Callander they reached the Dochart pit.

The most indifferent person would have been touched at the appearance thisdeserted spot presented. It was like the skeleton of something that hadformerly lived. A few wretched trees bordered a plain where the ground washidden under the black dust of the mineral fuel, but no cinders nor evenfragments of coal were to be seen. All had been carried away and consumed longago.

They walked into the shed which covered the opening of the Yarrow shaft, whenceladders still gave access to the lower galleries of the pit. The engineer bentover the opening. Formerly from this place could be heard the powerful whistleof the air inhaled by the ventilators. It was now a silent abyss. It was likebeing at the mouth of some extinct volcano.

When the mine was being worked, ingenious machines were used in certain shaftsof the Aberfoyle colliery, which in this respect was very well off; framesfurnished with automatic lifts, working in wooden slides, oscillating ladders,called “man-engines,” which, by a simple movement, permitted theminers to descend without danger.

But all these appliances had been carried away, after the cessation of theworks. In the Yarrow shaft there remained only a long succession of ladders,separated at every fifty feet by narrow landings. Thirty of these laddersplaced thus end to end led the visitor down into the lower gallery, a depth offifteen hundred feet. This was the only way of communication which existedbetween the bottom of the Dochart pit and the open air. As to air, that came inby the Yarrow shaft, from whence galleries communicated with another shaftwhose orifice opened at a higher level; the warm air naturally escaped by thisspecies of inverted siphon.

“I will follow you, my lad,” said the engineer, signing to theyoung man to precede him.

“As you please, Mr. Starr.”

“Have you your lamp?”

“Yes, and I only wish it was still the safety lamp, which we formerly hadto use!”

“Sure enough,” returned James Starr, “there is no fear offire-damp explosions now!”

Harry was provided with a simple oil lamp, the wick of which he lighted. In themine, now empty of coal, escapes of light carburetted hydrogen could not occur.As no explosion need be feared, there was no necessity for interposing betweenthe flame and the surrounding air that metallic screen which prevents the gasfrom catching fire. The Davy lamp was of no use here. But if the danger did notexist, it was because the cause of it had disappeared, and with this cause, thecombustible in which formerly consisted the riches of the Dochart pit.

Harry descended the first steps of the upper ladder. Starr followed. They soonfound themselves in a profound obscurity, which was only relieved by theglimmer of the lamp. The young man held it above his head, the better to lighthis companion. A dozen ladders were descended by the engineer and his guide,with the measured step habitual to the miner. They were all still in goodcondition.

James Starr examined, as well as the insufficient light would permit, the sidesof the dark shaft, which were covered by a partly rotten lining of wood.

Arrived at the fifteenth landing, that is to say, half way down, they haltedfor a few minutes.

“Decidedly, I have not your legs, my lad,” said the engineer,panting.

“You are very stout, Mr. Starr,” replied Harry, “andit’s something too, you see, to live all one’s life in themine.”

“Right, Harry. Formerly, when I was twenty, I could have gone down all ata breath. Come, forward!”

But just as the two were about to leave the platform, a voice, as yet fardistant, was heard in the depths of the shaft. It came up like a sonorousbillow, swelling as it advanced, and becoming more and more distinct.

“Halloo! who comes here?” asked the engineer, stopping Harry.

“I cannot say,” answered the young miner.

“Is it not your father?”

“My father, Mr. Starr? no.”

“Some neighbor, then?”

“We have no neighbors in the bottom of the pit,” replied Harry.“We are alone, quite alone.”

“Well, we must let this intruder pass,” said James Starr.“Those who are descending must yield the path to those who areascending.”

They waited. The voice broke out again with a magnificent burst, as if it hadbeen carried through a vast speaking trumpet; and soon a few words of a Scotchsong came clearly to the ears of the young miner.

“The Hundred Pipers!” cried Harry. “Well, I shall be muchsurprised if that comes from the lungs of any man but Jack Ryan.”

“And who is this Jack Ryan?” asked James Starr.

“An old mining comrade,” replied Harry. Then leaning from theplatform, “Halloo! Jack!” he shouted.

“Is that you, Harry?” was the reply. “Wait a bit, I’mcoming.” And the song broke forth again.

In a few minutes, a tall fellow of five and twenty, with a merry face, smilingeyes, a laughing mouth, and sandy hair, appeared at the bottom of the luminouscone which was thrown from his lantern, and set foot on the landing of thefifteenth ladder. His first act was to vigorously wring the hand which Harryextended to him.

“Delighted to meet you!” he exclaimed. “If I had only knownyou were to be above ground to-day, I would have spared myself going down theYarrow shaft!”

“This is Mr. James Starr,” said Harry, turning his lamp towards theengineer, who was in the shadow.

“Mr. Starr!” cried Jack Ryan. “Ah, sir, I could not see.Since I left the mine, my eyes have not been accustomed to see in the dark, asthey used to do.”

“Ah, I remember a laddie who was always singing. That was ten years ago.It was you, no doubt?”

“Ay, Mr. Starr, but in changing my trade, I haven’t changed mydisposition. It’s far better to laugh and sing than to cry andwhine!”

“You’re right there, Jack Ryan. And what do you do now, as you haveleft the mine?”

“I am working on the Melrose farm, forty miles from here. Ah, it’snot like our Aberfoyle mines! The pick comes better to my hand than the spadeor hoe. And then, in the old pit, there were vaulted roofs, to merrily echoone’s songs, while up above ground!—But you are going to see oldSimon, Mr. Starr?”

“Yes, Jack,” answered the engineer.

“Don’t let me keep you then.”

“Tell me, Jack,” said Harry, “what was taking you to ourcottage to-day?”

“I wanted to see you, man,” replied Jack, “and ask you tocome to the Irvine games. You know I am the piper of the place. There will bedancing and singing.”

“Thank you, Jack, but it’s impossible.”

“Impossible?”

“Yes; Mr. Starr’s visit will last some time, and I must take himback to Callander.”

“Well, Harry, it won’t be for a week yet. By that time Mr.Starr’s visit will be over, I should think, and there will be nothing tokeep you at the cottage.”

“Indeed, Harry,” said James Starr, “you must profit by yourfriend Jack’s invitation.”

“Well, I accept it, Jack,” said Harry. “In a week we willmeet at Irvine.”

“In a week, that’s settled,” returned Ryan. “Good-by,Harry! Your servant, Mr. Starr. I am very glad to have seen you again! I cangive news of you to all my friends. No one has forgotten you, sir.”

“And I have forgotten no one,” said Starr.

“Thanks for all, sir,” replied Jack.

“Good-by, Jack,” said Harry, shaking his hand. And Jack Ryan,singing as he went, soon disappeared in the heights of the shaft, dimly lightedby his lamp.

A quarter of an hour afterwards James Starr and Harry descended the lastladder, and set foot on the lowest floor of the pit.

From the bottom of the Yarrow shaft radiated numerous empty galleries. They ranthrough the wall of schist and sandstone, some shored up with great,roughly-hewn beams, others lined with a thick casing of wood. In everydirection embankments supplied the place of the excavated veins. Artificialpillars were made of stone from neighboring quarries, and now they supportedthe ground, that is to say, the double layer of tertiary and quaternary soil,which formerly rested on the seam itself. Darkness now filled the galleries,formerly lighted either by the miner’s lamp or by the electric light, theuse of which had been introduced in the mines.

“Will you not rest a while, Mr. Starr?” asked the young man.

“No, my lad,” replied the engineer, “for I am anxious to beat your father’s cottage.”

“Follow me then, Mr. Starr. I will guide you, and yet I daresay you couldfind your way perfectly well through this dark labyrinth.”

“Yes, indeed! I have the whole plan of the old pit still in myhead.”

Harry, followed by the engineer, and holding his lamp high the better to lighttheir way, walked along a high gallery, like the nave of a cathedral. Theirfeet still struck against the wooden sleepers which used to support the rails.

They had not gone more than fifty paces, when a huge stone fell at the feet ofJames Starr. “Take care, Mr. Starr!” cried Harry, seizing theengineer by the arm.

“A stone, Harry! Ah! these old vaultings are no longer quite secure, ofcourse, and—”

“Mr. Starr,” said Harry Ford, “it seems to me that stone wasthrown, thrown as by the hand of man!”

“Thrown!” exclaimed James Starr. “What do you mean,lad?”

“Nothing, nothing, Mr. Starr,” replied Harry evasively, his anxiousgaze endeavoring to pierce the darkness. “Let us go on. Take my arm, sir,and don’t be afraid of making a false step.”

“Here I am, Harry.” And they both advanced, whilst Harry looked onevery side, throwing the light of his lamp into all the corners of the gallery.

“Shall we soon be there?” asked the engineer.

“In ten minutes at most.”

“Good.”

“But,” muttered Harry, “that was a most singular thing. It isthe first time such an accident has happened to me.

“That stone falling just at the moment we were passing.”

“Harry, it was a mere chance.”

“Chance,” replied the young man, shaking his head. “Yes,chance.” He stopped and listened.

“What is the matter, Harry?” asked the engineer.

“I thought I heard someone walking behind us,” replied the youngminer, listening more attentively. Then he added, “No, I must have beenmistaken. Lean harder on my arm, Mr. Starr. Use me like a staff.”

“A good solid staff, Harry,” answered James Starr. “I couldnot wish for a better than a fine fellow like you.”

They continued in silence along the dark nave. Harry was evidently preoccupied,and frequently turned, trying to catch, either some distant noise, or remoteglimmer of light.

But behind and before, all was silence and darkness.

CHAPTER IV.
THE FORD FAMILY

Ten minutes afterwards, James Starr and Harry issued from the principalgallery. They were now standing in a glade, if we may use this word todesignate a vast and dark excavation. The place, however, was not entirelydeprived of daylight. A few rays straggled in through the opening of a desertedshaft. It was by means of this pipe that ventilation was established in theDochart pit. Owing to its lesser density, the warm air was drawn towards theYarrow shaft. Both air and light, therefore, penetrated in some measure intothe glade.

Here Simon Ford had lived with his family ten years, in a subterraneandwelling, hollowed out in the schistous mass, where formerly stood the powerfulengines which worked the mechanical traction of the Dochart pit.

Such was the habitation, “his cottage,” as he called it, in whichresided the old overman. As he had some means saved during a long life of toil,Ford could have afforded to live in the light of day, among trees, or in anytown of the kingdom he chose, but he and his wife and son preferred remainingin the mine, where they were happy together, having the same opinions, ideas,and tastes. Yes, they were quite fond of their cottage, buried fifteen hundredfeet below Scottish soil. Among other advantages, there was no fear that taxgatherers, or rent collectors would ever come to trouble its inhabitants.

At this period, Simon Ford, the former overman of the Dochart pit, bore theweight of sixty-five years well. Tall, robust, well-built, he would have beenregarded as one of the most conspicuous men in the district which supplies somany fine fellows to the Highland regiments.

Simon Ford was descended from an old mining family, and his ancestors hadworked the very first carboniferous seams opened in Scotland. Withoutdiscussing whether or not the Greeks and Romans made use of coal, whether theChinese worked coal mines before the Christian era, whether the French word forcoal (houille) is really derived from the farrier Houillos, who lived inBelgium in the twelfth century, we may affirm that the beds in Great Britainwere the first ever regularly worked. So early as the eleventh century, Williamthe Conqueror divided the produce of the Newcastle bed among hiscompanions-in-arms. At the end of the thirteenth century, a license for themining of “sea coal” was granted by Henry III. Lastly, towards theend of the same century, mention is made of the Scotch and Welsh beds.

It was about this time that Simon Ford’s ancestors penetrated into thebowels of Caledonian earth, and lived there ever after, from father to son.They were but plain miners. They labored like convicts at the work ofextracting the precious combustible. It is even believed that the coal miners,like the salt-makers of that period, were actual slaves.

However that might have been, Simon Ford was proud of belonging to this ancientfamily of Scotch miners. He had worked diligently in the same place where hisancestors had wielded the pick, the crowbar, and the mattock. At thirty he wasoverman of the Dochart pit, the most important in the Aberfoyle colliery. Hewas devoted to his trade. During long years he zealously performed his duty.His only grief had been to perceive the bed becoming impoverished, and to seethe hour approaching when the seam would be exhausted.

It was then he devoted himself to the search for new veins in all the Aberfoylepits, which communicated underground one with another. He had had the good luckto discover several during the last period of the working. His miner’sinstinct assisted him marvelously, and the engineer, James Starr, appreciatedhim highly. It might be said that he divined the course of seams in the depthsof the coal mine as a hydroscope reveals springs in the bowels of the earth. Hewas par excellencethe type of a miner whose whole existence isindissolubly connected with that of his mine. He had lived there from hisbirth, and now that the works were abandoned he wished to live there still. Hisson Harry foraged for the subterranean housekeeping; as for himself, duringthose ten years he had not been ten times above ground.

“Go up there! What is the good?” he would say, and refused to leavehis black domain. The place was remarkably healthy, subject to an equabletemperature; the old overman endured neither the heat of summer nor the cold ofwinter. His family enjoyed good health; what more could he desire?

But at heart he felt depressed. He missed the former animation, movement, andlife in the well-worked pit. He was, however, supported by one fixed idea.“No, no! the mine is not exhausted!” he repeated.

And that man would have given serious offense who could have ventured toexpress before Simon Ford any doubt that old Aberfoyle would one day revive! Hehad never given up the hope of discovering some new bed which would restore themine to its past splendor. Yes, he would willingly, had it been necessary, haveresumed the miner’s pick, and with his still stout arms vigorouslyattacked the rock. He went through the dark galleries, sometimes alone,sometimes with his son, examining, searching for signs of coal, only to returneach day, wearied, but not in despair, to the cottage.

Madge, Simon’s faithful companion, his “gude-wife,” to usethe Scotch term, was a tall, strong, comely woman. Madge had no wish to leavethe Dochart pit any more than had her husband. She shared all his hopes andregrets. She encouraged him, she urged him on, and talked to him in a way whichcheered the heart of the old overman. “Aberfoyle is only asleep,”she would say. “You are right about that, Simon. This is but a rest, itis not death!”

Madge, as well as the others, was perfectly satisfied to live independent ofthe outer world, and was the center of the happiness enjoyed by the littlefamily in their dark cottage.

The engineer was eagerly expected. Simon Ford was standing at his door, and assoon as Harry’s lamp announced the arrival of his former viewer headvanced to meet him.

“Welcome, Mr. Starr!” he exclaimed, his voice echoing under theroof of schist. “Welcome to the old overman’s cottage! Though it isburied fifteen hundred feet under the earth, our house is not the lesshospitable.”

“And how are you, good Simon?” asked James Starr, grasping the handwhich his host held out to him.

“Very well, Mr. Starr. How could I be otherwise here, sheltered from theinclemencies of the weather? Your ladies who go to Newhaven or Portobello inthe summer time would do much better to pass a few months in the coal mine ofAberfoyle! They would run no risk here of catching a heavy cold, as they do inthe damp streets of the old capital.”

“I’m not the man to contradict you, Simon,” answered JamesStarr, glad to find the old man just as he used to be. “Indeed, I wonderwhy I do not change my home in the Canongate for a cottage near you.”

“And why not, Mr. Starr? I know one of your old miners who would be trulypleased to have only a partition wall between you and him.”

“And how is Madge?” asked the engineer.

“The goodwife is in better health than I am, if that’spossible,” replied Ford, “and it will be a pleasure to her to seeyou at her table. I think she will surpass herself to do you honor.”

“We shall see that, Simon, we shall see that!” said the engineer,to whom the announcement of a good breakfast could not be indifferent, afterhis long walk.

“Are you hungry, Mr. Starr?”

“Ravenously hungry. My journey has given me an appetite. I came throughhorrible weather.”

“Ah, it is raining up there,” responded Simon Ford.

“Yes, Simon, and the waters of the Forth are as rough as the sea.”

“Well, Mr. Starr, here it never rains. But I needn’t describe toyou all the advantages, which you know as well as myself. Here we are at thecottage. That is the chief thing, and I again say you are welcome, sir.”

Simon Ford, followed by Harry, ushered their guest into the dwelling. JamesStarr found himself in a large room lighted by numerous lamps, one hanging fromthe colored beams of the roof.

“The soup is ready, wife,” said Ford, “and it mustn’tbe kept waiting any more than Mr. Starr. He is as hungry as a miner, and heshall see that our boy doesn’t let us want for anything in the cottage!By-the-bye, Harry,” added the old overman, turning to his son,“Jack Ryan came here to see you.”

“I know, father. We met him in the Yarrow shaft.”

“He’s an honest and a merry fellow,” said Ford; “but heseems to be quite happy above ground. He hasn’t the true miner’sblood in his veins. Sit down, Mr. Starr, and have a good dinner, for we may notsup till late.”

As the engineer and his hosts were taking their places:

“One moment, Simon,” said James Starr. “Do you want me to eatwith a good appetite?”

“It will be doing us all possible honor, Mr. Starr,” answered Ford.

“Well, in order to eat heartily, I must not be at all anxious. Now I havetwo questions to put to you.”

“Go on, sir.”

“Your letter told me of a communication which was to be of an interestingnature.”

“It is very interesting indeed.”

“To you?”

“To you and to me, Mr. Starr. But I do not want to tell it you untilafter dinner, and on the very spot itself. Without that you would not believeme.”

“Simon,” resumed the engineer, “look me straight in the face.An interesting communication? Yes. Good! I will not ask more,” he added,as if he had read the reply in the old overman’s eyes.

“And the second question?” asked the latter.

“Do you know, Simon, who the person is who can have written this?”answered the engineer, handing him the anonymous letter.

Ford took the letter and read it attentively. Then giving it to his son,“Do you know the writing?” he asked.

“No, father,” replied Harry.

“And had this letter the Aberfoyle postmark?” inquired Simon Ford.

“Yes, like yours,” replied James Starr.

“What do you think of that, Harry?” said his father, his browdarkening.

“I think, father,” returned Harry, “that someone has had someinterest in trying to prevent Mr. Starr from coming to the place where youinvited him.”

“But who,” exclaimed the old miner, “who could have possiblyguessed enough of my secret?” And Simon fell into a reverie, from whichhe was aroused by his wife.

“Let us begin, Mr. Starr,” she said. “The soup is alreadygetting cold. Don’t think any more of that letter just now.”

On the old woman’s invitation, each drew in his chair, James Starropposite to Madge—to do him honor—the father and son opposite toeach other. It was a good Scotch dinner. First they ate“hotchpotch,” soup with the meat swimming in capital broth. As oldSimon said, his wife knew no rival in the art of preparing hotchpotch. It wasthe same with the “cockyleeky,” a cock stewed with leeks, whichmerited high praise. The whole was washed down with excellent ale, obtainedfrom the best brewery in Edinburgh.

But the principal dish consisted of a “haggis,” the nationalpudding, made of meat and barley meal. This remarkable dish, which inspired thepoet Burns with one of his best odes, shared the fate of all the good things inthis world—it passed away like a dream.

Madge received the sincere compliments of her guest. The dinner ended withcheese and oatcake, accompanied by a few small glasses of“usquebaugh,” capital whisky, five and twenty years old—justHarry’s age. The repast lasted a good hour. James Starr and Simon Fordhad not only eaten much, but talked much too, chiefly of their past life in theold Aberfoyle mine.

Harry had been rather silent. Twice he had left the table, and even the house.He evidently felt uneasy since the incident of the stone, and wished to examinethe environs of the cottage. The anonymous letter had not contributed toreassure him.

Whilst he was absent, the engineer observed to Ford and his wife,“That’s a fine lad you have there, my friends.”

“Yes, Mr. Starr, he is a good and affectionate son,” replied theold overman earnestly.

“Is he happy with you in the cottage?”

“He would not wish to leave us.”

“Don’t you think of finding him a wife, some day?”

“A wife for Harry,” exclaimed Ford. “And who would it be? Agirl from up yonder, who would love merry-makings and dancing, who would preferher clan to our mine! Harry wouldn’t do it!”

“Simon,” said Madge, “you would not forbid that Harry shouldtake a wife.”

“I would forbid nothing,” returned the old miner, “butthere’s no hurry about that. Who knows but we may find one forhim—”

Harry re-entered at that moment, and Simon Ford was silent.

When Madge rose from the table, all followed her example, and seated themselvesat the door of the cottage. “Well, Simon,” said the engineer,“I am ready to hear you.”

“Mr. Starr,” responded Ford, “I do not need your ears, butyour legs. Are you quite rested?”

“Quite rested and quite refreshed, Simon. I am ready to go with youwherever you like.”

“Harry,” said Simon Ford, turning to his son, “light oursafety lamps.”

“Are you going to take safety lamps!” exclaimed James Starr, inamazement, knowing that there was no fear of explosions of fire-damp in a pitquite empty of coal.

“Yes, Mr. Starr, it will be prudent.”

“My good Simon, won’t you propose next to put me in a miner’sdress?”

“Not just yet, sir, not just yet!” returned the old overman, hisdeep-set eyes gleaming strangely.

Harry soon reappeared, carrying three safety lamps. He handed one of these tothe engineer, the other to his father, and kept the third hanging from his lefthand, whilst his right was armed with a long stick.

“Forward!” said Simon Ford, taking up a strong pick, which wasleaning against the wall of the cottage.

“Forward!” echoed the engineer. “Good-by, Madge.”

“Godspeed you!” responded the good woman.

“A good supper, wife, do you hear?” exclaimed Ford. “We shallbe hungry when we come back, and will do it justice!”

CHAPTER V.
SOME STRANGE PHENOMENA

Many superstitious beliefs exist both in the Highlands and Lowlands ofScotland. Of course the mining population must furnish its contingent oflegends and fables to this mythological repertory. If the fields are peopledwith imaginary beings, either good or bad, with much more reason must the darkmines be haunted to their lowest depths. Who shakes the seam during tempestuousnights? who puts the miners on the track of an as yet unworked vein? who lightsthe fire-damp, and presides over the terrible explosions? who but some spiritof the mine? This, at least, was the opinion commonly spread among thesuperstitious Scotch.

In the first rank of the believers in the supernatural in the Dochart pitfigured Jack Ryan, Harry’s friend. He was the great partisan of all thesesuperstitions. All these wild stories were turned by him into songs, whichearned him great applause in the winter evenings.

But Jack Ryan was not alone in his belief. His comrades affirmed, no lessstrongly, that the Aberfoyle pits were haunted, and that certain strange beingswere seen there frequently, just as in the Highlands. To hear them talk, itwould have been more extraordinary if nothing of the kind appeared. Could thereindeed be a better place than a dark and deep coal mine for the freaks offairies, elves, goblins, and other actors in the fantastical dramas? Thescenery was all ready, why should not the supernatural personages come there toplay their parts?

So reasoned Jack Ryan and his comrades in the Aberfoyle mines. We have saidthat the different pits communicated with each other by means of longsubterranean galleries. Thus there existed beneath the county of Stirling avast tract, full of burrows, tunnels, bored with caves, and perforated withshafts, a subterranean labyrinth, which might be compared to an enormousant-hill.

Miners, though belonging to different pits, often met, when going to orreturning from their work. Consequently there was a constant opportunity ofexchanging talk, and circulating the stories which had their origin in themine, from one pit to another. These accounts were transmitted with marvelousrapidity, passing from mouth to mouth, and gaining in wonder as they went.

Two men, however, better educated and with more practical minds than the rest,had always resisted this temptation. They in no degree believed in theintervention of spirits, elves, or goblins. These two were Simon Ford and hisson. And they proved it by continuing to inhabit the dismal crypt, after thedesertion of the Dochart pit. Perhaps good Madge, like every Highland woman,had some leaning towards the supernatural. But she had to repeat all thesestories to herself, and so she did, most conscientiously, so as not to let theold traditions be lost.

Even had Simon and Harry Ford been as credulous as their companions, they wouldnot have abandoned the mine to the imps and fairies. For ten years, withoutmissing a single day, obstinate and immovable in their convictions, the fatherand son took their picks, their sticks, and their lamps. They went aboutsearching, sounding the rock with a sharp blow, listening if it would return afavor-able sound. So long as the soundings had not been pushed to the graniteof the primary formation, the Fords were agreed that the search, unsuccessfulto-day, might succeed to-morrow, and that it ought to be resumed. They spenttheir whole life in endeavoring to bring Aberfoyle back to its formerprosperity. If the father died before the hour of success, the son was to go onwith the task alone.

It was during these excursions that Harry was more particularly struck bycertain phenomena, which he vainly sought to explain. Several times, whilewalking along some narrow cross-alley, he seemed to hear sounds similar tothose which would be produced by violent blows of a pickax against the wall.

Harry hastened to seek the cause of this mysterious work. The tunnel was empty.The light from the young miner’s lamp, thrown on the wall, revealed notrace of any recent work with pick or crowbar. Harry would then ask himself ifit was not the effect of some acoustic illusion, or some strange and fantasticecho. At other times, on suddenly throwing a bright light into asuspicious-looking cleft in the rock, he thought he saw a shadow. He rushedforward. Nothing, and there was no opening to permit a human being to evade hispursuit!

Twice in one month, Harry, whilst visiting the west end of the pit, distinctlyheard distant reports, as if some miner had exploded a charge of dynamite. Thesecond time, after many careful researches, he found that a pillar had justbeen blown up.

By the light of his lamp, Harry carefully examined the place attacked by theexplosion. It had not been made in a simple embankment of stones, but in a massof schist, which had penetrated to this depth in the coal stratum. Had theobject of the explosion been to discover a new vein? Or had someone wishedsimply to destroy this portion of the mine? Thus he questioned, and when hemade known this occurrence to his father, neither could the old overman nor hehimself answer the question in a satisfactory way.

“It is very queer,” Harry often repeated. “The presence of anunknown being in the mine seems impossible, and yet there can be no doubt aboutit. Does someone besides ourselves wish to find out if a seam yet exists? Or,rather, has he attempted to destroy what remains of the Aberfoyle mines? Butfor what reason? I will find that out, if it should cost me my life!”

A fortnight before the day on which Harry Ford guided the engineer through thelabyrinth of the Dochart pit, he had been on the point of attaining the objectof his search. He was going over the southwest end of the mine, with a largelantern in his hand. All at once, it seemed to him that a light was suddenlyextinguished, some hundred feet before him, at the end of a narrow passage cutobliquely through the rock. He darted forward.

His search was in vain. As Harry would not admit a supernatural explanation fora physical occurrence, he concluded that certainly some strange being prowledabout in the pit. But whatever he could do, searching with the greatest care,scrutinizing every crevice in the gallery, he found nothing for his trouble.

If Jack Ryan and the other superstitious fellows in the mine had seen theselights, they would, without fail, have called them supernatural, but Harry didnot dream of doing so, nor did his father. And when they talked over thesephenomena, evidently due to a physical cause, “My lad,” the old manwould say, “we must wait. It will all be explained some day.”

However, it must be observed that, hitherto, neither Harry nor his father hadever been exposed to any act of violence. If the stone which had fallen at thefeet of James Starr had been thrown by the hand of some ill-disposed person, itwas the first criminal act of that description.

James Starr was of opinion that the stone had become detached from the roof ofthe gallery; but Harry would not admit of such a simple explanation. Accordingto him, the stone had not fallen, it had been thrown; for otherwise, withoutrebounding, it could never have described a trajectory as it did.

Harry saw in it a direct attempt against himself and his father, or evenagainst the engineer.

CHAPTER VI.
SIMON FORD’S EXPERIMENT

The old clock in the cottage struck one as James Starr and his two companionswent out. A dim light penetrated through the ventilating shaft into the glade.Harry’s lamp was not necessary here, but it would very soon be of use,for the old overman was about to conduct the engineer to the very end of theDochart pit.

After following the principal gallery for a distance of two miles, the threeexplorers—for, as will be seen, this was a regularexploration—arrived at the entrance of a narrow tunnel. It was like anave, the roof of which rested on woodwork, covered with white moss. Itfollowed very nearly the line traced by the course of the river Forth, fifteenhundred feet above.

“So we are going to the end of the last vein?” said James Starr.

“Ay! You know the mine well still.”

“Well, Simon,” returned the engineer, “it will be difficultto go further than that, if I don’t mistake.”

“Yes, indeed, Mr. Starr. That was where our picks tore out the last bitof coal in the seam. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I myself gave thatlast blow, and it re-echoed in my heart more dismally than on the rock. Onlysandstone and schist were round us after that, and when the truck rolledtowards the shaft, I followed, with my heart as full as though it were afuneral. It seemed to me that the soul of the mine was going with it.”

The gravity with which the old man uttered these words impressed the engineer,who was not far from sharing his sentiments. They were those of the sailor wholeaves his disabled vessel—of the proprietor who sees the house of hisancestors pulled down. He pressed Ford’s hand; but now the latter seizedthat of the engineer, and, wringing it:

“That day we were all of us mistaken,” he exclaimed. “No! Theold mine was not dead. It was not a corpse that the miners abandoned; and Idare to assert, Mr. Starr, that its heart beats still.”

“Speak, Ford! Have you discovered a new vein?” cried the engineer,unable to contain himself. “I know you have! Your letter could meannothing else.”

“Mr. Starr,” said Simon Ford, “I did not wish to tell any manbut yourself.”

“And you did quite right, Ford. But tell me how, by what signs, are yousure?”

“Listen, sir!” resumed Simon. “It is not a seam that I havefound.”

“What is it, then?”

“Only positive proof that such a seam exists.”

“And the proof?”

“Could fire-damp issue from the bowels of the earth if coal was not thereto produce it?”

“No, certainly not!” replied the engineer. “No coal, nofire-damp. No effects without a cause.”

“Just as no smoke without fire.”

“And have you recognized the presence of light carburettedhydrogen?”

“An old miner could not be deceived,” answered Ford. “I havemet with our old enemy, the fire-damp!”

“But suppose it was another gas,” said Starr. “Firedamp isalmost without smell, and colorless. It only really betrays its presence by anexplosion.”

“Mr. Starr,” said Simon Ford, “will you let me tell you whatI have done? Harry had once or twice observed something remarkable in hisexcursions to the west end of the mine. Fire, which suddenly went out,sometimes appeared along the face of the rock or on the embankment of thefurther galleries. How those flames were lighted, I could not and cannot say.But they were evidently owing to the presence of fire-damp, and to me fire-dampmeans a vein of coal.”

“Did not these fires cause any explosion?” asked the engineerquickly.

“Yes, little partial explosions,” replied Ford, “such as Iused to cause myself when I wished to ascertain the presence of fire-damp. Doyou remember how formerly it was the custom to try to prevent explosions beforeour good genius, Humphry Davy, invented his safety-lamp?”

“Yes,” replied James Starr. “You mean what the‘monk,’ as the men called him, used to do. But I have never seenhim in the exercise of his duty.”

“Indeed, Mr. Starr, you are too young, in spite of your five-and-fiftyyears, to have seen that. But I, ten years older, often saw the last‘monk’ working in the mine. He was called so because he wore a longrobe like a monk. His proper name was the ‘fireman.’ At that timethere was no other means of destroying the bad gas but by dispersing it inlittle explosions, before its buoyancy had collected it in too great quantitiesin the heights of the galleries. The monk, as we called him, with his facemasked, his head muffled up, all his body tightly wrapped in a thick feltcloak, crawled along the ground. He could breathe down there, when the air waspure; and with his right hand he waved above his head a blazing torch. When thefiredamp had accumulated in the air, so as to form a detonating mixture, theexplosion occurred without being fatal, and, by often renewing this operation,catastrophes were prevented. Sometimes the ‘monk’ was injured orkilled in his work, then another took his place. This was done in all minesuntil the Davy lamp was universally adopted. But I knew the plan, and by itsmeans I discovered the presence of firedamp and consequently that of a new seamof coal in the Dochart pit.”

All that the old overman had related of the so-called “monk” or“fireman” was perfectly true. The air in the galleries of mines wasformerly always purified in the way described.

Fire-damp, marsh-gas, or carburetted hydrogen, is colorless, almost scentless;it burns with a blue flame, and makes respiration impossible. The miner couldnot live in a place filled with this injurious gas, any more than one couldlive in a gasometer full of common gas. Moreover, fire-damp, as well as thelatter, a mixture of inflammable gases, forms a detonating mixture as soon asthe air unites with it in a proportion of eight, and perhaps even five to thehundred. When this mixture is lighted by any cause, there is an explosion,almost always followed by a frightful catastrophe.

As they walked on, Simon Ford told the engineer all that he had done to attainhis object; how he was sure that the escape of fire-damp took place at the veryend of the farthest gallery in its western part, because he had provoked smalland partial explosions, or rather little flames, enough to show the nature ofthe gas, which escaped in a small jet, but with a continuous flow.

An hour after leaving the cottage, James Starr and his two companions had gonea distance of four miles. The engineer, urged by anxiety and hope, walked onwithout noticing the length of the way. He pondered over all that the old minerhad told him, and mentally weighed all the arguments which the latter had givenin support of his belief. He agreed with him in thinking that the continuedemission of carburetted hydrogen certainly showed the existence of a newcoal-seam. If it had been merely a sort of pocket, full of gas, as it issometimes found amongst the rock, it would soon have been empty, and thephenomenon have ceased. But far from that. According to Simon Ford, thefire-damp escaped incessantly, and from that fact the existence of an importantvein might be considered certain. Consequently, the riches of the Dochart pitwere not entirely exhausted. The chief question now was, whether this wasmerely a vein which would yield comparatively little, or a bed occupying alarge extent.

Harry, who preceded his father and the engineer, stopped.

“Here we are!” exclaimed the old miner. “At last, thankHeaven! you are here, Mr. Starr, and we shall soon know.” The oldoverman’s voice trembled slightly.

“Be calm, my man!” said the engineer. “I am as excited as youare, but we must not lose time.”

The gallery at this end of the pit widened into a sort of dark cave. No shafthad been pierced in this part, and the gallery, bored into the bowels of theearth, had no direct communication with the surface of the earth.

James Starr, with intense interest, examined the place in which they werestanding. On the walls of the cavern the marks of the pick could still be seen,and even holes in which the rock had been blasted, near the termination of theworking. The schist was excessively hard, and it had not been necessary to bankup the end of the tunnel where the works had come to an end. There the vein hadfailed, between the schist and the tertiary sandstone. From this very place hadbeen extracted the last piece of coal from the Dochart pit.

“We must attack the dyke,” said Ford, raising his pick; “forat the other side of the break, at more or less depth, we shall assuredly findthe vein, the existence of which I assert.”

“And was it on the surface of these rocks that you found out thefire-damp?” asked James Starr.

“Just there, sir,” returned Ford, “and I was able to light itonly by bringing my lamp near to the cracks in the rock. Harry has done it aswell as I.”

“At what height?” asked Starr.

“Ten feet from the ground,” replied Harry.

James Starr had seated himself on a rock. After critically inhaling the air ofthe cavern, he gazed at the two miners, almost as if doubting their words,decided as they were. In fact, carburetted hydrogen is not completelyscentless, and the engineer, whose sense of smell was very keen, was astonishedthat it had not revealed the presence of the explosive gas. At any rate, if thegas had mingled at all with the surrounding air, it could only be in a verysmall stream. There was no danger of an explosion, and they might without fearopen the safety lamp to try the experiment, just as the old miner had donebefore.

What troubled James Starr was, not lest too much gas mingled with the air, butlest there should be little or none.

“Could they have been mistaken?” he murmured. “No: these menknow what they are about. And yet—”

He waited, not without some anxiety, until Simon Ford’s phenomenon shouldhave taken place. But just then it seemed that Harry, like himself, hadremarked the absence of the characteristic odor of fire-damp; for he exclaimedin an altered voice, “Father, I should say the gas was no longer escapingthrough the cracks!”

“No longer!” cried the old miner—and, pressing his lips tighttogether, he snuffed the air several times.

Then, all at once, with a sudden movement, “Hand me your lamp,Harry,” he said.

Ford took the lamp with a trembling hand. He drew off the wire gauze case whichsurrounded the wick, and the flame burned in the open air.

As they had expected, there was no explosion, but, what was more serious, therewas not even the slight crackling which indicates the presence of a smallquantity of firedamp. Simon took the stick which Harry was holding, fixed hislamp to the end of it, and raised it high above his head, up to where the gas,by reason of its buoyancy, would naturally accumulate. The flame of the lamp,burning straight and clear, revealed no trace of the carburetted hydrogen.

“Close to the wall,” said the engineer.

“Yes,” responded Ford, carrying the lamp to that part of the wallat which he and his son had, the evening before, proved the escape of gas.

The old miner’s arm trembled whilst he tried to hoist the lamp up.“Take my place, Harry,” said he.

Harry took the stick, and successively presented the lamp to the differentfissures in the rock; but he shook his head, for of that slight cracklingpeculiar to escaping fire-damp he heard nothing. There was no flame. Evidentlynot a particle of gas was escaping through the rock.

“Nothing!” cried Ford, clenching his fist with a gesture rather ofanger than disappointment.

A cry escaped Harry.

“What’s the matter?” asked Starr quickly.

“Someone has stopped up the cracks in the schist!”

“Is that true?” exclaimed the old miner.

“Look, father!” Harry was not mistaken. The obstruction of thefissures was clearly visible by the light of the lamp. It had been recentlydone with lime, leaving on the rock a long whitish mark, badly concealed withcoal dust.

“It’s he!” exclaimed Harry. “It can only be he!”

“He?” repeated James Starr in amazement.

“Yes!” returned the young man, “that mysterious being whohaunts our domain, for whom I have watched a hundred times without being ableto get at him—the author, we may now be certain, of that letter which wasintended to hinder you from coming to see my father, Mr. Starr, and who finallythrew that stone at us in the gallery of the Yarrow shaft! Ah! there’s nodoubt about it; there is a man’s hand in all that!”

Harry spoke with such energy that conviction came instantly and fully to theengineer’s mind. As to the old overman, he was already convinced.Besides, there they were in the presence of an undeniable fact—thestopping-up of cracks through which gas had escaped freely the night before.

“Take your pick, Harry,” cried Ford; “mount on my shoulders,my lad! I am still strong enough to bear you!” The young man understoodin an instant. His father propped himself up against the rock. Harry got uponhis shoulders, so that with his pick he could reach the line of the fissure.Then with quick sharp blows he attacked it. Almost directly afterwards a slightsound was heard, like champagne escaping from a bottle—a sound commonlyexpressed by the word “puff.”

Harry again seized his lamp, and held it to the opening. There was a slightreport; and a little red flame, rather blue at its outline, flickered over therock like a Will-o’-the-Wisp.

Harry leaped to the ground, and the old overman, unable to contain his joy,grasped the engineer’s hands, exclaiming, “Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!Mr. Starr. The fire-damp burns! the vein is there!”

CHAPTER VII.
NEW ABERFOYLE

The old overman’s experiment had succeeded. Firedamp, it is well known,is only generated in coal seams; therefore the existence of a vein of preciouscombustible could no longer be doubted. As to its size and quality, that mustbe determined later.

“Yes,” thought James Starr, “behind that wall lies acarboniferous bed, undiscovered by our soundings. It is vexatious that all theapparatus of the mine, deserted for ten years, must be set up anew. Never mind.We have found the vein which was thought to be exhausted, and this time itshall be worked to the end!”

“Well, Mr. Starr,” asked Ford, “what do you think of ourdiscovery? Was I wrong to trouble you? Are you sorry to have paid this visit tothe Dochart pit?”

“No, no, my old friend!” answered Starr. “We have not lostour time; but we shall be losing it now, if we do not return immediately to thecottage. To-morrow we will come back here. We will blast this wall withdynamite. We will lay open the new vein, and after a series of soundings, ifthe seam appears to be large, I will form a new Aberfoyle Company, to the greatsatisfaction of the old shareholders. Before three months have passed, thefirst corves full of coal will have been taken from the new vein.”

“Well said, sir!” cried Simon Ford. “The old mine will growyoung again, like a widow who remarries! The bustle of the old days will soonbegin with the blows of the pick, and mattock, blasts of powder, rumbling ofwagons, neighing of horses, creaking of machines! I shall see it all again! Ihope, Mr. Starr, that you will not think me too old to resume my duties ofoverman?”

“No, Simon, no indeed! You wear better than I do, my old friend!”

“And, sir, you shall be our viewer again. May the new working last formany years, and pray Heaven I shall have the consolation of dying withoutseeing the end of it!”

The old miner was overflowing with joy. James Starr fully entered into it; buthe let Ford rave for them both. Harry alone remained thoughtful. To his memoryrecurred the succession of singular, inexplicable circumstances attending thediscovery of the new bed. It made him uneasy about the future.

An hour afterwards, James Starr and his two companions were back in thecottage. The engineer supped with good appetite, listening with satisfaction toall the plans unfolded by the old overman; and had it not been for hisexcitement about the next day’s work, he would never have slept betterthan in the perfect stillness of the cottage.

The following day, after a substantial breakfast, James Starr, Simon Ford,Harry, and even Madge herself, took the road already traversed the day before.All looked like regular miners. They carried different tools, and some dynamitewith which to blast the rock. Harry, besides a large lantern, took a safetylamp, which would burn for twelve hours. It was more than was necessary for thejourney there and back, including the time for the working—supposing aworking was possible.

“To work! to work!” shouted Ford, when the party reached thefurther end of the passage; and he grasped a heavy crowbar and brandished it.

“Stop one instant,” said Starr. “Let us see if any change hastaken place, and if the fire-damp still escapes through the crevices.”

“You are right, Mr. Starr,” said Harry. “Whoever stopped itup yesterday may have done it again to-day!”

Madge, seated on a rock, carefully observed the excavation, and the wall whichwas to be blasted.

It was found that everything was just as they left it. The crevices hadundergone no alteration; the carburetted hydrogen still filtered through,though in a small stream, which was no doubt because it had had a free passagesince the day before. As the quantity was so small, it could not have formed anexplosive mixture with the air inside. James Starr and his companions couldtherefore proceed in security. Besides, the air grew purer by rising to theheights of the Dochart pit; and the fire-damp, spreading through theatmosphere, would not be strong enough to make any explosion.

“To work, then!” repeated Ford; and soon the rock flew in splintersunder his skillful blows. The break was chiefly composed of pudding-stone,interspersed with sandstone and schist, such as is most often met with betweenthe coal veins. James Starr picked up some of the pieces, and examined themcarefully, hoping to discover some trace of coal.

Starr having chosen the place where the holes were to be drilled, they wererapidly bored by Harry. Some cartridges of dynamite were put into them. As soonas the long, tarred safety match was laid, it was lighted on a level with theground. James Starr and his companions then went off to some distance.

“Oh! Mr. Starr,” said Simon Ford, a prey to agitation, which he didnot attempt to conceal, “never, no, never has my old heart beaten soquick before! I am longing to get at the vein!”

“Patience, Simon!” responded the engineer. “You don’tmean to say that you think you are going to find a passage all ready openbehind that dyke?”

“Excuse me, sir,” answered the old overman; “but of course Ithink so! If there was good luck in the way Harry and I discovered this place,why shouldn’t the good luck go on?”

As he spoke, came the explosion. A sound as of thunder rolled through thelabyrinth of subterranean galleries. Starr, Madge, Harry, and Simon Fordhastened towards the spot.

“Mr. Starr! Mr. Starr!” shouted the overman. “Look! the dooris broken open!”

Ford’s comparison was justified by the appearance of an excavation, thedepth of which could not be calculated. Harry was about to spring through theopening; but the engineer, though excessively surprised to find this cavity,held him back. “Allow time for the air in there to get pure,” saidhe.

“Yes! beware of the foul air!” said Simon.

A quarter of an hour was passed in anxious waiting. The lantern was thenfastened to the end of a stick, and introduced into the cave, where itcontinued to burn with unaltered brilliancy. “Now then, Harry, go,”said Starr, “and we will follow you.”

The opening made by the dynamite was sufficiently large to allow a man to passthrough. Harry, lamp in hand, entered unhesitatingly, and disappeared in thedarkness. His father, mother, and James Starr waited in silence. Aminute—which seemed to them much longer—passed. Harry did notreappear, did not call. Gazing into the opening, James Starr could not even seethe light of his lamp, which ought to have illuminated the dark cavern.

Had the ground suddenly given way under Harry’s feet? Had the young minerfallen into some crevice? Could his voice no longer reach his companions?

The old overman, dead to their remonstrances, was about to enter the opening,when a light appeared, dim at first, but gradually growing brighter, andHarry’s voice was heard shouting, “Come, Mr. Starr! come, father!The road to New Aberfoyle is open!”

If, by some superhuman power, engineers could have raised in a block, athousand feet thick, all that portion of the terrestrial crust which supportsthe lakes, rivers, gulfs, and territories of the counties of Stirling,Dumbarton, and Renfrew, they would have found, under that enormous lid, animmense excavation, to which but one other in the world can becompared—the celebrated Mammoth caves of Kentucky. This excavation wascomposed of several hundred divisions of all sizes and shapes. It might becalled a hive with numberless ranges of cells, capriciously arranged, but ahive on a vast scale, and which, instead of bees, might have lodged all theichthyosauri, megatheriums, and pterodactyles of the geological epoch.

A labyrinth of galleries, some higher than the most lofty cathedrals, otherslike cloisters, narrow and winding—these following a horizontal line,those on an incline or running obliquely in all directions—connected thecaverns and allowed free communication between them.

The pillars sustaining the vaulted roofs, whose curves allowed of every style,the massive walls between the passages, the naves themselves in this layer ofsecondary formation, were composed of sandstone and schistous rocks. Buttightly packed between these useless strata ran valuable veins of coal, as ifthe black blood of this strange mine had circulated through their tanglednetwork. These fields extended forty miles north and south, and stretched evenunder the Caledonian Canal. The importance of this bed could not be calculateduntil after soundings, but it would certainly surpass those of Cardiff andNewcastle.

We may add that the working of this mine would be singularly facilitated by thefantastic dispositions of the secondary earths; for by an unaccountable retreatof the mineral matter at the geological epoch, when the mass was solidifying,nature had already multiplied the galleries and tunnels of New Aberfoyle.

Yes, nature alone! It might at first have been supposed that some worksabandoned for centuries had been discovered afresh. Nothing of the sort. No onewould have deserted such riches. Human termites had never gnawed away this partof the Scottish subsoil; nature herself had done it all. But, we repeat, itcould be compared to nothing but the celebrated Mammoth caves, which, in anextent of more than twenty miles, contain two hundred and twenty-six avenues,eleven lakes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty-two unfathomable wells, andfifty-seven domes, some of which are more than four hundred and fifty feet inheight. Like these caves, New Aberfoyle was not the work of men, but the workof the Creator.

Such was this new domain, of matchless wealth, the discovery of which belongedentirely to the old overman. Ten years’ sojourn in the deserted mine, anuncommon pertinacity in research, perfect faith, sustained by a marvelousmining instinct—all these qualities together led him to succeed where somany others had failed. Why had the soundings made under the direction of JamesStarr during the last years of the working stopped just at that limit, on thevery frontier of the new mine? That was all chance, which takes great part inresearches of this kind.

However that might be, there was, under the Scottish subsoil, what might becalled a subterranean county, which, to be habitable, needed only the rays ofthe sun, or, for want of that, the light of a special planet.

Water had collected in various hollows, forming vast ponds, or rather lakeslarger than Loch Katrine, lying just above them. Of course the waters of theselakes had no movement of currents or tides; no old castle was reflected there;no birch or oak trees waved on their banks. And yet these deep lakes, whosemirror-like surface was never ruffled by a breeze, would not be without charmby the light of some electric star, and, connected by a string of canals, wouldwell complete the geography of this strange domain.

Although unfit for any vegetable production, the place could be inhabited by awhole population. And who knows but that in this steady temperature, in thedepths of the mines of Aberfoyle, as well as in those of Newcastle, Alloa, orCardiff—when their contents shall have been exhausted—who knows butthat the poorer classes of Great Britain will some day find a refuge?

CHAPTER VIII.
EXPLORING

At Harry’s call, James Starr, Madge, and Simon Ford entered through thenarrow orifice which put the Dochart pit in communication with the new mine.They found themselves at the beginning of a tolerably wide gallery. One mightwell believe that it had been pierced by the hand of man, that the pick andmattock had emptied it in the working of a new vein. The explorers questionwhether, by a strange chance, they had not been transported into some ancientmine, of the existence of which even the oldest miners in the county had everknown.

No! It was merely that the geological layers had left this passage when thesecondary earths were in course of formation. Perhaps some torrent had formerlydashed through it; but now it was as dry as if it had been cut some thousandfeet lower, through granite rocks. At the same time, the air circulated freely,which showed that certain natural vents placed it in communication with theexterior atmosphere.

This observation, made by the engineer, was correct, and it was evident thatthe ventilation of the new mine would be easily managed. As to the fire-dampwhich had lately filtered through the schist, it seemed to have been containedin a pocket now empty, and it was certain that the atmosphere of the gallerywas quite free from it. However, Harry prudently carried only the safety lamp,which would insure light for twelve hours.

James Starr and his companions now felt perfectly happy. All their wishes weresatisfied. There was nothing but coal around them. A sort of emotion kept themsilent; even Simon Ford restrained himself. His joy overflowed, not in longphrases, but in short ejaculations.

It was perhaps imprudent to venture so far into the crypt. Pooh! they neverthought of how they were to get back.

The gallery was practicable, not very winding. They met with no noxiousexhalations, nor did any chasm bar the path. There was no reason for stoppingfor a whole hour; James Starr, Madge, Harry, and Simon Ford walked on, thoughthere was nothing to show them what was the exact direction of this unknowntunnel.

And they would no doubt have gone farther still, if they had not suddenly cometo the end of the wide road which they had followed since their entrance intothe mine.

The gallery ended in an enormous cavern, neither the height nor depth of whichcould be calculated. At what altitude arched the roof of thisexcavation—at what distance was its opposite wall—the darknesstotally concealed; but by the light of the lamp the explorers could discoverthat its dome covered a vast extent of still water—pond orlake—whose picturesque rocky banks were lost in obscurity.

“Halt!” exclaimed Ford, stopping suddenly. “Another step, andperhaps we shall fall into some fathomless pit.”

“Let us rest awhile, then, my friends,” returned the engineer.“Besides, we ought to be thinking of returning to the cottage.”

“Our lamp will give light for another ten hours, sir,” said Harry.

“Well, let us make a halt,” replied Starr; “I confess my legshave need of a rest. And you, Madge, don’t you feel tired after so long awalk?”

“Not over much, Mr. Starr,” replied the sturdy Scotchwoman;“we have been accustomed to explore the old Aberfoyle mine for whole daystogether.”

“Tired? nonsense!” interrupted Simon Ford; “Madge could goten times as far, if necessary. But once more, Mr. Starr, wasn’t mycommunication worth your trouble in coming to hear it? Just dare to say no, Mr.Starr, dare to say no!”

“Well, my old friend, I haven’t felt so happy for a longwhile!” replied the engineer; “the small part of this marvelousmine that we have explored seems to show that its extent is very considerable,at least in length.”

“In width and in depth, too, Mr. Starr!” returned Simon Ford.

“That we shall know later.”

“And I can answer for it! Trust to the instinct of an old miner! It hasnever deceived me!”

“I wish to believe you, Simon,” replied the engineer, smiling.“As far as I can judge from this short exploration, we possess theelements of a working which will last for centuries!”

“Centuries!” exclaimed Simon Ford; “I believe you, sir! Athousand years and more will pass before the last bit of coal is taken out ofour new mine!”

“Heaven grant it!” returned Starr. “As to the quality of thecoal which crops out of these walls?”

“Superb! Mr. Starr, superb!” answered Ford; “just look at ityourself!”

And so saying, with his pick he struck off a fragment of the black rock.

“Look! look!” he repeated, holding it close to his lamp; “thesurface of this piece of coal is shining! We have here fat coal, rich inbituminous matter; and see how it comes in pieces, almost without dust! Ah, Mr.Starr! twenty years ago this seam would have entered into a strong competitionwith Swansea and Cardiff! Well, stokers will quarrel for it still, and if itcosts little to extract it from the mine, it will not sell at a less priceoutside.”

“Indeed,” said Madge, who had taken the fragment of coal and wasexamining it with the air of a connoisseur; “that’s good quality ofcoal. Carry it home, Simon, carry it back to the cottage! I want this firstpiece of coal to burn under our kettle.”

“Well said, wife!” answered the old overman, “and you shallsee that I am not mistaken.”

“Mr. Starr,” asked Harry, “have you any idea of the probabledirection of this long passage which we have been following since our entranceinto the new mine?”

“No, my lad,” replied the engineer; “with a compass I couldperhaps find out its general bearing; but without a compass I am here like asailor in open sea, in the midst of fogs, when there is no sun by which tocalculate his position.”

“No doubt, Mr. Starr,” replied Ford; “but pray don’tcompare our position with that of the sailor, who has everywhere and always anabyss under his feet! We are on firm ground here, and need never be afraid offoundering.”

“I won’t tease you, then, old Simon,” answered James Starr.“Far be it from me even in jest to depreciate the New Aberfoyle mine byan unjust comparison! I only meant to say one thing, and that is that wedon’t know where we are.”

“We are in the subsoil of the county of Stirling, Mr. Starr,”replied Simon Ford; “and that I assert as if—”

“Listen!” said Harry, interrupting the old man. All listened, asthe young miner was doing. His ears, which were very sharp, had caught a dullsound, like a distant murmur. His companions were not long in hearing itthemselves. It was above their heads, a sort of rolling sound, in which thoughit was so feeble, the successive crescendoand diminuendocouldbe distinctly heard.

All four stood for some minutes, their ears on the stretch, without uttering aword. All at once Simon Ford exclaimed, “Well, I declare! Are trucksalready running on the rails of New Aberfoyle?”

“Father,” replied Harry, “it sounds to me just like the noisemade by waves rolling on the sea shore.”

“We can’t be under the sea though!” cried the old overman.

“No,” said the engineer, “but it is not impossible that weshould be under Loch Katrine.”

“The roof cannot have much thickness just here, if the noise of the wateris perceptible.”

“Very little indeed,” answered James Starr, “and that is thereason this cavern is so huge.”

“You must be right, Mr. Starr,” said Harry.

“Besides, the weather is so bad outside,” resumed Starr,“that the waters of the loch must be as rough as those of the Firth ofForth.”

“Well! what does it matter after all?” returned Simon Ford;“the seam won’t be any the worse because it is under a loch. Itwould not be the first time that coal has been looked for under the very bed ofthe ocean! When we have to work under the bottom of the Caledonian Canal, wherewill be the harm?”

“Well said, Simon,” cried the engineer, who could not restrain asmile at the overman’s enthusiasm; “let us cut our trenches underthe waters of the sea! Let us bore the bed of the Atlantic like a strainer; letus with our picks join our brethren of the United States through the subsoil ofthe ocean! let us dig into the center of the globe if necessary, to tear outthe last scrap of coal.”

“Are you joking, Mr. Starr?” asked Ford, with a pleased butslightly suspicious look.

“I joking, old man? no! but you are so enthusiastic that you carry meaway into the regions of impossibility! Come, let us return to the reality,which is sufficiently beautiful; leave our picks here, where we may find themanother day, and let’s take the road back to the cottage.”

Nothing more could be done for the time. Later, the engineer, accompanied by abrigade of miners, supplied with lamps and all necessary tools, would resumethe exploration of New Aberfoyle. It was now time to return to the Dochart pit.The road was easy, the gallery running nearly straight through the rock up tothe orifice opened by the dynamite, so there was no fear of their losingthemselves.

But as James Starr was proceeding towards the gallery Simon Ford stopped him.

“Mr. Starr,” said he, “you see this immense cavern, thissubterranean lake, whose waters bathe this strand at our feet? Well! it is tothis place I mean to change my dwelling, here I will build a new cottage, andif some brave fellows will follow my example, before a year is over there willbe one town more inside old England.”

James Starr, smiling approval of Ford’s plans, pressed his hand, and allthree, preceding Madge, re-entered the gallery, on their way back to theDochart pit. For the first mile no incident occurred. Harry walked first,holding his lamp above his head. He carefully followed the principal gallery,without ever turning aside into the narrow tunnels which radiated to the rightand left. It seemed as if the returning was to be accomplished as easily as thegoing, when an unexpected accident occurred which rendered the situation of theexplorers very serious.

Just at a moment when Harry was raising his lamp there came a rush of air, asif caused by the flapping of invisible wings. The lamp escaped from his hands,fell on the rocky ground, and was broken to pieces.

James Starr and his companions were suddenly plunged in absolute darkness. Allthe oil of the lamp was spilt, and it was of no further use. “Well,Harry,” cried his father, “do you want us all to break our necks onthe way back to the cottage?”

Harry did not answer. He wondered if he ought to suspect the hand of amysterious being in this last accident? Could there possibly exist in thesedepths an enemy whose unaccountable antagonism would one day create seriousdifficulties? Had someone an interest in defending the new coal field againstany attempt at working it? In truth that seemed absurd, yet the facts spoke forthemselves, and they accumulated in such a way as to change simple presumptionsinto certainties.

In the meantime the explorers’ situation was bad enough. They had now, inthe midst of black darkness, to follow the passage leading to the Dochart pitfor nearly five miles. There they would still have an hour’s walk beforereaching the cottage.

“Come along,” said Simon Ford. “We have no time to lose. Wemust grope our way along, like blind men. There’s no fear of losing ourway. The tunnels which open off our road are only just like those in amolehill, and by following the chief gallery we shall of course reach theopening we got in at. After that, it is the old mine. We know that, and itwon’t be the first time that Harry and I have found ourselves there inthe dark. Besides, there we shall find the lamps that we left. Forward then!Harry, go first. Mr. Starr, follow him. Madge, you go next, and I will bring upthe rear. Above everything, don’t let us get separated.”

All complied with the old overman’s instructions. As he said, by gropingcarefully, they could not mistake the way. It was only necessary to make thehands take the place of the eyes, and to trust to their instinct, which hadwith Simon Ford and his son become a second nature.

James Starr and his companions walked on in the order agreed. They did notspeak, but it was not for want of thinking. It became evident that they had anadversary. But what was he, and how were they to defend themselves againstthese mysteriously-prepared attacks? These disquieting ideas crowded into theirbrains. However, this was not the moment to get discouraged.

Harry, his arms extended, advanced with a firm step, touching first one andthen the other side of the passage.

If a cleft or side opening presented itself, he felt with his hand that it wasnot the main way; either the cleft was too shallow, or the opening too narrow,and he thus kept in the right road.

In darkness through which the eye could not in the slightest degree pierce,this difficult return lasted two hours. By reckoning the time since theystarted, taking into consideration that the walking had not been rapid, Starrcalculated that he and his companions were near the opening. In fact, almostimmediately, Harry stopped.

“Have we got to the end of the gallery?” asked Simon Ford.

“Yes,” answered the young miner.

“Well! have you not found the hole which connects New Aberfoyle with theDochart pit?”

“No,” replied Harry, whose impatient hands met with nothing but asolid wall.

The old overman stepped forward, and himself felt the schistous rock. A cryescaped him.

Either the explorers had strayed from the right path on their return, or thenarrow orifice, broken in the rock by the dynamite, had been recently stoppedup. James Starr and his companions were prisoners in New Aberfoyle.

CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRE-MAIDENS

A week after the events just related had taken place, James Starr’sfriends had become very anxious. The engineer had disappeared, and no reasoncould be brought forward to explain his absence. They learnt, by questioninghis servant, that he had embarked at Granton Pier. But from that time therewere no traces of James Starr. Simon Ford’s letter had requested secrecy,and he had said nothing of his departure for the Aberfoyle mines.

Therefore in Edinburgh nothing was talked of but the unaccountable absence ofthe engineer. Sir W. Elphiston, the President of the Royal Institution,communicated to his colleagues a letter which James Starr had sent him,excusing himself from being present at the next meeting of the society. Two orthree others produced similar letters. But though these documents proved thatStarr had left Edinburgh—which was known before—they threw no lighton what had become of him. Now, on the part of such a man, this prolongedabsence, so contrary to his usual habits, naturally first caused surprise, andthen anxiety.

A notice was inserted in the principal newspapers of the United Kingdomrelative to the engineer James Starr, giving a description of him and the dateon which he left Edinburgh; nothing more could be done but to wait. The timepassed in great anxiety. The scientific world of England was inclined tobelieve that one of its most distinguished members had positively disappeared.At the same time, when so many people were thinking about James Starr, HarryFord was the subject of no less anxiety. Only, instead of occupying publicattention, the son of the old overman was the cause of trouble alone to thegenerally cheerful mind of Jack Ryan.

It may be remembered that, in their encounter in the Yarrow shaft, Jack Ryanhad invited Harry to come a week afterwards to the festivities at Irvine. Harryhad accepted and promised expressly to be there. Jack Ryan knew, having had itproved by many circumstances, that his friend was a man of his word. With him,a thing promised was a thing done. Now, at the Irvine merry-making, nothing waswanting; neither song, nor dance, nor fun of any sort—nothing but HarryFord.

The notice relative to James Starr, published in the papers, had not yet beenseen by Ryan. The honest fellow was therefore only worried by Harry’sabsence, telling himself that something serious could alone have prevented himfrom keeping his promise. So, the day after the Irvine games, Jack Ryanintended to take the railway from Glasgow and go to the Dochart pit; and thishe would have done had he not been detained by an accident which nearly costhim his life. Something which occurred on the night of the 12th of December wasof a nature to support the opinions of all partisans of the supernatural, andthere were many at Melrose Farm.

Irvine, a little seaport of Renfrew, containing nearly seven thousandinhabitants, lies in a sharp bend made by the Scottish coast, near the mouth ofthe Firth of Clyde. The most ancient and the most famed ruins on this part ofthe coast were those of this castle of Robert Stuart, which bore the name ofDundonald Castle.

At this period Dundonald Castle, a refuge for all the stray goblins of thecountry, was completely deserted. It stood on the top of a high rock, two milesfrom the town, and was seldom visited. Sometimes a few strangers took it intotheir heads to explore these old historical remains, but then they always wentalone. The inhabitants of Irvine would not have taken them there at any price.Indeed, several legends were based on the story of certain“fire-maidens,” who haunted the old castle.

The most superstitious declared they had seen these fantastic creatures withtheir own eyes. Jack Ryan was naturally one of them. It was a fact that fromtime to time long flames appeared, sometimes on a broken piece of wall,sometimes on the summit of the tower which was the highest point of DundonaldCastle.

Did these flames really assume a human shape, as was asserted? Did they meritthe name of fire-maidens, given them by the people of the coast? It wasevidently just an optical delusion, aided by a good deal of credulity, andscience could easily have explained the phenomenon.

However that might be, these fire-maidens had the reputation of frequenting theruins of the old castle and there performing wild strathspeys, especially ondark nights. Jack Ryan, bold fellow though he was, would never have dared toaccompany those dances with the music of his bagpipes.

“Old Nick is enough for them!” said he. “He doesn’tneed me to complete his infernal orchestra.”

We may well believe that these strange apparitions frequently furnished a textfor the evening stories. Jack Ryan was ending the evening with one of these.His auditors, transported into the phantom world, were worked up into a stateof mind which would believe anything.

All at once shouts were heard outside. Jack Ryan stopped short in the middle ofhis story, and all rushed out of the barn. The night was pitchy dark. Squallsof wind and rain swept along the beach. Two or three fishermen, their backsagainst a rock, the better to resist the wind, were shouting at the top oftheir voices.

Jack Ryan and his companions ran up to them. The shouts were, however, not forthe inhabitants of the farm, but to warn men who, without being aware of it,were going to destruction. A dark, confused mass appeared some way out at sea.It was a vessel whose position could be seen by her lights, for she carried awhite one on her foremast, a green on the starboard side, and a red on theoutside. She was evidently running straight on the rocks.

“A ship in distress?” said Ryan.

“Ay,” answered one of the fishermen, “and now they want totack, but it’s too late!”

“Do they want to run ashore?” said another.

“It seems so,” responded one of the fishermen, “unless he hasbeen misled by some—”

The man was interrupted by a yell from Jack. Could the crew have heard it? Atany rate, it was too late for them to beat back from the line of breakers whichgleamed white in the darkness.

But it was not, as might be supposed, a last effort of Ryan’s to warn thedoomed ship. He now had his back to the sea. His companions turned also, andgazed at a spot situated about half a mile inland. It was Dundonald Castle. Along flame twisted and bent under the gale, on the summit of the old tower.

“The Fire-Maiden!” cried the superstitious men in terror.

Clearly, it needed a good strong imagination to find any human likeness in thatflame. Waving in the wind like a luminous flag, it seemed sometimes to flyround the tower, as if it was just going out, and a moment after it was seenagain dancing on its blue point.

“The Fire-Maiden! the Fire-Maiden!” cried the terrified fishermenand peasants.

All was then explained. The ship, having lost her reckoning in the fog, hadtaken this flame on the top of Dundonald Castle for the Irvine light. Shethought herself at the entrance of the Firth, ten miles to the north, when shewas really running on a shore which offered no refuge.

What could be done to save her, if there was still time? It was too late. Afrightful crash was heard above the tumult of the elements. The vessel hadstruck. The white line of surf was broken for an instant; she heeled over onher side and lay among the rocks.

At the same time, by a strange coincidence, the long flame disappeared, as ifit had been swept away by a violent gust. Earth, sea, and sky were plunged incomplete darkness.

“The Fire-Maiden!” shouted Ryan, for the last time, as theapparition, which he and his companions believed supernatural, disappeared. Butthen the courage of these superstitious Scotchmen, which had failed before afancied danger, returned in face of a real one, which they were ready to bravein order to save their fellow-creatures. The tempest did not deter them. Asheroic as they had before been credulous, fastening ropes round their waists,they rushed into the waves to the aid of those on the wreck.

Happily, they succeeded in their endeavors, although some—and bold JackRyan was among the number—were severely wounded on the rocks. But thecaptain of the vessel and the eight sailors who composed his crew were hauledup, safe and sound, on the beach.

The ship was the Norwegian brig Motala, laden with timber, and bound forGlasgow. Of the Motalaherself nothing remained but a few spars, washedup by the waves, and dashed among the rocks on the beach.

Jack Ryan and three of his companions, wounded like himself, were carried intoa room of Melrose Farm, where every care was lavished on them. Ryan was themost hurt, for when with the rope round his waist he had rushed into the sea,the waves had almost immediately dashed him back against the rocks. He wasbrought, indeed, very nearly lifeless on to the beach.

The brave fellow was therefore confined to bed for several days, to his greatdisgust. However, as soon as he was given permission to sing as much as heliked, he bore his trouble patiently, and the farm echoed all day with hisjovial voice. But from this adventure he imbibed a more lively sentiment offear with regard to brownies and other goblins who amuse themselves by plaguingmankind, and he made them responsible for the catastrophe of the Motala. Itwould have been vain to try and convince him that the Fire-Maidens did notexist, and that the flame, so suddenly appearing among the ruins, was but anatural phenomenon. No reasoning could make him believe it. His companionswere, if possible, more obstinate than he in their credulity. According tothem, one of the Fire-Maidens had maliciously attracted the Motalatothe coast. As to wishing to punish her, as well try to bring the tempest tojustice! The magistrates might order what arrests they pleased, but a flamecannot be imprisoned, an impalpable being can’t be handcuffed. It must beacknowledged that the researches which were ultimately made gave ground, atleast in appearance, to this superstitious way of explaining the facts.

The inquiry was made with great care. Officials came to Dundonald Castle, andthey proceeded to conduct a most vigorous search. The magistrate wished firstto ascertain if the ground bore any footprints, which could be attributed toother than goblins’ feet. It was impossible to find the least trace,whether old or new. Moreover, the earth, still damp from the rain of the daybefore, would have preserved the least vestige.

The result of all this was, that the magistrates only got for their trouble anew legend added to so many others—a legend which would be perpetuated bythe remembrance of the catastrophe of the Motala, and indisputablyconfirm the truth of the apparition of the Fire-Maidens.

A hearty fellow like Jack Ryan, with so strong a constitution, could not belong confined to his bed. A few sprains and bruises were not quite enough tokeep him on his back longer than he liked. He had not time to be ill.

Jack, therefore, soon got well. As soon as he was on his legs again, beforeresuming his work on the farm, he wished to go and visit his friend Harry, andlearn why he had not come to the Irvine merry-making. He could not understandhis absence, for Harry was not a man who would willingly promise and notperform. It was unlikely, too, that the son of the old overman had not heard ofthe wreck of the Motala, as it was in all the papers. He must know thepart Jack had taken in it, and what had happened to him, and it was unlikeHarry not to hasten to the farm and see how his old chum was going on.

As Harry had not come, there must have been something to prevent him. Jack Ryanwould as soon deny the existence of the Fire-Maidens as believe inHarry’s indifference.

Two days after the catastrophe Jack left the farm merily, feeling nothing ofhis wounds. Singing in the fullness of his heart, he awoke the echoes of thecliff, as he walked to the station of the railway, which viaGlasgowwould take him to Stirling and Callander.

As he was waiting for his train, his attention was attracted by a bill postedup on the walls, containing the following notice:

“On the 4th of December, the engineer, James Starr, of Edinburgh,embarked from Granton Pier, on board the Prince of Wales. He disembarkedthe same day at Stirling. From that time nothing further has been heard of him.

“Any information concerning him is requested to be sent to the Presidentof the Royal Institution, Edinburgh.”

Jack Ryan, stopping before one of these advertisements, read it twice over,with extreme surprise.

“Mr. Starr!” he exclaimed. “Why, on the 4th of December I methim with Harry on the ladder of the Dochart pit! That was ten days ago! And hehas not been seen from that time! That explains why my chum didn’t cometo Irvine.”

And without taking time to inform the President of the Royal Institution byletter, what he knew relative to James Starr, Jack jumped into the train,determining to go first of all to the Yarrow shaft. There he would descend tothe depths of the pit, if necessary, to find Harry, and with him was sure to bethe engineer James Starr.

“They haven’t turned up again,” said he to himself.“Why? Has anything prevented them? Could any work of importance keep themstill at the bottom of the mine? I must find out!” and Ryan, hasteninghis steps, arrived in less than an hour at the Yarrow shaft.

Externally nothing was changed. The same silence around. Not a living creaturewas moving in that desert region. Jack entered the ruined shed which coveredthe opening of the shaft. He gazed down into the dark abyss—nothing wasto be seen. He listened—nothing was to be heard.

“And my lamp!” he exclaimed; “suppose it isn’t in itsplace!” The lamp which Ryan used when he visited the pit was usuallydeposited in a corner, near the landing of the topmost ladder. It haddisappeared.

“Here is a nuisance!” said Jack, beginning to feel rather uneasy.Then, without hesitating, superstitious though he was, “I will go,”said he, “though it’s as dark down there as in the lowest depths ofthe infernal regions!”

And he began to descend the long flight of ladders, which led down the gloomyshaft. Jack Ryan had not forgotten his old mining habits, and he was wellacquainted with the Dochart pit, or he would scarcely have dared to venturethus. He went very carefully, however. His foot tried each round, as some ofthem were worm-eaten. A false step would entail a deadly fall, through thisspace of fifteen hundred feet. He counted each landing as he passed it, knowingthat he could not reach the bottom of the shaft until he had left thethirtieth. Once there, he would have no trouble, so he thought, in finding thecottage, built, as we have said, at the extremity of the principal passage.

Jack Ryan went on thus until he got to the twenty-sixth landing, andconsequently had two hundred feet between him and the bottom.

Here he put down his leg to feel for the first rung of the twenty-seventhladder. But his foot swinging in space found nothing to rest on. He knelt downand felt about with his hand for the top of the ladder. It was in vain.

“Old Nick himself must have been down this way!” said Jack, notwithout a slight feeling of terror.

He stood considering for some time, with folded arms, and longing to be able topierce the impenetrable darkness. Then it occurred to him that if he could notget down, neither could the inhabitants of the mine get up. There was now nocommunication between the depths of the pit and the upper regions. If theremoval of the lower ladders of the Yarrow shaft had been effected since hislast visit to the cottage, what had become of Simon Ford, his wife, his son,and the engineer?

The prolonged absence of James Starr proved that he had not left the pit sincethe day Ryan met with him in the shaft. How had the cottage been provisionedsince then? The food of these unfortunate people, imprisoned fifteen hundredfeet below the surface of the ground, must have been exhausted by this time.

All this passed through Jack’s mind, as he saw that by himself he coulddo nothing to get to the cottage. He had no doubt but that communication hadbeen interrupted with a malevolent intention. At any rate, the authorities mustbe informed, and that as soon as possible. Jack Ryan bent forward from thelanding.

“Harry! Harry!” he shouted with his powerful voice.

Harry’s name echoed and re-echoed among the rocks, and finally died awayin the depths of the shaft.

Ryan rapidly ascended the upper ladders and returned to the light of day.Without losing a moment he reached the Callander station, just caught theexpress to Edinburgh, and by three o’clock was before the Lord Provost.

There his declaration was received. His account was given so clearly that itcould not be doubted. Sir William Elphiston, President of the RoyalInstitution, and not only colleague, but a personal friend of Starr’s,was also informed, and asked to direct the search which was to be made withoutdelay in the mine. Several men were placed at his disposal, supplied withlamps, picks, long rope ladders, not forgetting provisions and cordials. Thenguided by Jack Ryan, the party set out for the Aberfoyle mines.

The same evening the expedition arrived at the opening of the Yarrow shaft, anddescended to the twenty-seventh landing, at which Jack Ryan had been stopped afew hours previously. The lamps, fastened to long ropes, were lowered down theshaft, and it was thus ascertained that the four last ladders were wanting.

As soon as the lamps had been brought up, the men fixed to the landing a ropeladder, which unrolled itself down the shaft, and all descended one after theother. Jack Ryan’s descent was the most difficult, for he went first downthe swinging ladders, and fastened them for the others.

The space at the bottom of the shaft was completely deserted; but Sir Williamwas much surprised at hearing Jack Ryan exclaim, “Here are bits of theladders, and some of them half burnt!”

“Burnt?” repeated Sir William. “Indeed, here sure enough arecinders which have evidently been cold a long time!”

“Do you think, sir,” asked Ryan, “that Mr. Starr could havehad any reason for burning the ladders, and thus breaking of communication withthe world?”

“Certainly not,” answered Sir William Elphiston, who had becomevery thoughtful. “Come, my lad, lead us to the cottage. There we shallascertain the truth.”

Jack Ryan shook his head, as if not at all convinced. Then, taking a lamp fromthe hands of one of the men, he proceeded with a rapid step along the principalpassage of the Dochart pit. The others all followed him.

In a quarter of an hour the party arrived at the excavation in which stoodSimon Ford’s cottage. There was no light in the window. Ryan darted tothe door, and threw it open. The house was empty.

They examined all the rooms in the somber habitation. No trace of violence wasto be found. All was in order, as if old Madge had been still there. There waseven an ample supply of provisions, enough to last the Ford family for severaldays.

The absence of the tenants of the cottage was quite unaccountable. But was itnot possible to find out the exact time they had quitted it? Yes, for in thisregion, where there was no difference of day or night, Madge was accustomed tomark with a cross each day in her almanac.

The almanac was pinned up on the wall, and there the last cross had been madeat the 6th of December; that is to say, a day after the arrival of James Starr,to which Ryan could positively swear. It was clear that on the 6th of December,ten days ago, Simon Ford, his wife, son, and guest, had quitted the cottage.Could a fresh exploration of the mine, undertaken by the engineer, account forsuch a long absence? Certainly not.

It was intensely dark all round. The lamps held by the men gave light only justwhere they were standing. Suddenly Jack Ryan uttered a cry. “Look there,there!”

His finger was pointing to a tolerably bright light, which was moving about inthe distance. “After that light, my men!” exclaimed Sir William.

“It’s a goblin light!” said Ryan. “So what’s theuse? We shall never catch it.”

The president and his men, little given to superstition, darted off in thedirection of the moving light. Jack Ryan, bravely following their example,quickly overtook the head-most of the party.

It was a long and fatiguing chase. The lantern seemed to be carried by a beingof small size, but singular agility.

Every now and then it disappeared behind some pillar, then was seen again atthe end of a cross gallery. A sharp turn would place it out of sight, and itseemed to have completely disappeared, when all at once there would be thelight as bright as ever. However, they gained very little on it, andRyan’s belief that they could never catch it seemed far from groundless.

After an hour of this vain pursuit Sir William Elphiston and his companions hadgone a long way in the southwest direction of the pit, and began to think theyreally had to do with an impalpable being. Just then it seemed as if thedistance between the goblin and those who were pursuing it was becoming less.Could it be fatigued, or did this invisible being wish to entice Sir Williamand his companions to the place where the inhabitants of the cottage hadperhaps themselves been enticed. It was hard to say.

The men, seeing that the distance lessened, redoubled their efforts. The lightwhich had before burnt at a distance of more than two hundred feet before themwas now seen at less than fifty. The space continued to diminish. The bearer ofthe lamp became partially visible. Sometimes, when it turned its head, theindistinct profile of a human face could be made out, and unless a sprite couldassume bodily shape, Jack Ryan was obliged to confess that here was nosupernatural being. Then, springing forward,—

“Courage, comrades!” he exclaimed; “it is getting tired! Weshall soon catch it up now, and if it can talk as well as it can run we shallhear a fine story.”

But the pursuit had suddenly become more difficult. They were in unknownregions of the mine; narrow passages crossed each other like the windings of alabyrinth. The bearer of the lamp might escape them as easily as possible, byjust extinguishing the light and retreating into some dark refuge.

“And indeed,” thought Sir William, “if it wishes to avoid us,why does it not do so?”

Hitherto there had evidently been no intention to avoid them, but just as thethought crossed Sir William’s mind the light suddenly disappeared, andthe party, continuing the pursuit, found themselves before an extremely narrownatural opening in the schistous rocks.

To trim their lamps, spring forward, and dart through the opening, was for SirWilliam and his party but the work of an instant. But before they had gone ahundred paces along this new gallery, much wider and loftier than the former,they all stopped short. There, near the wall, lay four bodies, stretched on theground—four corpses, perhaps!

“James Starr!” exclaimed Sir William Elphiston.

“Harry! Harry!” cried Ryan, throwing himself down beside hisfriend.

It was indeed the engineer, Madge, Simon, and Harry Ford who were lying theremotionless. But one of the bodies moved slightly, and Madge’s voice washeard faintly murmuring, “See to the others! help them first!”

Sir William, Jack, and their companions endeavored to reanimate the engineerand his friends by getting them to swallow a few drops of brandy. They verysoon succeeded. The unfortunate people, shut up in that dark cavern for tendays, were dying of starvation. They must have perished had they not on threeoccasions found a loaf of bread and a jug of water set near them. No doubt thecharitable being to whom they owed their lives was unable to do more for them.

Sir William wondered whether this might not have been the work of the strangesprite who had allured them to the very spot where James Starr and hiscompanions lay.

However that might be, the engineer, Madge, Simon, and Harry Ford were saved.They were assisted to the cottage, passing through the narrow opening which thebearer of the strange light had apparently wished to point out to Sir William.This was a natural opening. The passage which James Starr and his companionshad made for themselves with dynamite had been completely blocked up with rockslaid one upon another.

So, then, whilst they had been exploring the vast cavern, the way back had beenpurposely closed against them by a hostile hand.

CHAPTER X.
COAL TOWN

Three years after the events which have just been related, the guide-booksrecommended as a “great attraction,” to the numerous tourists whoroam over the county of Stirling, a visit of a few hours to the mines of NewAberfoyle.

No mine in any country, either in the Old or New World, could present a morecurious aspect.

To begin with, the visitor was transported without danger or fatigue to a levelwith the workings, at fifteen hundred feet below the surface of the ground.Seven miles to the southwest of Callander opened a slanting tunnel, adornedwith a castellated entrance, turrets and battlements. This lofty tunnel gentlysloped straight to the stupendous crypt, hollowed out so strangely in thebowels of the earth.

A double line of railway, the wagons being moved by hydraulic power, plied fromhour to hour to and from the village thus buried in the subsoil of the county,and which bore the rather ambitious title of Coal Town.

Arrived in Coal Town, the visitor found himself in a place where electricityplayed a principal part as an agent of heat and light. Although the ventilationshafts were numerous, they were not sufficient to admit much daylight into NewAberfoyle, yet it had abundance of light. This was shed from numbers ofelectric discs; some suspended from the vaulted roofs, others hanging on thenatural pillars—all, whether suns or stars in size, were fed bycontinuous currents produced from electro-magnetic machines. When the hour ofrest arrived, an artificial night was easily produced all over the mine bydisconnecting the wires.

Below the dome lay a lake of an extent to be compared to the Dead Sea of theMammoth caves—a deep lake whose transparent waters swarmed with eyelessfish, and to which the engineer gave the name of Loch Malcolm.

There, in this immense natural excavation, Simon Ford built his new cottage,which he would not have exchanged for the finest house in Prince’sStreet, Edinburgh. This dwelling was situated on the shores of the loch, andits five windows looked out on the dark waters, which extended further than theeye could see. Two months later a second habitation was erected in theneighborhood of Simon Ford’s cottage: this was for James Starr. Theengineer had given himself body and soul to New Aberfoyle, and nothing but themost imperative necessity ever caused him to leave the pit. There, then, helived in the midst of his mining world.

On the discovery of the new field, all the old colliers had hastened to leavethe plow and harrow, and resume the pick and mattock. Attracted by thecertainty that work would never fail, allured by the high wages which theprosperity of the mine enabled the company to offer for labor, they desertedthe open air for an underground life, and took up their abode in the mines.

The miners’ houses, built of brick, soon grew up in a picturesquefashion; some on the banks of Loch Malcolm, others under the arches whichseemed made to resist the weight that pressed upon them, like the piers of abridge. So was founded Coal Town, situated under the eastern point of LochKatrine, to the north of the county of Stirling. It was a regular settlement onthe banks of Loch Malcolm. A chapel, dedicated to St. Giles, overlooked it fromthe top of a huge rock, whose foot was laved by the waters of the subterraneansea.

When this underground town was lighted up by the bright rays thrown from thediscs, hung from the pillars and arches, its aspect was so strange, sofantastic, that it justified the praise of the guide-books, and visitorsflocked to see it.

It is needless to say that the inhabitants of Coal Town were proud of theirplace. They rarely left their laboring village—in that imitating SimonFord, who never wished to go out again. The old overman maintained that italways rained “up there,” and, considering the climate of theUnited Kingdom, it must be acknowledged that he was not far wrong. All thefamilies in New Aberfoyle prospered well, having in three years obtained acertain competency which they could never have hoped to attain on the surfaceof the county. Dozens of babies, who were born at the time when the works wereresumed, had never yet breathed the outer air.

This made Jack Ryan remark, “It’s eighteen months since they wereweaned, and they have not yet seen daylight!”

It may be mentioned here, that one of the first to run at the engineer’scall was Jack Ryan. The merry fellow had thought it his duty to return to hisold trade. But though Melrose farm had lost singer and piper it must not bethought that Jack Ryan sung no more. On the contrary, the sonorous echoes ofNew Aberfoyle exerted their strong lungs to answer him.

Jack Ryan took up his abode in Simon Ford’s new cottage. They offered hima room, which he accepted without ceremony, in his frank and hearty way. OldMadge loved him for his fine character and good nature. She in some degreeshared his ideas on the subject of the fantastic beings who were supposed tohaunt the mine, and the two, when alone, told each other stories wild enough tomake one shudder—stories well worthy of enriching the hyperboreanmythology.

Jack thus became the life of the cottage. He was, besides being a jovialcompanion, a good workman. Six months after the works had begun, he was madehead of a gang of hewers.

“That was a good work done, Mr. Ford,” said he, a few days afterhis appointment. “You discovered a new field, and though you narrowlyescaped paying for the discovery with your life—well, it was not toodearly bought.”

“No, Jack, it was a good bargain we made that time!” answered theold overman. “But neither Mr. Starr nor I have forgotten that to you weowe our lives.”

“Not at all,” returned Jack. “You owe them to your son Harry,when he had the good sense to accept my invitation to Irvine.”

“And not to go, isn’t that it?” interrupted Harry, graspinghis comrade’s hand. “No, Jack, it is to you, scarcely healed ofyour wounds—to you, who did not delay a day, no, nor an hour, that we oweour being found still alive in the mine!”

“Rubbish, no!” broke in the obstinate fellow. “I won’thave that said, when it’s no such thing. I hurried to find out what hadbecome of you, Harry, that’s all. But to give everyone his due, I willadd that without that unapproachable goblin—”

“Ah, there we are!” cried Ford. “A goblin!”

“A goblin, a brownie, a fairy’s child,” repeated Jack Ryan,“a cousin of the Fire-Maidens, an Urisk, whatever you like! It’snot the less certain that without it we should never have found our way intothe gallery, from which you could not get out.”

“No doubt, Jack,” answered Harry. “It remains to be seenwhether this being was as supernatural as you choose to believe.”

“Supernatural!” exclaimed Ryan. “But it was as supernaturalas a Will-o’-the-Wisp, who may be seen skipping along with his lantern inhis hand; you may try to catch him, but he escapes like a fairy, and vanisheslike a shadow! Don’t be uneasy, Harry, we shall see it again some day orother!”

“Well, Jack,” said Simon Ford, “Will-o’-the-Wisp ornot, we shall try to find it, and you must help us.”

“You’ll get into a scrap if you don’t take care, Mr.Ford!” responded Jack Ryan.

“We’ll see about that, Jack!”

We may easily imagine how soon this domain of New Aberfoyle became familiar toall the members of the Ford family, but more particularly to Harry. He learntto know all its most secret ins and outs. He could even say what point of thesurface corresponded with what point of the mine. He knew that above this seamlay the Firth of Clyde, that there extended Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Thosecolumns supported a spur of the Grampian mountains. This vault served as abasement to Dumbarton. Above this large pond passed the Balloch railway. Hereended the Scottish coast. There began the sea, the tumult of which could bedistinctly heard during the equinoctial gales. Harry would have been afirst-rate guide to these natural catacombs, and all that Alpine guides do ontheir snowy peaks in daylight he could have done in the dark mine by thewonderful power of instinct.

He loved New Aberfoyle. Many times, with his lamp stuck in his hat, did hepenetrate its furthest depths. He explored its ponds in a skillfully-managedcanoe. He even went shooting, for numerous birds had been introduced into thecrypt—pintails, snipes, ducks, who fed on the fish which swarmed in thedeep waters. Harry’s eyes seemed made for the dark, just as asailor’s are made for distances. But all this while Harry feltirresistibly animated by the hope of finding the mysterious being whoseintervention, strictly speaking, had saved himself and his friends. Would hesucceed? He certainly would, if presentiments were to be trusted; but certainlynot, if he judged by the success which had as yet attended his researches.

The attacks directed against the family of the old overman, before thediscovery of New Aberfoyle, had not been renewed.

CHAPTER XI.
HANGING BY A THREAD

Although in this way the Ford family led a happy and contented life, yet it waseasy to see that Harry, naturally of a grave disposition, became more and morequiet and reserved. Even Jack Ryan, with all his good humor and usuallyinfectious merriment, failed to rouse him to gayety of manner.

One Sunday—it was in the month of June—the two friends were walkingtogether on the shores of Loch Malcolm. Coal Town rested from labor. In theworld above, stormy weather prevailed. Violent rains fell, and dull sultryvapors brooded over the earth; the atmosphere was most oppressive.

Down in Coal Town there was perfect calm; no wind, no rain. A soft and pleasanttemperature existed instead of the strife of the elements which raged without.What wonder then, that excursionists from Stirling came in considerable numbersto enjoy the calm fresh air in the recesses of the mine?

The electric discs shed a brilliancy of light which the British sun, oftenerobscured by fogs than it ought to be, might well envy. Jack Ryan kept talkingof these visitors, who passed them in noisy crowds, but Harry paid very littleattention to what he said.

“I say, do look, Harry!” cried Jack. “See what numbers ofpeople come to visit us! Cheer up, old fellow! Do the honors of the place alittle better. If you look so glum, you’ll make all these outside folksthink you envy their life above-ground.”

“Never mind me, Jack,” answered Harry. “You are jolly enoughfor two, I’m sure; that’s enough.”

“I’ll be hanged if I don’t feel your melancholy creeping overme though!” exclaimed Jack. “I declare my eyes are getting quitedull, my lips are drawn together, my laugh sticks in my throat; I’mforgetting all my songs. Come, man, what’s the matter with you?”

“You know well enough, Jack.”

“What? the old story?”

“Yes, the same thoughts haunt me.”

“Ah, poor fellow!” said Jack, shrugging his shoulders. “Ifyou would only do like me, and set all the queer things down to the account ofthe goblins of the mine, you would be easier in your mind.”

“But, Jack, you know very well that these goblins exist only in yourimagination, and that, since the works here have been reopened, not a singleone has been seen.”

“That’s true, Harry; but if no spirits have been seen, neither hasanyone else to whom you could attribute the extraordinary doings we want toaccount for.”

“I shall discover them.”

“Ah, Harry! Harry! it’s not so easy to catch the spirits of NewAberfoyle!”

“I shall find out the spirits as you call them,” said Harry, in atone of firm conviction.

“Do you expect to be able to punish them?”

“Both punish and reward. Remember, if one hand shut us up in thatpassage, another hand delivered us! I shall not soon forget that.”

“But, Harry, how can we be sure that these two hands do not belong to thesame body?”

“What can put such a notion in your head, Jack?” asked Harry.

“Well, I don’t know. Creatures that live in these holes, Harry,don’t you see? they can’t be made like us, eh?”

“But they arejust like us, Jack.”

“Oh, no! don’t say that, Harry! Perhaps some madman managed to getin for a time.”

“A madman! No madman would have formed such connected plans, or done suchcontinued mischief as befell us after the breaking of the ladders.”

“Well, but anyhow he has done no harm for the last three years, either toyou, Harry, or any of your people.”

“No matter, Jack,” replied Harry; “I am persuaded that thismalignant being, whoever he is, has by no means given up his evil intentions. Ican hardly say on what I found my convictions. But at any rate, for the sake ofthe new works, I must and will know who he is and whence he comes.”

“For the sake of the new works did you say?” asked Jack,considerably surprised.

“I said so, Jack,” returned Harry. “I may be mistaken, but,to me, all that has happened proves the existence of an interest in this minein strong opposition to ours. Many a time have I considered the matter; I feelalmost sure of it. Just consider the whole series of inexplicablecircumstances, so singularly linked together. To begin with, the anonymousletter, contradictory to that of my father, at once proves that some man hadbecome aware of our projects, and wished to prevent their accomplishment. Mr.Starr comes to see us at the Dochart pit. No sooner does he enter it with methan an immense stone is cast upon us, and communication is interrupted by thebreaking of the ladders in the Yarrow shaft. We commence exploring. Anexperiment, by which the existence of a new vein would be proved, is renderedimpossible by stoppage of fissures. Notwithstanding this, the examination iscarried out, the vein discovered. We return as we came, a prodigious gust ofair meets us, our lamp is broken, utter darkness surrounds us. Nevertheless, wemake our way along the gloomy passage until, on reaching the entrance, we findit blocked up. There we were—imprisoned. Now, Jack, don’t you seein all these things a malicious intention? Ah, yes, believe me, some beinghitherto invisible, but not supernatural, as you will persist in thinking, wasconcealed in the mine. For some reason, known only to himself, he strove tokeep us out of it. Wasthere, did I say? I feel an inward convictionthat he isthere still, and probably prepares some terrible disaster forus. Even at the risk of my life, Jack, I am resolved to discover him.”

Harry spoke with an earnestness which strongly impressed his companion.“Well, Harry,” said he, “if I am forced to agree with you incertain points, won’t you admit that some kind fairy or brownie, bybringing bread and water to you, was the means of—”

“Jack, my friend,” interrupted Harry, “it is my belief thatthe friendly person, whom you will persist in calling a spirit, exists in themine as certainly as the criminal we speak of, and I mean to seek them both inthe most distant recesses of the mine.”

“But,” inquired Jack, “have you any possible clew to guideyour search?”

“Perhaps I have. Listen to me! Five miles west of New Aberfoyle, underthe solid rock which supports Ben Lomond, there exists a natural shaft whichdescends perpendicularly into the vein beneath. A week ago I went to ascertainthe depth of this shaft. While sounding it, and bending over the opening as myplumb-line went down, it seemed to me that the air within was agitated, asthough beaten by huge wings.”

“Some bird must have got lost among the lower galleries,” repliedJack.

“But that is not all, Jack. This very morning I went back to the place,and, listening attentively, I thought I could detect a sound like a sort ofgroaning.”

“Groaning!” cried Jack, “that must be nonsense; it was acurrent of air—unless indeed some ghost—”

“I shall know to-morrow what it was,” said Harry.

“To-morrow?” answered Jack, looking at his friend.

“Yes; to-morrow I am going down into that abyss.”

“Harry! that will be a tempting of Providence.”

“No, Jack, Providence will aid me in the attempt. Tomorrow, you and someof our comrades will go with me to that shaft. I will fasten myself to a longrope, by which you can let me down, and draw me up at a given signal. I maydepend upon you, Jack?”

“Well, Harry,” said Jack, shaking his head, “I will do as youwish me; but I tell you all the same, you are very wrong.”

“Nothing venture nothing win,” said Harry, in a tone of decision.“To-morrow morning, then, at six o’clock. Be silent, andfarewell!”

It must be admitted that Jack Ryan’s fears were far from groundless.Harry would expose himself to very great danger, supposing the enemy he soughtfor lay concealed at the bottom of the pit into which he was going to descend.It did not seem likely that such was the case, however.

“Why in the world,” repeated Jack Ryan, “should he take allthis trouble to account for a set of facts so very easily and simply explainedby the supernatural intervention of the spirits of the mine?”

But, notwithstanding his objections to the scheme, Jack Ryan and three minersof his gang arrived next morning with Harry at the mouth of the opening of thesuspicious shaft. Harry had not mentioned his intentions either to James Starror to the old overman. Jack had been discreet enough to say nothing.

Harry had provided himself with a rope about 200 feet long. It was notparticularly thick, but very strong—sufficiently so to sustain hisweight. His friends were to let him down into the gulf, and his pulling thecord was to be the signal to withdraw him.

The opening into this shaft or well was twelve feet wide. A beam was thrownacross like a bridge, so that the cord passing over it should hang down thecenter of the opening, and save Harry from striking against the sides in hisdescent.

He was ready.

“Are you still determined to explore this abyss?” whispered JackRyan.

“Yes, I am, Jack.”

The cord was fastened round Harry’s thighs and under his arms, to keephim from rocking. Thus supported, he was free to use both his hands. Asafety-lamp hung at his belt, also a large, strong knife in a leather sheath.

Harry advanced to the middle of the beam, around which the cord was passed.Then his friends began to let him down, and he slowly sank into the pit. As therope caused him to swing gently round and round, the light of his lamp fell inturns on all points of the side walls, so that he was able to examine themcarefully. These walls consisted of pit coal, and so smooth that it would beimpossible to ascend them.

Harry calculated that he was going down at the rate of about a foot per second,so that he had time to look about him, and be ready for any event.

During two minutes—that is to say, to the depth of about 120 feet, thedescent continued without any incident.

No lateral gallery opened from the side walls of the pit, which was graduallynarrowing into the shape of a funnel. But Harry began to feel a fresher airrising from beneath, whence he concluded that the bottom of the pitcommunicated with a gallery of some description in the lowest part of the mine.

The cord continued to unwind. Darkness and silence were complete. If any livingbeing whatever had sought refuge in the deep and mysterious abyss, he hadeither left it, or, if there, by no movement did he in the slightest way betrayhis presence.

Harry, becoming more suspicious the lower he got, now drew his knife and heldit in his right hand. At a depth of 180 feet, his feet touched the lower pointand the cord slackened and unwound no further.

Harry breathed more freely for a moment. One of the fears he entertained hadbeen that, during his descent, the cord might be cut above him, but he had seenno projection from the walls behind which anyone could have been concealed.

The bottom of the abyss was quite dry. Harry, taking the lamp from his belt,walked round the place, and perceived he had been right in his conjectures.

An extremely narrow passage led aside out of the pit. He had to stoop to lookinto it, and only by creeping could it be followed; but as he wanted to see inwhich direction it led, and whether another abyss opened from it, he lay downon the ground and began to enter it on hands and knees.

An obstacle speedily arrested his progress. He fancied he could perceive bytouching it, that a human body lay across the passage. A sudden thrill ofhorror and surprise made him hastily draw back, but he again advanced and feltmore carefully.

His senses had not deceived him; a body did indeed lie there; and he soonascertained that, although icy cold at the extremities, there was some vitalheat remaining. In less time than it takes to tell it, Harry had drawn the bodyfrom the recess to the bottom of the shaft, and, seizing his lamp, he cast itslights on what he had found, exclaiming immediately, “Why, it is achild!”

The child still breathed, but so very feebly that Harry expected it to ceaseevery instant. Not a moment was to be lost; he must carry this poor littlecreature out of the pit, and take it home to his mother as quickly as he could.He eagerly fastened the cord round his waist, stuck on his lamp, clasped thechild to his breast with his left arm, and, keeping his right hand free to holdthe knife, he gave the signal agreed on, to have the rope pulled up.

It tightened at once; he began the ascent. Harry looked around him withredoubled care, for more than his own life was now in danger.

For a few minutes all went well, no accident seemed to threaten him, whensuddenly he heard the sound of a great rush of air from beneath; and, lookingdown, he could dimly perceive through the gloom a broad mass arising until itpassed him, striking him as it went by.

It was an enormous bird—of what sort he could not see; it flew upwards onmighty wings, then paused, hovered, and dashed fiercely down upon Harry, whocould only wield his knife in one hand. He defended himself and the child aswell as he could, but the ferocious bird seemed to aim all its blows at himalone. Afraid of cutting the cord, he could not strike it as he wished, and thestruggle was prolonged, while Harry shouted with all his might in hopes ofmaking his comrades hear.

He soon knew they did, for they pulled the rope up faster; a distance of abouteighty feet remained to be got over. The bird ceased its direct attack, butincreased the horror and danger of his situation by rushing at the cord,clinging to it just out of his reach, and endeavoring, by pecking furiously, tocut it.

Harry felt overcome with terrible dread. One strand of the rope gave way, andit made them sink a little.

A shriek of despair escaped his lips.

A second strand was divided, and the double burden now hung suspended by onlyhalf the cord.

Harry dropped his knife, and by a superhuman effort succeeded, at the momentthe rope was giving way, in catching hold of it with his right hand above thecut made by the beak of the bird. But, powerfully as he held it in his irongrasp, he could feel it gradually slipping through his fingers.

He might have caught it, and held on with both hands by sacrificing the life ofthe child he supported in his left arm. The idea crossed him, but was banishedin an instant, although he believed himself quite unable to hold out untildrawn to the surface. For a second he closed his eyes, believing they wereabout to plunge back into the abyss.

He looked up once more; the huge bird had disappeared; his hand was at the veryextremity of the broken rope—when, just as his convulsive grasp wasfailing, he was seized by the men, and with the child was placed on the levelground.

The fearful strain of anxiety removed, a reaction took place, and Harry fellfainting into the arms of his friends.

CHAPTER XII.
NELL ADOPTED

A couple of hours later, Harry still unconscious, and the child in a veryfeeble state, were brought to the cottage by Jack Ryan and his companions. Theold overman listened to the account of their adventures, while Madge attendedwith the utmost care to the wants of her son, and of the poor creature whom hehad rescued from the pit.

Harry imagined her a mere child, but she was a maiden of the age of fifteen orsixteen years.

She gazed at them with vague and wondering eyes; and the thin face, drawn bysuffering, the pallid complexion, which light could never have tinged, and thefragile, slender figure, gave her an appearance at once singular andattractive. Jack Ryan declared that she seemed to him to be an uncommonlyinteresting kind of ghost.

It must have been due to the strange and peculiar circumstances under which herlife hitherto had been led, that she scarcely seemed to belong to the humanrace. Her countenance was of a very uncommon cast, and her eyes, hardly able tobear the lamp-light in the cottage, glanced around in a confused and puzzledway, as if all were new to them.

As this singular being reclined on Madge’s bed and awoke toconsciousness, as from a long sleep, the old Scotchwoman began to question hera little.

“What do they call you, my dear?” said she.

“Nell,” replied the girl.

“Do you feel anything the matter with you, Nell?”

“I am hungry. I have eaten nothing since—since—”

Nell uttered these few words like one unused to speak much. They were in theGaelic language, which was often spoken by Simon and his family. Madgeimmediately brought her some food; she was evidently famished. It wasimpossible to say how long she might have been in that pit.

“How many days had you been down there, dearie?” inquired Madge.

Nell made no answer; she seemed not to understand the question.

“How many days, do you think?”

“Days?” repeated Nell, as though the word had no meaning for her,and she shook her head to signify entire want of comprehension.

Madge took her hand, and stroked it caressingly. “How old are you, mylassie?” she asked, smiling kindly at her.

Nell shook her head again.

“Yes, yes,” continued Madge, “how many years old?”

“Years?” replied Nell. She seemed to understand that word no betterthan days! Simon, Harry, Jack, and the rest, looked on with an air of mingledcompassion, wonder, and sympathy. The state of this poor thing, clothed in amiserable garment of coarse woolen stuff, seemed to impress them painfully.

Harry, more than all the rest, seemed attracted by the very peculiarity of thispoor stranger. He drew near, took Nell’s hand from his mother, and lookeddirectly at her, while something like a smile curved her lip.“Nell,” he said, “Nell, away down there—in themine—were you all alone?”

“Alone! alone!” cried the girl, raising herself hastily. Herfeatures expressed terror; her eyes, which had appeared to soften as Harrylooked at her, became quite wild again. “Alone!” repeated she,“alone!”—and she fell back on the bed, as though deprived ofall strength.

“The poor bairn is too weak to speak to us,” said Madge, when shehad adjusted the pillows. “After a good rest, and a little more food, shewill be stronger. Come away, Simon and Harry, and all the rest of you, and lether go to sleep.” So Nell was left alone, and in a very few minutes sleptprofoundly.

This event caused a great sensation, not only in the coal mines, but inStirlingshire, and ultimately throughout the kingdom. The strangeness of thestory was exaggerated; the affair could not have made more commotion had theyfound the girl enclosed in the solid rock, like one of those antediluviancreatures who have occasionally been released by a stroke of the pickax fromtheir stony prison. Nell became a fashionable wonder without knowing it.Superstitious folks made her story a new subject for legendary marvels, andwere inclined to think, as Jack Ryan told Harry, that Nell was the spirit ofthe mines.

“Be it so, Jack,” said the young man; “but at any rate she isthe good spirit. It can have been none but she who brought us bread and waterwhen we were shut up down there; and as to the bad spirit, who must still be inthe mine, we’ll catch him some day.”

Of course James Starr had been at once informed of all this, and came, as soonas the young girl had sufficiently recovered her strength, to see her, andendeavor to question her carefully.

She appeared ignorant of nearly everything relating to life, and, althoughevidently intelligent, was wanting in many elementary ideas, such as time, forinstance. She had never been used to its division, and the words signifyinghours, days, months, and years were unknown to her.

Her eyes, accustomed to the night, were pained by the glare of the electricdiscs; but in the dark her sight was wonderfully keen, the pupil dilated in aremarkable manner, and she could see where to others there appeared profoundobscurity. It was certain that her brain had never received any impression ofthe outer world, that her eyes had never looked beyond the mine, and that thesesomber depths had been all the world to her.

The poor girl probably knew not that there were a sun and stars, towns andcounties, a mighty universe composed of myriads of worlds. But until shecomprehended the significance of words at present conveying no precise meaningto her, it was impossible to ascertain what she knew.

As to whether or not Nell had lived alone in the recesses of New Aberfoyle,James Starr was obliged to remain uncertain; indeed, any allusion to thesubject excited evident alarm in the mind of this strange girl. Either Nellcould not or would not reply to questions, but that some secret existed inconnection with the place, which she could have explained, was manifest.

“Should you like to stay with us? Should you like to go back to where wefound you?” asked James Starr.

“Oh, yes!” exclaimed the maiden, in answer to his first question;but a cry of terror was all she seemed able to say to the second.

James Starr, as well as Simon and Harry Ford, could not help feeling a certainamount of uneasiness with regard to this persistent silence. They found itimpossible to forget all that had appeared so inexplicable at the time theymade the discovery of the coal mine; and although that was three years ago, andnothing new had happened, they always expected some fresh attack on the part ofthe invisible enemy.

They resolved to explore the mysterious well, and did so, well armed and inconsiderable numbers. But nothing suspicious was to be seen; the shaftcommunicated with lower stages of the crypt, hollowed out in the carboniferousbed.

Many a time did James Starr, Simon, and Harry talk over these things. If one ormore malevolent beings were concealed in the coal-pit, and there concoctedmischief, Nell surely could have warned them of it, yet she said nothing. Theslightest allusion to her past life brought on such fits of violent emotion,that it was judged best to avoid the subject for the present. Her secret wouldcertainly escape her by-and-by.

By the time Nell had been a fortnight in the cottage, she had become a mostintelligent and zealous assistant to old Madge. It was clear that sheinstinctively felt she should remain in the dwelling where she had been socharitably received, and perhaps never dreamt of quitting it. This family wasall in all to her, and to the good folks themselves Nell had seemed an adoptedchild from the moment when she first came beneath their roof. Nell was in trutha charming creature; her new mode of existence added to her beauty, for thesewere no doubt the first happy days of her life, and her heart was full ofgratitude towards those to whom she owed them. Madge felt towards her as amother would; the old woman doted upon her; in short, she was beloved byeverybody. Jack Ryan only regretted one thing, which was that he had not savedher himself. Friend Jack often came to the cottage. He sang, and Nell, who hadnever heard singing before, admired it greatly; but anyone might see that shepreferred to Jack’s songs the graver conversation of Harry, from whom bydegrees she learnt truths concerning the outer world, of which hitherto she hadknown nothing.

It must be said that, since Nell had appeared in her own person, Jack Ryan hadbeen obliged to admit that his belief in hobgoblins was in a measure weakened.A couple of months later his credulity experienced a further shock. About thattime Harry unexpectedly made a discovery which, in part at least, accounted forthe apparition of the fire-maidens among the ruins of Dundonald Castle atIrvine.

During several days he had been engaged in exploring the remote galleries ofthe prodigious excavation towards the south. At last he scrambled withdifficulty up a narrow passage which branched off through the upper rock. Tohis great astonishment, he suddenly found himself in the open air. The passage,after ascending obliquely to the surface of the ground, led out directly amongthe ruins of Dundonald Castle.

There was, therefore, a communication between New Aberfoyle and the hillscrowned by this ancient castle. The upper entrance to this gallery, beingcompletely concealed by stones and brushwood, was invisible from without; atthe time of their search, therefore, the magistrates had been able to discovernothing.

A few days afterwards, James Starr, guided by Harry, came himself to inspectthis curious natural opening into the coal mine. “Well,” said he,“here is enough to convince the most superstitious among us. Farewell toall their brownies, goblins, and fire-maidens now!”

“I hardly think, Mr. Starr, we ought to congratulate ourselves,”replied Harry. “Whatever it is we have instead of these things, itcan’t be better, and may be worse than they are.”

“That’s true, Harry,” said the engineer; “butwhat’s to be done? It is plain that, whatever the beings are who hide inthe mine, they reach the surface of the earth by this passage. No doubt it wasthe light of torches waved by them during that dark and stormy night whichattracted the Motalatowards the rocky coast, and like the wreckers offormer days, they would have plundered the unfortunate vessel, had it not beenfor Jack Ryan and his friends. Anyhow, so far it is evident, and here is themouth of the den. As to its occupants, the question is—Are they herestill?”

“I say yes; because Nell trembles when we mention them—yes, becauseNell will not, or dare not, speak about them,” answered Harry in a toneof decision.

Harry was surely in the right. Had these mysterious denizens of the pitabandoned it, or ceased to visit the spot, what reason could the girl have hadfor keeping silence?

James Starr could not rest till he had penetrated this mystery. He foresaw thatthe whole future of the new excavations must depend upon it. Renewed and strictprecautions were therefore taken. The authorities were informed of thediscovery of the entrance. Watchers were placed among the ruins of the castle.Harry himself lay hid for several nights in the thickets of brushwood whichclothed the hill-side.

Nothing was discovered—no human being emerged from the opening. So mostpeople came to the conclusion that the villains had been finally dislodged fromthe mine, and that, as to Nell, they must suppose her to be dead at the bottomof the shaft where they had left her.

While it remained unworked, the mine had been a safe enough place of refuge,secure from all search or pursuit. But now, circumstances being altered, itbecame difficult to conceal this lurking-place, and it might reasonably behoped they were gone, and that nothing for the future was to be dreaded fromthem.

James Starr, however, could not feel sure about it; neither could Harry besatisfied on the subject, often repeating, “Nell has clearly been mixedup with all this secret business. If she had nothing more to fear, why shouldshe keep silence? It cannot be doubted that she is happy with us. She likes usall—she adores my mother. Her absolute silence as to her former life,when by speaking out she might benefit us, proves to me that some awful secret,which she dares not reveal, weighs on her mind. It may also be that shebelieves it better for us, as well as for herself, that she should remain mutein a way otherwise so unaccountable.”

In consequence of these opinions, it was agreed by common consent to avoid allallusion to the maiden’s former mode of life. One day, however, Harry wasled to make known to Nell what James Starr, his father, mother, and himselfbelieved they owed to her interference.

It was a fête-day. The miners made holiday on the surface of the county ofStirling as well as in its subterraneous domains. Parties of holiday-makerswere moving about in all directions. Songs resounded in many places beneath thesonorous vaults of New Aberfoyle. Harry and Nell left the cottage, and slowlywalked along the left bank of Loch Malcolm.

Then the electric brilliance darted less vividly, and the rays were interruptedwith fantastic effect by the sharp angles of the picturesque rocks whichsupported the dome. This imperfect light suited Nell, to whose eyes a glare wasvery unpleasant.

“Nell,” said Harry, “your eyes are not fit for daylight yet,and could not bear the brightness of the sun.”

“Indeed they could not,” replied the girl; “if the sun issuch as you describe it to me, Harry.”

“I cannot by any words, Nell, give you an idea either of his splendor orof the beauty of that universe which your eyes have never beheld. But tell me,is it really possible that, since the day when you were born in the depths ofthe coal mine, you never once have been up to the surface of the earth?”

“Never once, Harry,” said she; “I do not believe that, evenas an infant, my father or mother ever carried me thither. I am sure I shouldhave retained some impression of the open air if they had.”

“I believe you would,” answered Harry. “Long ago, Nell, manychildren used to live altogether in the mine; communication was then difficult,and I have met with more than one young person, quite as ignorant as you are ofthings above-ground. But now the railway through our great tunnel takes us in afew minutes to the upper regions of our country. I long, Nell, to hear you say,‘Come, Harry, my eyes can bear daylight, and I want to see the sun! Iwant to look upon the works of the Almighty.’”

“I shall soon say so, Harry, I hope,” replied the girl; “Ishall soon go with you to the world above; and yet—”

“What are you going to say, Nell?” hastily cried Harry; “canyou possibly regret having quitted that gloomy abyss in which you spent yourearly years, and whence we drew you half dead?”

“No, Harry,” answered Nell; “I was only thinking thatdarkness is beautiful as well as light. If you but knew what eyes accustomed toits depth can see! Shades flit by, which one longs to follow; circles mingleand intertwine, and one could gaze on them forever; black hollows, full ofindefinite gleams of radiance, lie deep at the bottom of the mine. And then thevoice-like sounds! Ah, Harry! one must have lived down there to understand whatI feel, what I can never express.”

“And were you not afraid, Nell, all alone there?”

“It was just when I was alone that I was not afraid.”

Nell’s voice altered slightly as she said these words; however, Harrythought he might press the subject a little further, so he said, “But onemight be easily lost in these great galleries, Nell. Were you not afraid oflosing your way?”

“Oh, no, Harry; for a long time I had known every turn of the newmine.”

“Did you never leave it?”

“Yes, now and then,” answered the girl with a little hesitation;“sometimes I have been as far as the old mine of Aberfoyle.”

“So you knew our old cottage?”

“The cottage! oh, yes; but the people who lived there I only saw at agreat distance.”

“They were my father and mother,” said Harry; “and I wasthere too; we have always lived there—we never would give up the olddwelling.”

“Perhaps it would have been better for you if you had,” murmuredthe maiden.

“Why so, Nell? Was it not just because we were obstinately resolved toremain that we ended by discovering the new vein of coal? And did not thatdiscovery lead to the happy result of providing work for a large population,and restoring them to ease and comfort? and did it not enable us to find you,Nell, to save your life, and give you the love of all our hearts?”

“Ah, yes, for me indeed it is well, whatever may happen,” repliedNell earnestly; “for others—who can tell?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing—nothing. But it used to be very dangerous at that timeto go into the new cutting—yes, very dangerous indeed, Harry! Once somerash people made their way into these chasms. They got a long, long way; theywere lost!”

“They were lost?” said Harry, looking at her.

“Yes, lost!” repeated Nell in a trembling voice. “They couldnot find their way out.”

“And there,” cried Harry, “they were imprisoned during eightlong days! They were at the point of death, Nell; and, but for a kind andcharitable being—an angel perhaps—sent by God to help them, whosecretly brought them a little food; but for a mysterious guide, who afterwardsled to them their deliverers, they never would have escaped from that livingtomb!”

“And how do you know about that?” demanded the girl.

“Because those men were James Starr, my father, and myself, Nell!”

Nell looked up hastily, seized the young man’s hand, and gazed so fixedlyinto his eyes that his feelings were stirred to their depths. “You werethere?” at last she uttered.

“I was indeed,” said Harry, after a pause, “and she to whomwe owe our lives can have been none other than yourself, Nell!”

Nell hid her face in her hands without speaking. Harry had never seen her somuch affected.

“Those who saved your life, Nell,” added he in a voice tremulouswith emotion, “already owed theirs to you; do you think they will everforget it?”

CHAPTER XIII.
ON THE REVOLVING LADDER

The mining operations at New Aberfoyle continued to be carried on verysuccessfully. As a matter of course, the engineer, James Starr, as well asSimon Ford, the discoverers of this rich carboniferous region, shared largelyin the profits.

In time Harry became a partner. But he never thought of quitting the cottage.He took his father’s place as overman, and diligently superintended theworks of this colony of miners. Jack Ryan was proud and delighted at the goodfortune which had befallen his comrade. He himself was getting on very wellalso.

They frequently met, either at the cottage or at the works in the pit. Jack didnot fail to remark the sentiments entertained by Harry towards Nell. Harrywould not confess to them; but Jack only laughed at him when he shook his headand tried to deny any special interest in her.

It must be noted that Jack Ryan had the greatest possible wish to be of theparty when Nell should pay her first visit to the upper surface of the countyof Stirling. He wished to see her wonder and admiration on first beholding theyet unknown face of Nature. He very much hoped that Harry would take him withthem when the excursion was made. As yet, however, the latter had made noproposal of the kind to him, which caused him to feel a little uneasy as to hisintentions.

One morning Jack Ryan was descending through a shaft which led from the surfaceto the lower regions of the pit. He did so by means of one of those ladderswhich, continually revolving by machinery, enabled persons to ascend anddescend without fatigue. This apparatus had lowered him about a hundred andfifty feet, when at a narrow landing-place he perceived Harry, who was comingup to his labors for the day.

“Well met, my friend!” cried Jack, recognizing his comrade by thelight of the electric lamps.

“Ah, Jack!” replied Harry, “I am glad to see you. I’vegot something to propose.”

“I can listen to nothing till you tell me how Nell is,” interruptedJack Ryan.

“Nell is all right, Jack—so much so, in fact, that I hope in amonth or six weeks—”

“To marry her, Harry?”

“Jack, you don’t know what you are talking about!”

“Ah, that’s very likely; but I know quite well what I shalldo.”

“What will you do?”

“Marry her myself, if you don’t; so look sharp,” laughedJack. “By Saint Mungo! I think an immense deal of bonny Nell! A fineyoung creature like that, who has been brought up in the mine, is just the verywife for a miner. She is an orphan—so am I; and if you don’t caremuch for her, and if she will have me—”

Harry looked gravely at Jack, and let him talk on without trying to stop him.“Don’t you begin to feel jealous, Harry?” asked Jack in amore serious tone.

“Not at all,” answered Harry quietly.

“But if you don’t marry Nell yourself, you surely can’texpect her to remain a spinster?”

“I expect nothing,” said Harry.

A movement of the ladder machinery now gave the two friends theopportunity—one to go up, the other down the shaft. However, theyremained where they were.

“Harry,” quoth Jack, “do you think I spoke in earnest justnow about Nell?”

“No, that I don’t, Jack.”

“Well, but now I will!”

“You? speak in earnest?”

“My good fellow, I can tell you I am quite capable of giving a friend abit of advice.”

“Let’s hear, then, Jack!”

“Well, look here! You love Nell as heartily as she deserves. Old Simon,your father, and old Madge, your mother, both love her as if she were theirdaughter. Why don’t you make her so in reality? Why don’t you marryher?”

“Come, Jack,” said Harry, “you are running on as if you knewhow Nell felt on the subject.”

“Everybody knows that,” replied Jack, “and therefore it isimpossible to make you jealous of any of us. But here goes the ladderagain—I’m off!”

“Stop a minute, Jack!” cried Harry, detaining his companion, whowas stepping onto the moving staircase.

“I say! you seem to mean me to take up my quarters herealtogether!”

“Do be serious and listen, Jack! I want to speak in earnest myselfnow.”

“Well, I’ll listen till the ladder moves again, not a minutelonger.”

“Jack,” resumed Harry, “I need not pretend that I do not loveNell; I wish above all things to make her my wife.”

“That’s all right!”

“But for the present I have scruples of conscience as to asking her tomake me a promise which would be irrevocable.”

“What can you mean, Harry?”

“I mean just this—that, it being certain Nell has never beenoutside this coal mine in the very depths of which she was born, it stands toreason that she knows nothing, and can comprehend nothing of what exists beyondit. Her eyes—yes, and perhaps also her heart—have everything yet tolearn. Who can tell what her thoughts will be, when perfectly new impressionsshall be made upon her mind? As yet she knows nothing of the world, and to meit would seem like deceiving her, if I led her to decide in ignorance, uponchoosing to remain all her life in the coal mine. Do you understand me,Jack?”

“Hem!—yes—pretty well. What I understand best is that you aregoing to make me miss another turn of the ladder.”

“Jack,” replied Harry gravely, “if this machinery were tostop altogether, if this landing-place were to fall beneath our feet, you mustand shall hear what I have to say.”

“Well done, Harry! that’s how I like to be spoken to! Let’ssettle, then, that, before you marry Nell, she shall go to school in AuldReekie.”

“No indeed, Jack; I am perfectly able myself to educate the person who isto be my wife.”

“Sure that will be a great deal better, Harry!”

“But, first of all,” resumed Harry, “I wish that Nell shouldgain a real knowledge of the upper world. To illustrate my meaning, Jack,suppose you were in love with a blind girl, and someone said to you, ‘Ina month’s time her sight will be restored,’ would you not wait tillafter she was cured, to marry her?”

“Faith, to be sure I would!” exclaimed Jack.

“Well, Jack, Nell is at present blind; and before she marries me, I wishher to see what I am, and what the life really is to which she would bindherself. In short, she must have daylight let in upon the subject!”

“Well said, Harry! Very well said indeed!” cried Jack. “Now Isee what you are driving at. And when may we expect the operation to comeoff?”

“In a month, Jack,” replied Harry. “Nell is getting used tothe light of our reflectors. That is some preparation. In a month she will, Ihope, have seen the earth and its wonders—the sky and its splendors. Shewill perceive that the limits of the universe are boundless.”

But while Harry was thus giving the rein to his imagination, Jack Ryan,quitting the platform, had leaped on the step of the moving machinery.

“Hullo, Jack! Where are you?”

“Far beneath you,” laughed the merry fellow. “While you soarto the heights, I plunge into the depths.”

“Fare ye well. Jack!” returned Harry, himself laying hold of therising ladder; “mind you say nothing about what I have been tellingyou.”

“Not a word,” shouted Jack, “but I make one condition.”

“What is that?”

“That I may be one of the party when Nell’s first excursion to theface of the earth comes off!”

“So you shall, Jack, I promise you!”

A fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more considerable distance betweenthe friends. Their voices sounded faintly to each other. Harry, however, couldstill hear Jack shouting:

“I say! do you know what Nell will like better than either sun, moon, orstars, after she’s seen the whole of them?”

“No, Jack!”

“Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!” AndJack’s voice died away in a prolonged “Hurrah!”

Harry, after this, applied himself diligently, during all his spare time, tothe work of Nell’s education. He taught her to read and to write, andsuch rapid progress did she make, it might have been said that she learnt byinstinct. Never did keen intelligence more quickly triumph over utterignorance. It was the wonder of all beholders.

Simon and Madge became every day more and more attached to their adopted child,whose former history continued to puzzle them a good deal. They plainly saw thenature of Harry’s feelings towards her, and were far from displeasedthereat. They recollected that Simon had said to the engineer on his firstvisit to the old cottage, “How can our son ever think of marrying? Wherecould a wife possibly be found suitable for a lad whose whole life must bepassed in the depths of a coal mine?”

Well! now it seemed as if the most desirable companion in the world had beenled to him by Providence. Was not this like a blessing direct from Heaven? Sothe old man made up his mind that, if the wedding did take place, the miners ofNew Aberfoyle should have a merry-making at Coal Town, which they would neverduring their lives forget. Simon Ford little knew what he was saying!

It must be remarked that another person wished for this union of Harry and Nellas much as Simon did—and that was James Starr, the engineer. Of course hewas really interested in the happiness of the two young people. But anothermotive, connected with wider interests, influenced him to desire it.

It has been said that James Starr continued to entertain a certain amount ofapprehension, although for the present nothing appeared to justify it. Yet thatwhich had been might again be. This mystery about the new cutting—Nellwas evidently the only person acquainted with it. Now, if fresh dangers were instore for the miners of Aberfoyle, how were they possibly to be guardedagainst, without so much as knowing the cause of them?

“Nell has persisted in keeping silence,” said James Starr veryoften, “but what she has concealed from others, she will not long hidefrom her husband. Any danger would be danger to Harry as well as to the rest ofus. Therefore, a marriage which brings happiness to the lovers, and safety totheir friends, will be a good marriage, if ever there is such a thing herebelow.”

Thus, not illogically, reasoned James Starr. He communicated his ideas to oldSimon, who decidedly appreciated them. Nothing, then, appeared to stand in theway of the match. What, in fact, was there to prevent it? They loved eachother; the parents desired nothing better for their son. Harry’s comradesenvied his good fortune, but freely acknowledged that he deserved it. Themaiden depended on no one else, and had but to give the consent of her ownheart.

Why, then, if there were none to place obstacles in the way of thisunion—why, as night came on, and, the labors of the day being over, theelectric lights in the mine were extinguished, and all the inhabitants of CoalTown at rest within their dwellings—why did a mysterious form alwaysemerge from the gloomier recesses of New Aberfoyle, and silently glide throughthe darkness?

What instinct guided this phantom with ease through passages so narrow as toappear to be impracticable?

Why should the strange being, with eyes flashing through the deepest darkness,come cautiously creeping along the shores of Lake Malcolm? Why so directly makehis way towards Simon’s cottage, yet so carefully as hitherto to avoidnotice? Why, bending towards the windows, did he strive to catch, by listening,some fragment of the conversation within the closed shutters?

And, on catching a few words, why did he shake his fist with a menacing gesturetowards the calm abode, while from between his set teeth issued these words inmuttered fury, “She and he? Never! never!”

CHAPTER XIV.
A SUNRISE

A month after this, on the evening of the 20th of August, Simon Ford and Madgetook leave, with all manner of good wishes, of four tourists, who were settingforth from the cottage.

James Starr, Harry, and Jack Ryan were about to lead Nell’s steps overyet untrodden paths, and to show her the glories of nature by a light to whichshe was as yet a stranger. The excursion was to last for two days. James Starr,as well as Harry, considered that during these eight and forty hours spentabove ground, the maiden would be able to see everything of which she must haveremained ignorant in the gloomy pit; all the varied aspects of the globe,towns, plains, mountains, rivers, lakes, gulfs, and seas would pass,panorama-like, before her eyes.

In that part of Scotland lying between Edinburgh and Glasgow, nature would seemto have collected and set forth specimens of every one of these terrestrialbeauties. As to the heavens, they would be spread abroad as over the wholeearth, with their changeful clouds, serene or veiled moon, their radiant sun,and clustering stars. The expedition had been planned so as to combine a viewof all these things.

Simon and Madge would have been glad to go with Nell; but they never left theircottage willingly, and could not make up their minds to quit their subterraneanhome for a single day.

James Starr went as an observer and philosopher, curious to note, from apsychological point of view, the novel impressions made upon Nell; perhaps alsowith some hope of detecting a clue to the mysterious events connected with herchildhood. Harry, with a little trepidation, asked himself whether it was notpossible that this rapid initiation into the things of the exterior world wouldchange the maiden he had known and loved hitherto into quite a different girl.As for Jack Ryan, he was as joyous as a lark rising in the first beams of thesun. He only trusted that his gayety would prove contagious, and enliven histraveling companions, thus rewarding them for letting him join them. Nell waspensive and silent.

James Starr had decided, very sensibly, to set off in the evening. It would bevery much better for the girl to pass gradually from the darkness of night tothe full light of day; and that would in this way be managed, since betweenmidnight and noon she would experience the successive phases of shade andsunshine, to which her sight had to get accustomed.

Just as they left the cottage, Nell took Harry’s hand saying,“Harry, is it really necessary for me to leave the mine at all, even forthese few days?”

“Yes, it is, Nell,” replied the young man. “It is needful forboth of us.”

“But, Harry,” resumed Nell, “ever since you found me, I havebeen as happy as I can possibly be. You have been teaching me. Why is that notenough? What am I going up there for?”

Harry looked at her in silence. Nell was giving utterance to nearly his ownthoughts.

“My child,” said James Starr, “I can well understand thehesitation you feel; but it will be good for you to go with us. Those who loveyou are taking you, and they will bring you back again. Afterwards you will befree, if you wish it, to continue your life in the coal mine, like old Simon,and Madge, and Harry. But at least you ought to be able to compare what yougive up with what you choose, then decide freely. Come!”

“Come, dear Nell!” cried Harry.

“Harry, I am willing to follow you,” replied the maiden. At nineo’clock the last train through the tunnel started to convey Nell and hercompanions to the surface of the earth. Twenty minutes later they alighted onthe platform where the branch line to New Aberfoyle joins the railway fromDumbarton to Stirling.

The night was already dark. From the horizon to the zenith, light vapory cloudshurried through the upper air, driven by a refreshing northwesterly breeze. Theday had been lovely; the night promised to be so likewise.

On reaching Stirling, Nell and her friends, quitting the train, left thestation immediately. Just before them, between high trees, they could see aroad which led to the banks of the river Forth.

The first physical impression on the girl was the purity of the air inhaledeagerly by her lungs.

“Breathe it freely, Nell,” said James Starr; “it is fragrantwith all the scents of the open country.”

“What is all that smoke passing over our heads?” inquired Nell.

“Those are clouds,” answered Harry, “blown along by thewesterly wind.”

“Ah!” said Nell, “how I should like to feel myself carriedalong in that silent whirl! And what are those shining sparks which glance hereand there between rents in the clouds?”

“Those are the stars I have told you about, Nell. So many suns they are,so many centers of worlds like our own, most likely.”

The constellations became more clearly visible as the wind cleared the cloudsfrom the deep blue of the firmament. Nell gazed upon the myriad stars whichsparkled overhead. “But how is it,” she said at length, “thatif these are suns, my eyes can endure their brightness?”

“My child,” replied James Starr, “they are indeed suns, butsuns at an enormous distance. The nearest of these millions of stars, whoserays can reach us, is Vega, that star in Lyra which you observe near thezenith, and that is fifty thousand millions of leagues distant. Its brightness,therefore, cannot affect your vision. But our own sun, which will riseto-morrow, is only distant thirty-eight millions of leagues, and no human eyecan gaze fixedly upon that, for it is brighter than the blaze of any furnace.But come, Nell, come!”

They pursued their way, James Starr leading the maiden, Harry walking by herside, while Jack Ryan roamed about like a young dog, impatient of the slow paceof his masters. The road was lonely. Nell kept looking at the great trees,whose branches, waving in the wind, made them seem to her like giantsgesticulating wildly. The sound of the breeze in the tree-tops, the deepsilence during a lull, the distant line of the horizon, which could bediscerned when the road passed over open levels—all these things filledher with new sensations, and left lasting impressions on her mind.

After some time she ceased to ask questions, and her companions respected hersilence, not wishing to influence by any words of theirs the girl’shighly sensitive imagination, but preferring to allow ideas to arisespontaneously in her soul.

At about half past eleven o’clock, they gained the banks of the riverForth. There a boat, chartered by James Starr, awaited them. In a few hours itwould convey them all to Granton. Nell looked at the clear water which flowedup to her feet, as the waves broke gently on the beach, reflecting thestarlight. “Is this a lake?” said she.

“No,” replied Harry, “it is a great river flowing towards thesea, and soon opening so widely as to resemble a gulf. Taste a little of thewater in the hollow of your hand, Nell, and you will perceive that it is notsweet like the waters of Lake Malcolm.”

The maiden bent towards the stream, and, raising a little water to her lips,“This is quite salt,” said she.

“Yes, the tide is full; the sea water flows up the river as far asthis,” answered Harry.

“Oh, Harry! Harry!” exclaimed the maiden, “what can that redglow on the horizon be? Is it a forest on fire?”

“No, it is the rising moon, Nell.”

“To be sure, that’s the moon,” cried Jack Ryan, “a finebig silver plate, which the spirits of air hand round and round the sky tocollect the stars in, like money.”

“Why, Jack,” said the engineer, laughing, “I had no idea youcould strike out such bold comparisons!”

“Well, but, Mr. Starr, it is a just comparison. Don’t you see thestars disappear as the moon passes on? so I suppose they drop into it.”

“What you mean to say, Jack, is that the superior brilliancy of the mooneclipses that of stars of the sixth magnitude, therefore they vanish as sheapproaches.”

“How beautiful all this is!” repeated Nell again and again, withher whole soul in her eyes. “But I thought the moon was round?”

“So she is, when ‘full,’” said James Starr; “thatmeans when she is just opposite to the sun. But to-night the moon is in thelast quarter, shorn of her just proportions, and friend Jack’s grandsilver plate looks more like a barber’s basin.”

“Oh, Mr. Starr, what a base comparison!” he exclaimed, “I wasjust going to begin a sonnet to the moon, but your barber’s basin hasdestroyed all chance of an inspiration.”

Gradually the moon ascended the heavens. Before her light the lingering cloudsfled away, while stars still sparkled in the west, beyond the influence of herradiance. Nell gazed in silence on the glorious spectacle. The soft silverylight was pleasant to her eyes, and her little trembling hand expressed toHarry, who clasped it, how deeply she was affected by the scene.

“Let us embark now,” said James Starr. “We have to get to thetop of Arthur’s Seat before sunrise.”

The boat was moored to a post on the bank. A boatman awaited them. Nell and herfriends took their seats; the sail was spread; it quickly filled before thenorthwesterly breeze, and they sped on their way.

What a new sensation was this for the maiden! She had been rowed on the watersof Lake Malcolm; but the oar, handled ever so lightly by Harry, always betrayedeffort on the part of the oarsman. Now, for the first time, Nell felt herselfborne along with a gliding movement, like that of a balloon through the air.The water was smooth as a lake, and Nell reclined in the stern of the boat,enjoying its gentle rocking. Occasionally the effect of the moonlight on thewaters was as though the boat sailed across a glittering silver field. Littlewavelets rippled along the banks. It was enchanting.

At length Nell was overcome with drowsiness, her eyelids drooped, her head sankon Harry’s shoulder—she slept. Harry, sorry that she should missany of the beauties of this magnificent night, would have aroused her.

“Let her sleep!” said the engineer. “She will better enjoythe novelties of the day after a couple of hours’ rest.”

At two o’clock in the morning the boat reached Granton pier. Nell awoke.“Have I been asleep?” inquired she.

“No, my child,” said James Starr. “You have been dreamingthat you slept, that’s all.”

The night continued clear. The moon, riding in mid-heaven, diffused her rays onall sides. In the little port of Granton lay two or three fishing boats; theyrocked gently on the waters of the Firth. The wind fell as the dawn approached.The atmosphere, clear of mists, promised one of those fine autumn days sodelicious on the sea coast.

A soft, transparent film of vapor lay along the horizon; the first sunbeamwould dissipate it; to the maiden it exhibited that aspect of the sea whichseems to blend it with the sky. Her view was now enlarged, without producingthe impression of the boundless infinity of ocean.

Harry taking Nell’s hand, they followed James Starr and Jack Ryan as theytraversed the deserted streets. To Nell, this suburb of the capital appearedonly a collection of gloomy dark houses, just like Coal Town, only that theroof was higher, and gleamed with small lights.

She stepped lightly forward, and easily kept pace with Harry. “Are younot tired, Nell?” asked he, after half an hour’s walking.

“No! my feet seem scarcely to touch the earth,” returned she.“This sky above us seems so high up, I feel as if I could take wing andfly!”

“I say! keep hold of her!” cried Jack Ryan. “Our little Nellis too good to lose. I feel just as you describe though, myself, when I havenot left the pit for a long time.”

“It is when we no longer experience the oppressive effect of the vaultedrocky roof above Coal Town,” said James Starr, “that the spaciousfirmament appears to us like a profound abyss into which we have, as it were, adesire to plunge. Is that what you feel, Nell?”

“Yes, Mr. Starr, it is exactly like that,” said Nell. “Itmakes me feel giddy.”

“Ah! you will soon get over that, Nell,” said Harry. “Youwill get used to the outer world, and most likely forget all about our darkcoal pit.”

“No, Harry, never!” said Nell, and she put her hand over her eyes,as though she would recall the remembrance of everything she had latelyquitted.

Between the silent dwellings of the city, the party passed along Leith Walk,and went round the Calton Hill, where stood, in the light of the gray dawn, thebuildings of the Observatory and Nelson’s Monument. By Regent’sBridge and the North Bridge they at last reached the lower extremity of theCanongate. The town still lay wrapt in slumber.

Nell pointed to a large building in the center of an open space, asking,“What great confused mass is that?”

“That confused mass, Nell, is the palace of the ancient kings ofScotland; that is Holyrood, where many a sad scene has been enacted! Thehistorian can here invoke many a royal shade; from those of the early Scottishkings to that of the unhappy Mary Stuart, and the French king, Charles X. Whenday breaks, however, Nell, this palace will not look so very gloomy. Holyrood,with its four embattled towers, is not unlike some handsome country house. Butlet us pursue our way. There, just above the ancient Abbey of Holyrood, are thesuperb cliffs called Salisbury Crags. Arthur’s Seat rises above them, andthat is where we are going. From the summit of Arthur’s Seat, Nell, youreyes shall behold the sun appear above the horizon seaward.”

They entered the King’s Park, then, gradually ascending they passedacross the Queen’s Drive, a splendid carriageway encircling the hill,which we owe to a few lines in one of Sir Walter Scott’s romances.

Arthur’s Seat is in truth only a hill, seven hundred and fifty feet high,which stands alone amid surrounding heights. In less than half an hour, by aneasy winding path, James Starr and his party reached the crest of the crouchinglion, which, seen from the west, Arthur’s Seat so much resembles. There,all four seated themselves; and James Starr, ever ready with quotations fromthe great Scottish novelist, simply said, “Listen to what is written bySir Walter Scott in the eighth chapter of the Heart of Mid-Lothian.‘If I were to choose a spot from which the rising or setting sun could beseen to the greatest possible advantage, it would be from thisneighborhood.’ Now watch, Nell! the sun will soon appear, and for thefirst time you will contemplate its splendor.”

The maiden turned her eyes eastward. Harry, keeping close beside her, observedher with anxious interest. Would the first beams of day overpower her feelings?All remained quiet, even Jack Ryan. A faint streak of pale rose tinted thelight vapors of the horizon. It was the first ray of light attacking thelaggards of the night. Beneath the hill lay the silent city, massed confusedlyin the twilight of dawn. Here and there lights twinkled among the houses of theold town. Westward rose many hill-tops, soon to be illuminated by tips of fire.

Now the distant horizon of the sea became more plainly visible. The scale ofcolors fell into the order of the solar. Every instant they increased inintensity, rose color became red, red became fiery, daylight dawned. Nell nowglanced towards the city, of which the outlines became more distinct. Loftymonuments, slender steeples emerged from the gloom; a kind of ashy light wasspread abroad. At length one solitary ray struck on the maiden’s sight.It was that ray of green which, morning or evening, is reflected upwards fromthe sea when the horizon is clear.

An instant afterwards, Nell turned, and pointing towards a bright prominentpoint in the New Town, “Fire!” cried she.

“No, Nell, that is no fire,” said Harry. “The sun has touchedwith gold the top of Sir Walter Scott’s monument”—and,indeed, the extreme point of the monument blazed like the light of a pharos.

It was day—the sun arose—his disc seemed to glitter as though heindeed emerged from the waters of the sea. Appearing at first very large fromthe effects of refraction, he contracted as he rose and assumed the perfectlycircular form. Soon no eye could endure the dazzling splendor; it was as thoughthe mouth of a furnace was opened through the sky.

Nell closed her eyes, but her eyelids could not exclude the glare, and shepressed her fingers over them. Harry advised her to turn in the oppositedirection. “Oh, no,” said she, “my eyes must get used to lookat what yours can bear to see!”

Even through her hands Nell perceived a rosy light, which became more white asthe sun rose above the horizon. As her sight became accustomed to it, hereyelids were raised, and at length her eyes drank in the light of day.

The good child knelt down, exclaiming, “Oh Lord God! how beautiful is Thycreation!” Then she rose and looked around. At her feet extended thepanorama of Edinburgh—the clear, distinct lines of streets in the NewTown, and the irregular mass of houses, with their confused network of streetsand lanes, which constitutes Auld Reekie, properly so called. Two heightscommanded the entire city; Edinburgh Castle, crowning its huge basaltic rock,and the Calton Hill, bearing on its rounded summit, among other monuments,ruins built to represent those of the Parthenon at Athens.

Fine roadways led in all directions from the capital. To the north, the coastof the noble Firth of Forth was indented by a deep bay, in which could be seenthe seaport town of Leith, between which and this Modern Athens of the northran a street, straight as that leading to the Piraeus.

Beyond the wide Firth could be seen the soft outlines of the county of Fife,while beneath the spectator stretched the yellow sands of Portobello andNewhaven.

Nell could not speak. Her lips murmured a word or two indistinctly; shetrembled, became giddy, her strength failed her; overcome by the purity of theair and the sublimity of the scene, she sank fainting into Harry’s arms,who, watching her closely, was ready to support her.

The youthful maiden, hitherto entombed in the massive depths of the earth, hadnow obtained an idea of the universe—of the works both of God and of man.She had looked upon town and country, and beyond these, into the immensity ofthe sea, the infinity of the heavens.

CHAPTER XV.
LOCH LOMOND AND LOCH KATRINE

Harry bore Nell carefully down the steeps of Arthur’s Seat, and,accompanied by James Starr and Jack Ryan, they reached Lambert’s Hotel.There a good breakfast restored their strength, and they began to make furtherplans for an excursion to the Highland lakes.

Nell was now refreshed, and able to look boldly forth into the sunshine, whileher lungs with ease inhaled the free and healthful air. Her eyes learned gladlyto know the harmonious varieties of color as they rested on the green trees,the azure skies, and all the endless shades of lovely flowers and plants.

The railway train, which they entered at the Waverley Station, conveyed Nelland her friends to Glasgow. There, from the new bridge across the Clyde, theywatched the curious sea-like movement of the river. After a night’s restat Comrie’s Royal Hotel, they betook themselves to the terminus of theEdinburgh and Glasgow Railway, from whence a train would rapidly carry them, byway of Dumbarton and Balloch, to the southern extremity of Loch Lomond.

“Now for the land of Rob Roy and Fergus MacIvor!—the sceneryimmortalized by the poetical descriptions of Walter Scott,” exclaimedJames Starr. “You don’t know this country, Jack?”

“Only by its songs, Mr. Starr,” replied Jack; “and judging bythose, it must be grand.”

“So it is, so it is!” cried the engineer, “and our dear Nellshall see it to the best advantage.”

A steamboat, the Sinclairby name, awaited tourists about to make theexcursion to the lakes. Nell and her companions went on board. The day hadbegun in brilliant sunshine, free from the British fogs which so often veil theskies.

The passengers were determined to lose none of the beauties of nature to bedisplayed during the thirty miles’ voyage. Nell, seated between JamesStarr and Harry, drank in with every faculty the magnificent poetry with whichlovely Scottish scenery is fraught. Numerous small isles and islets soonappeared, as though thickly sown on the bosom of the lake. The Sinclairsteamed her way among them, while between them glimpses could be had of quietvalleys, or wild rocky gorges on the mainland.

“Nell,” said James Starr, “every island here has its legend,perhaps its song, as well as the mountains which overshadow the lake. One may,without much exaggeration, say that the history of this country is written ingigantic characters of mountains and islands.”

Nell listened, but these fighting stories made her sad. Why all that bloodshedon plains which to her seemed enormous, and where surely there must have beenroom for everybody?

The shores of the lake form a little harbor at Luss. Nell could for a momentcatch sight of the old tower of its ancient castle. Then, the Sinclairturning northward, the tourists gazed upon Ben Lomond, towering nearly 3,000feet above the level of the lake.

“Oh, what a noble mountain!” cried Nell; “what a view theremust be from the top!”

“Yes, Nell,” answered James Starr; “see how haughtily itspeak rises from amidst the thicket of oaks, birches, and heather, which clothethe lower portion of the mountain! From thence one may see two-thirds of oldCaledonia. This eastern side of the lake was the special abode of the clanMcGregor. At no great distance, the struggles of the Jacobites and Hanoveriansrepeatedly dyed with blood these lonely glens. Over these scenes shines thepale moon, called in old ballads ‘Macfarlane’s lantern.’Among these rocks still echo the immortal names of Rob Roy and McGregorCampbell.”

As the Sinclairadvanced along the base of the mountain, the countrybecame more and more abrupt in character. Trees were only scattered here andthere; among them were the willows, slender wands of which were formerly usedfor hanging persons of low degree.

“To economize hemp,” remarked James Starr.

The lake narrowed very much as it stretched northwards.

The steamer passed a few more islets, Inveruglas, Eilad-whow, where stand someruins of a stronghold of the clan MacFarlane. At length the head of the lochwas reached, and the Sinclairstopped at Inversnaid.

Leaving Loch Arklet on the left, a steep ascent led to the Inn ofStronachlacar, on the banks of Loch Katrine.

There, at the end of a light pier, floated a small steamboat, named, as amatter of course, the Rob Roy. The travelers immediately went on board;it was about to start. Loch Katrine is only ten miles in length; its widthnever exceeds two miles. The hills nearest it are full of a character peculiarto themselves.

“Here we are on this famous lake,” said James Starr. “It hasbeen compared to an eel on account of its length and windings: and justly so.They say that it never freezes. I know nothing about that, but what we want tothink of is, that here are the scenes of the adventures in the Lady of theLake. I believe, if friend Jack looked about him carefully, he might see,still gliding over the surface of the water, the shade of the slender form ofsweet Ellen Douglas.”

“To be sure, Mr. Starr,” replied Jack; “why should I not? Imay just as well see that pretty girl on the waters of Loch Katrine, as thoseugly ghosts on Loch Malcolm in the coal pit.”

It was by this time three o’clock in the afternoon. The less hilly shoresof Loch Katrine westward extended like a picture framed between Ben An and BenVenue. At the distance of half a mile was the entrance to the narrow bay, wherewas the landing-place for our tourists, who meant to return to Stirling byCallander.

Nell appeared completely worn out by the continued excitement of the day. Afaint ejaculation was all she was able to utter in token of admiration as newobjects of wonder or beauty met her gaze. She required some hours of rest, wereit but to impress lastingly the recollection of all she had seen.

Her hand rested in Harry’s, and, looking earnestly at her, he said,“Nell, dear Nell, we shall soon be home again in the gloomy region of thecoal mine. Shall you not pine for what you have seen during these few hoursspent in the glorious light of day?”

“No, Harry,” replied the girl; “I shall like to think aboutit, but I am glad to go back with you to our dear old home.”

“Nell!” said Harry, vainly attempting to steady his voice,“are you willing to be bound to me by the most sacred tie? Could youmarry me, Nell?”

“Yes, Harry, I could, if you are sure that I am able to make youhappy,” answered the maiden, raising her innocent eyes to his.

Scarcely had she pronounced these words when an unaccountable phenomenon tookplace. The Rob Roy, still half a mile from land, experienced a violentshock. She suddenly grounded. No efforts of the engine could move her.

The cause of this accident was simply that Loch Katrine was all at onceemptied, as though an enormous fissure had opened in its bed. In a few secondsit had the appearance of a sea beach at low water. Nearly the whole of itscontents had vanished into the bosom of the earth.

“My friends!” exclaimed James Starr, as the cause of this marvelbecame suddenly clear to him, “God help New Aberfoyle!”

CHAPTER XVI.
A FINAL THREAT

On that day, in the colliery of New Aberfoyle, work was going on in the usualregular way. In the distance could be heard the crash of great charges ofdynamite, by which the carboniferous rocks were blasted. Here masses of coalwere loosened by pick-ax and crowbar; there the perforating machines, withtheir harsh grating, bored through the masses of sandstone and schist.

Hollow, cavernous noises resounded on all sides. Draughts of air rushed alongthe ventilating galleries, and the wooden swing-doors slammed beneath theirviolent gusts. In the lower tunnels, trains of trucks kept passing along at therate of fifteen miles an hour, while at their approach electric bells warnedthe workmen to cower down in the refuge places. Lifts went incessantly up anddown, worked by powerful engines on the surface of the soil. Coal Town wasthroughout brilliantly lighted by the electric lamps at full power.

Mining operations were being carried on with the greatest activity; coal wasbeing piled incessantly into the trucks, which went in hundreds to emptythemselves into the corves at the bottom of the shaft. While parties of minerswho had labored during the night were taking needful rest, the others workedwithout wasting an hour.

Old Simon Ford and Madge, having finished their dinner, were resting at thedoor of their cottage. Simon smoked a good pipe of tobacco, and from time totime the old couple spoke of Nell, of their boy, of Mr. Starr, and wondered howthey liked their trip to the surface of the earth. Where would they be now?What would they be doing? How could they stay so long away from the minewithout feeling homesick?

Just then a terrific roaring noise was heard. It was like the sound of a mightycataract rushing down into the mine. The old people rose hastily. Theyperceived at once that the waters of Loch Malcolm were rising. A great wave,unfurling like a billow, swept up the bank and broke against the walls of thecottage. Simon caught his wife in his arms, and carried her to the upper partof their dwelling.

At the same moment, cries arose from all parts of Coal Town, which wasthreatened by a sudden inundation. The inhabitants fled for safety to the topof the schist rocks bordering the lake; terror spread in all directions; wholefamilies in frantic haste rushed towards the tunnel in order to reach the upperregions of the pit.

It was feared that the sea had burst into the colliery, for its galleries andpassages penetrated as far as the Caledonian Canal. In that case the entireexcavation, vast as it was, would be completely flooded. Not a singleinhabitant of New Aberfoyle would escape death.

But when the foremost fugitives reached the entrance to the tunnel, theyencountered Simon Ford, who had quitted his cottage. “Stop, my friends,stop!” shouted the old man; “if our town is to be overwhelmed, thefloods will rush faster than you can; no one can possibly escape. But see! thewaters are rising no further! it appears to me the danger is over.”

“And our comrades at the far end of the works—what aboutthem?” cried some of the miners.

“There is nothing to fear for them,” replied Simon; “they areworking on a higher level than the bed of the loch.”

It was soon evident that the old man was in the right. The sudden influx ofwater had rushed to the very lowest bed of the vast mine, and its only ultimateeffect was to raise the level of Loch Malcolm a few feet. Coal Town wasuninjured, and it was reasonable to hope that no one had perished in the floodof water which had descended to the depths of the mine never yet penetrated bythe workmen.

Simon and his men could not decide whether this inundation was owing to theoverflow of a subterranean sheet of water penetrating fissures in the solidrock, or to some underground torrent breaking through its worn bed, andprecipitating itself to the lowest level of the mine. But that very sameevening they knew what to think about it, for the local papers published anaccount of the marvelous phenomenon which Loch Katrine had exhibited.

The surprising news was soon after confirmed by the four travelers, who,returning with all possible speed to the cottage, learned with extremesatisfaction that no serious damage was done in New Aberfoyle.

The bed of Loch Katrine had fairly given way. The waters had suddenly brokenthrough by an enormous fissure into the mine beneath. Of Sir WalterScott’s favorite loch there was not left enough to wet the pretty foot ofthe Lady of the Lake; all that remained was a pond of a few acres at thefurther extremity.

This singular event made a profound sensation in the country. It was a thingunheard of that a lake should in the space of a few minutes empty itself, anddisappear into the bowels of the earth. There was nothing for it but to eraseLoch Katrine from the map of Scotland until (by public subscription) it couldbe refilled, care being of course taken, in the first place, to stop the rentup tight. This catastrophe would have been the death of Sir Walter Scott, hadhe still been in the world.

The accident was explicable when it was ascertained that, between the bed ofthe lake and the vast cavity beneath, the geological strata had become reducedto a thin layer, incapable of longer sustaining the weight of water.

Now, although to most people this event seemed plainly due to natural causes,yet to James Starr and his friends, Simon and Harry Ford, the questionconstantly recurred, was it not rather to be attributed to malevolence? Uneasysuspicions continually harassed their minds. Was their evil genius about torenew his persecution of those who ventured to work this rich mine?

At the cottage, some days later, James Starr thus discussed the matter with theold man and his son: “Well, Simon,” said he, “to my thinkingwe must class this circumstance with the others for which we still seekelucidation, although it is no doubt possible to explain it by naturalcauses.”

“I am quite of your mind, Mr. James,” replied Simon, “buttake my advice, and say nothing about it; let us make all researchesourselves.”

“Oh, I know the result of such research beforehand!” cried theengineer.

“And what will it be, then?”

“We shall find proofs of malevolence, but not the malefactor.”

“But he exists! he is there! Where can he lie concealed? Is it possibleto conceive that the most depraved human being could, single-handed, carry outan idea so infernal as that of bursting through the bed of a lake? I believe Ishall end by thinking, like Jack Ryan, that the evil demon of the mine revengeshimself on us for having invaded his domain.”

Nell was allowed to hear as little as possible of these discussions. Indeed,she showed no desire to enter into them, although it was very evident that sheshared in the anxieties of her adopted parents. The melancholy in hercountenance bore witness to much mental agitation.

It was at length resolved that James Starr, together with Simon and Harry,should return to the scene of the disaster, and endeavor to satisfy themselvesas to the cause of it. They mentioned their project to no one. To thoseunacquainted with the group of facts on which it was based, the opinion ofStarr and his friends could not fail to appear wholly inadmissible.

A few days later, the three friends proceeded in a small boat to examine thenatural pillars on which had rested the solid earth forming the basin of LochKatrine. They discovered that they had been right in suspecting that themassive columns had been undermined by blasting. The blackened traces ofexplosion were to be seen, the waters having subsided below the level of thesemysterious operations Thus the fall of a portion of the vast vaulted dome wasproved to have been premeditated by man, and by man’s hand had it beeneffected.

“It is impossible to doubt it,” said James Starr; “and whocan say what might not have happened had the sea, instead of a little loch,been let in upon us?”

“You may well say that,” cried the old overman, with a feeling ofpride in his beloved mine; “for nothing less than a sea would havedrowned our Aberfoyle. But, once more, what possible interest could any humanbeing have in the destruction of our works?”

“It is quite incomprehensible,” replied James Starr. “Thiscase is something perfectly unlike that of a band of common criminals, who,concealing themselves in dens and caves, go forth to rob and pillage thesurrounding country. The evil deeds of such men would certainly, in the courseof three years have betrayed their existence and lurking-places. Neither can itbe, as I sometimes used to think, that smugglers or coiners carried on theirillegal practices in some distant and unknown corner of these prodigiouscaverns, and were consequently anxious to drive us out of them. But no onecoins false money or obtains contraband goods only to conceal them!

“Yet it is clear that an implacable enemy has sworn the ruin of NewAberfoyle, and that some interest urges him to seek in every possible way towreak his hatred upon us. He appears to be too weak to act openly, and lays hisschemes in secret; but displays such intelligence as to render him a mostformidable foe.

“My friends, he must understand better than we do the secrets of ourdomain, since he has all this time eluded our vigilance. He must be a manexperienced in mining, skilled beyond the most skillful—that’scertain, Simon! We have proof enough of that.

“Let me see! Have you never had a personal enemy, to whom your suspicionsmight point? Think well! There is such a thing as hatred which time neversoftens. Go back to recollections of your earliest days. What befalls usappears the work of a stern and patient will, and to explain it demands everyeffort of thought and memory.”

Simon did not answer immediately—his mind evidently engaged in a closeand candid survey of his past life. Presently, raising his head,“No,” said he; “no! Heaven be my witness, neither Madge nor Ihave ever injured anybody. We cannot believe that we have a single enemy in theworld.”

“Ah! if Nell would only speak!” cried the engineer.

“Mr. Starr—and you, father,” said Harry, “I do beg ofyou to keep silence on this matter, and not to question my poor Nell. I knowshe is very anxious and uneasy; and I feel positive that some great secretpainfully oppresses her heart. Either she knows nothing it would be of any usefor us to hear, or she considers it her duty to be silent. It is impossible todoubt her affection for us—for all of us. If at a future time she informsme of what she has hitherto concealed from us, you shall know about itimmediately.”

“So be it, then, Harry,” answered the engineer; “and yet Imust say Nell’s silence, if she knows anything, is to me perfectlyinexplicable.”

Harry would have continued her defense; but the engineer stopped him, saying,“All right, Harry; we promise to say no more about it to your futurewife.”

“With my father’s consent she shall be my wife without furtherdelay.”

“My boy,” said old Simon, “your marriage shall take placethis very day month. Mr. Starr, will you undertake the part of Nell’sfather?”

“You may reckon upon me for that, Simon,” answered the engineer.

They then returned to the cottage, but said not a word of the result of theirexaminations in the mine, so that to the rest of its inhabitants, the burstingin of the vaulted roof of the caverns continued to be regarded as a mereaccident. There was but a loch the less in Scotland.

Nell gradually resumed her customary duties, and Harry made good use of herlittle visit to the upper air, in the instructions he gave her. She enjoyed therecollections of life above ground, yet without regretting it. The somberregion she had loved as a child, and in which her wedded life would be spent,was as dear to her as ever.

The approaching marriage created great excitement in New Aberfoyle. Good wishespoured in on all sides, and foremost among them were Jack Ryan’s. He wasdetected busily practicing his best songs in preparation for the great day,which was to be celebrated by the whole population of Coal Town.

During the month preceding the wedding-day, there were more accidents occurringin New Aberfoyle than had ever been known in the place. One would have thoughtthe approaching union of Harry and Nell actually provoked one catastrophe afteranother. These misfortunes happened chiefly at the further and lowest extremityof the works, and the cause of them was always in some way mysterious.

Thus, for instance, the wood-work of a distant gallery was discovered to be inflames, which were extinguished by Harry and his companions at the risk oftheir lives, by employing engines filled with water and carbonic acid, alwayskept ready in case of necessity. The lamp used by the incendiary was found; butno clew whatever as to who he could be.

Another time an inundation took place in consequence of the stanchions of awater-tank giving way; and Mr. Starr ascertained beyond a doubt that thesesupports had first of all been partially sawn through. Harry, who had beenoverseeing the works near the place at the time, was buried in the fallingrubbish, and narrowly escaped death.

A few days afterwards, on the steam tramway, a train of trucks, which Harry waspassing along, met with an obstacle on the rails, and was overturned. It wasthen discovered that a beam had been laid across the line. In short, events ofthis description became so numerous that the miners were seized with a kind ofpanic, and it required all the influence of their chiefs to keep them on theworks.

“You would think that there was a whole band of these ruffians,”Simon kept saying, “and we can’t lay hands on a single one ofthem.”

Search was made in all directions. The county police were on the alert nightand day, yet discovered nothing. The evil intentions seeming specially designedto injure Harry. Starr forbade him to venture alone beyond the ordinary limitsof the works.

They were equally careful of Nell, although, at Harry’s entreaty, thesemalicious attempts to do harm were concealed from her, because they mightremind her painfully of former times. Simon and Madge watched over her by dayand by night with a sort of stern solicitude. The poor child yielded to theirwishes, without a remark or a complaint. Did she perceive that they acted witha view to her interest? Probably she did. And on her part, she seemed to watchover others, and was never easy unless all whom she loved were together in thecottage.

When Harry came home in the evening, she could not restrain expressions ofchild-like joy, very unlike her usual manner, which was rather reserved thandemonstrative. As soon as day broke, she was astir before anyone else, and herconstant uneasiness lasted all day until the hour of return home from work.

Harry became very anxious that their marriage should take place. He thoughtthat, when the irrevocable step was taken, malevolence would be disarmed, andthat Nell would never feel safe until she was his wife. James Starr, Simon, andMadge, were all of the same opinion, and everyone counted the intervening days,for everyone suffered from the most uncomfortable forebodings.

It was perfectly evident that nothing relating to Nell was indifferent to thishidden foe, whom it was impossible to meet or to avoid. Therefore it seemedquite possible that the solemn act of her marriage with Harry might be theoccasion of some new and dreadful outbreak of his hatred.

One morning, a week before the day appointed for the ceremony, Nell, risingearly, went out of the cottage before anyone else. No sooner had she crossedthe threshold than a cry of indescribable anguish escaped her lips.

Her voice was heard throughout the dwelling; in a moment, Madge, Harry, andSimon were at her side. Nell was pale as death, her countenance agitated, herfeatures expressing the utmost horror. Unable to speak, her eyes were rivetedon the door of the cottage, which she had just opened.

With rigid fingers she pointed to the following words traced upon it during thenight: “Simon Ford, you have robbed me of the last vein in our old pit.Harry, your son, has robbed me of Nell. Woe betide you! Woe betide you all! Woebetide New Aberfoyle!—SILFAX.”

“Silfax!” exclaimed Simon and Madge together.

“Who is this man?” demanded Harry, looking alternately at hisfather and at the maiden.

“Silfax!” repeated Nell in tones of despair,“Silfax!”—and, murmuring this name, her whole frameshuddering with fear and agitation, she was borne away to her chamber by oldMadge.

James Starr, hastening to the spot, read the threatening sentences again andagain.

“The hand which traced these lines,” said he at length, “isthe same which wrote me the letter contradicting yours, Simon. The man callshimself Silfax. I see by your troubled manner that you know him. Who is thisSilfax?”

CHAPTER XVII.
THE “MONK”

This name revealed everything to the old overman. It was that of the last“monk” of the Dochart pit.

In former days, before the invention of the safety-lamp, Simon had known thisfierce man, whose business it was to go daily, at the risk of his life, toproduce partial explosions of fire-damp in the passages. He used to see thisstrange solitary being, prowling about the mine, always accompanied by amonstrous owl, which he called Harfang, who assisted him in his perilousoccupation, by soaring with a lighted match to places Silfax was unable toreach.

One day this old man disappeared, and at the same time also, a little orphangirl born in the mine, who had no relation but himself, her great-grandfather.It was perfectly evident now that this child was Nell. During the fifteenyears, up to the time when she was saved by Harry, they must have lived in somesecret abyss of the mine.

The old overman, full of mingled compassion and anger, made known to theengineer and Harry all that the name of Silfax had revealed to him. Itexplained the whole mystery. Silfax was the mysterious being so long vainlysought for in the depths of New Aberfoyle.

“So you knew him, Simon?” demanded Mr. Starr.

“Yes, that I did,” replied the overman. “The Harfang man, weused to call him. Why, he was old then! He must be fifteen or twenty yearsolder than I am. A wild, savage sort of fellow, who held aloof from everyoneand was known to fear nothing—neither fire nor water. It was his ownfancy to follow the trade of ‘monk,’ which few would have liked.The constant danger of the business had unsettled his brain. He wasprodigiously strong, and he knew the mine as no one else—at any rate, aswell as I did. He lived on a small allowance. In faith, I believed him deadyears ago.”

“But,” resumed James Starr, “what does he mean by thosewords, ‘You have robbed me of the last vein of our oldmine’?”

“Ah! there it is,” replied Simon; “for a long time it hadbeen a fancy of his—I told you his mind was deranged—that he had aright to the mine of Aberfoyle; so he became more and more savage in temper thedeeper the Dochart pit—his pit!—was worked out. It just seemed asif it was his own body that suffered from every blow of the pickax. You mustremember that, Madge?”

“Ay, that I do, Simon,” replied she.

“I can recollect all this,” resumed Simon, “since I have seenthe name of Silfax on the door. But I tell you, I thought the man was dead, andnever imagined that the spiteful being we have so long sought for could be theold fireman of the Dochart pit.”

“Well, now, then,” said Starr, “it is all quite plain. Chancemade known to Silfax the new vein of coal. With the egotism of madness, hebelieved himself the owner of a treasure he must conceal and defend. Living inthe mine, and wandering about day and night, he perceived that you haddiscovered the secret, and had written in all haste to beg me to come. Hencethe letter contradicting yours; hence, after my arrival, all the accidents thatoccurred, such as the block of stone thrown at Harry, the broken ladder at theYarrow shaft, the obstruction of the openings into the wall of the new cutting;hence, in short, our imprisonment, and then our deliverance, brought about bythe kind assistance of Nell, who acted of course without the knowledge of thisman Silfax, and contrary to his intentions.”

“You describe everything exactly as it must have happened, Mr.Starr,” returned old Simon. “The old ‘Monk’ is madenough now, at any rate!”

“All the better,” quoth Madge.

“I don’t know that,” said Starr, shaking his head; “itis a terrible sort of madness this.”

“Ah! now I understand that the very thought of him must have terrifiedpoor little Nell, and also I see that she could not bear to denounce hergrandfather. What a miserable time she must have had of it with the oldman!”

“Miserable with a vengeance,” replied Simon, “between thatsavage and his owl, as savage as himself. Depend upon it, that bird isn’tdead. That was what put our lamp out, and also so nearly cut the rope by whichHarry and Nell were suspended.”

“And then, you see,” said Madge, “this news of the marriageof our son with his granddaughter added to his rancor and ill-will.”

“To be sure,” said Simon. “To think that his Nell shouldmarry one of the robbers of his own coal mine would just drive him wildaltogether.”

“He will have to make up his mind to it, however,” cried Harry.“Mad as he is, we shall manage to convince him that Nell is better offwith us here than ever she was in the caverns of the pit. I am sure, Mr. Starr,if we could only catch him, we should be able to make him listen toreason.”

“My poor Harry! there is no reasoning with a madman,” replied theengineer. “Of course it is better to know your enemy than not; but youmust not fancy all is right because we have found out who he is. We must be onour guard, my friends; and to begin with, Harry, you positively must questionNell. She will perceive that her silence is no longer reasonable. Even for hergrandfather’s own interest, she ought to speak now. For his own sake, aswell as for ours, these insane plots must be put a stop to.”

“I feel sure, Mr. Starr,” answered Harry, “that Nell will ofherself propose to tell you what she knows. You see it was from a sense of dutythat she has been silent hitherto. My mother was very right to take her to herroom just now. She much needed time to recover her spirits; but now I will gofor her.”

“You need not do so, Harry,” said the maiden in a clear and firmvoice, as she entered at that moment the room in which they were. Nell was verypale; traces of tears were in her eyes; but her whole manner showed that shehad nerved herself to act as her loyal heart dictated as her duty.

“Nell!” cried Harry, springing towards her.

The girl arrested her lover by a gesture, and continued, “Your father andmother, and you, Harry, must now know all. And you too, Mr. Starr, must remainignorant of nothing that concerns the child you have received, and whomHarry—unfortunately for him, alas!—drew from the abyss.”

“Oh, Nell! what are you saying?” cried Harry.

“Allow her to speak,” said James Starr in a decided tone.

“I am the granddaughter of old Silfax,” resumed Nell. “Inever knew a mother till the day I came here,” added she, looking atMadge.

“Blessed be that day, my daughter!” said the old woman.

“I knew no father till I saw Simon Ford,” continued Nell;“nor friend till the day when Harry’s hand touched mine. Alone withmy grandfather I have lived during fifteen years in the remote and mostsolitary depths of the mine. I say withmy grandfather, but I canscarcely use the expression, for I seldom saw him. When he disappeared from OldAberfoyle, he concealed himself in caverns known only to himself. In his way hewas kind to me, dreadful as he was; he fed me with whatever he could procurefrom outside the mine; but I can dimly recollect that in my earliest years Iwas the nursling of a goat, the death of which was a bitter grief to me. Mygrandfather, seeing my distress, brought me another animal—a dog he saidit was. But, unluckily, this dog was lively, and barked. Grandfather did notlike anything cheerful. He had a horror of noise, and had taught me to besilent; the dog he could not teach to be quiet, so the poor animal very soondisappeared. My grandfather’s companion was a ferocious bird, Harfang, ofwhich, at first, I had a perfect horror; but this creature, in spite of mydislike to it, took such a strong affection for me, that I could not helpreturning it. It even obeyed me better than its master, which used to make mequite uneasy, for my grandfather was jealous. Harfang and I did not dare to lethim see us much together; we both knew it would be dangerous. But I am talkingtoo much about myself: the great thing is about you.”

“No, my child,” said James Starr, “tell us everything thatcomes to your mind.”

“My grandfather,” continued Nell, “always regarded your abodein the mine with a very evil eye—not that there was any lack of space.His chosen refuge was far—very far from you. But he could not bear tofeel that you were there. If I asked any questions about the people up aboveus, his face grew dark, he gave no answer, and continued quite silent for along time afterwards. But when he perceived that, not content with the olddomain, you seemed to think of encroaching upon his, then indeed his angerburst forth. He swore that, were you to succeed in reaching the new mine, youshould assuredly perish. Notwithstanding his great age, his strength isastonishing, and his threats used to make me tremble.”

“Go on, Nell, my child,” said Simon to the girl, who paused asthough to collect her thoughts.

“On the occasion of your first attempt,” resumed Nell, “assoon as my grandfather saw that you were fairly inside the gallery leading toNew Aberfoyle, he stopped up the opening, and turned it into a prison for you.I only knew you as shadows dimly seen in the gloom of the pit, but I could notendure the idea that you would die of hunger in these horrid places; and so, atthe risk of being detected, I succeeded in obtaining bread and water for youduring some days. I should have liked to help you to escape, but it was sodifficult to avoid the vigilance of my grandfather. You were about to die. Thenarrived Jack Ryan and the others. By the providence of God I met with them, andinstantly guided them to where you were. When my grandfather discovered what Ihad done, his rage against me was terrible. I expected death at his hands.After that my life became insupportable to me. My grandfather completely losthis senses. He proclaimed himself King of Darkness and Flame; and when he heardyour tools at work on coal-beds which he considered entirely his own, he becamefurious and beat me cruelly. I would have fled from him, but it was impossible,so narrowly did he watch me. At last, in a fit of ungovernable fury, he threwme down into the abyss where you found me, and disappeared, vainly calling onHarfang, which faithfully stayed by me, to follow him. I know not how long Iremained there, but I felt I was at the point of death when you, my Harry, cameand saved me. But now you all see that the grandchild of old Silfax can neverbe the wife of Harry Ford, because it would be certain death to you all!”

“Nell!” cried Harry.

“No,” continued the maiden, “my resolution is taken. By onemeans only can your ruin be averted; I must return to my grandfather. Hethreatens to destroy the whole of New Aberfoyle. His is a soul incapable ofmercy or forgiveness, and no mortal can say to what horrid deed the spirit ofrevenge will lead him. My duty is clear; I should be the most despicablecreature on earth did I hesitate to perform it. Farewell! I thank you allheartily. You only have taught me what happiness is. Whatever may befall,believe that my whole heart remains with you.”

At these words, Simon, Madge, and Harry started up in an agony of grief,exclaiming in tones of despair, “What, Nell! is it possible you wouldleave us?”

James Starr put them all aside with an air of authority, and, going straight upto Nell, he took both her hands in his, saying quietly, “Very right, mychild; you have said exactly what you ought to say; and now listen to what wehave to say in reply. We shall not let you go away; if necessary, we shall keepyou by force. Do you think we could be so base as to accept of your generousproposal? These threats of Silfax are formidable—no doubt about it! But,after all, a man is but a man, and we can take precautions. You will tell us,will you not, even for his own sake, all you can about his habits and hislurking-places? All we want to do is to put it out of his power to do harm, andperhaps bring him to reason.”

“You want to do what is quite impossible,” said Nell. “Mygrandfather is everywhere and nowhere. I have never seen his retreats. I havenever seen him sleep. If he meant to conceal himself, he used to leave mealone, and vanish. When I took my resolution, Mr. Starr, I was aware ofeverything you could say against it. Believe me, there is but one way to renderSilfax powerless, and that will be by my return to him. Invisible himself, hesees everything that goes on. Just think whether it is likely he could discoveryour very thoughts and intentions, from that time when the letter was writtento Mr. Starr, up to now that my marriage with Harry has been arranged, if hedid not possess the extraordinary faculty of knowing everything. As far as I amable to judge, my grandfather, in his very insanity, is a man of most powerfulmind. He formerly used to talk to me on very lofty subjects. He taught me theexistence of God, and never deceived me but on one point, which was—thathe made me believe that all men were base and perfidious, because he wished toinspire me with his own hatred of all the human race. When Harry brought me tothe cottage, you thought I was simply ignorant of mankind, but, far beyondthat, I was in mortal fear of you all. Ah, forgive me! I assure you, for manydays I believed myself in the power of wicked wretches, and I longed to escape.You, Madge, first led me to perceive the truth, not by anything you said, butby the sight of your daily life, for I saw that your husband and son loved andrespected you! Then all these good and happy workmen, who so revere and trustMr. Starr, I used to think they were slaves; and when, for the first time, Isaw the whole population of Aberfoyle come to church and kneel down to pray toGod, and praise Him for His infinite goodness, I said to myself, ‘Mygrandfather has deceived me.’ But now, enlightened by all you have taughtme, I am inclined to think he himself is deceived. I mean to return to thesecret passages I formerly frequented with him. He is certain to be on thewatch. I will call to him; he will hear me, and who knows but that, byreturning to him, I may be able to bring him to the knowledge of thetruth?”

The maiden spoke without interruption, for all felt that it was good for her toopen her whole heart to her friends.

But when, exhausted by emotion, and with eyes full of tears, she ceasedspeaking, Harry turned to old Madge and said, “Mother, what should youthink of the man who could forsake the noble girl whose words you have beenlistening to?”

“I should think he was a base coward,” said Madge, “and, werehe my son, I should renounce and curse him.”

“Nell, do you hear what our mother says?” resumed Harry.“Wherever you go I will follow you. If you persist in leaving us, we willgo away together.”

“Harry! Harry!” cried Nell.

Overcome by her feelings, the girl’s lips blanched, and she sank into thearms of Madge, who begged she might be left alone with her.

CHAPTER XVIII.
NELL’S WEDDING

It was agreed that the inhabitants of the cottage must keep more on their guardthan ever. The threats of old Silfax were too serious to be disregarded. It wasonly too possible that he possessed some terrible means by which the whole ofAberfoyle might be annihilated.

Armed sentinels were posted at the various entrances to the mine, with ordersto keep strict watch day and night. Any stranger entering the mine was broughtbefore James Starr, that he might give an account of himself. There being nofear of treason among the inhabitants of Coal Town, the threatened danger tothe subterranean colony was made known to them. Nell was informed of all theprecautions taken, and became more tranquil, although she was not free fromuneasiness. Harry’s determination to follow her wherever she wentcompelled her to promise not to escape from her friends.

During the week preceding the wedding, no accident whatever occurred inAberfoyle. The system of watching was carefully maintained, but the minersbegan to recover from the panic, which had seriously interrupted the work ofexcavation. James Starr continued to look out for Silfax. The old man havingvindictively declared that Nell should never marry Simon’s son, it wasnatural to suppose that he would not hesitate to commit any violent deed whichwould hinder their union.

The examination of the mine was carried on minutely. Every passage and gallerywas searched, up to those higher ranges which opened out among the ruins ofDundonald Castle. It was rightly supposed that through this old building Silfaxpassed out to obtain what was needful for the support of his miserableexistence (which he must have done, either by purchasing or thieving).

As to the “fire-maidens,” James Starr began to think thatappearance must have been produced by some jet of fire-damp gas which, issuingfrom that part of the pit, could be lighted by Silfax. He was not far wrong;but all search for proof of this was fruitless, and the continued strain ofanxiety in this perpetual effort to detect a malignant and invisible beingrendered the engineer—outwardly calm—an unhappy man.

As the wedding-day approached, his dread of some catastrophe increased, and hecould not but speak of it to the old overman, whose uneasiness soon more thanequaled his own. At length the day came. Silfax had given no token ofexistence.

By daybreak the entire population of Coal Town was astir. Work was suspended;overseers and workmen alike desired to do honor to Simon Ford and his son. Theyall felt they owed a large debt of gratitude to these bold and persevering men,by whose means the mine had been restored to its former prosperity. Theceremony was to take place at eleven o’clock, in St. Giles’schapel, which stood on the shores of Loch Malcolm.

At the appointed time, Harry left the cottage, supporting his mother on hisarm, while Simon led the bride. Following them came Starr, the engineer,composed in manner, but in reality nerved to expect the worst, and Jack Ryan,stepping superb in full Highland piper’s costume. Then came the othermining engineers, the principal people of Coal Town, the friends and comradesof the old overman—every member of this great family of miners formingthe population of New Aberfoyle.

In the outer world, the day was one of the hottest of the month of August,peculiarly oppressive in northern countries. The sultry air penetrated thedepths of the coal mine, and elevated the temperature. The air which enteredthrough the ventilating shafts, and the great tunnel of Loch Malcolm, wascharged with electricity, and the barometer, it was afterwards remarked, hadfallen in a remarkable manner. There was, indeed, every indication that a stormmight burst forth beneath the rocky vault which formed the roof of the enormouscrypt of the very mine itself.

But the inhabitants were not at that moment troubling themselves about thechances of atmospheric disturbance above ground. Everybody, as a matter ofcourse, had put on his best clothes for the occasion. Madge was dressed in thefashion of days gone by, wearing the “toy” and the“rokelay,” or Tartan plaid, of matrons of the olden time, old Simonwore a coat of which Bailie Nicol Jarvie himself would have approved.

Nell had resolved to show nothing of her mental agitation; she forbade herheart to beat, or her inward terrors to betray themselves, and the brave girlappeared before all with a calm and collected aspect. She had declined everyornament of dress, and the very simplicity of her attire added to the charmingelegance of her appearance. Her hair was bound with the “snood,”the usual head-dress of Scottish maidens.

All proceeded towards St. Giles’s chapel, which had been handsomelydecorated for the occasion.

The electric discs of light which illuminated Coal Town blazed like so manysuns. A luminous atmosphere pervaded New Aberfoyle. In the chapel, electriclamps shed a glow over the stained-glass windows, which shone like fierykaleidoscopes. At the porch of the chapel the minister awaited the arrival ofthe wedding party.

It approached, after having passed in stately procession along the shore ofLoch Malcolm. Then the tones of the organ were heard, and, preceded by theminister, the group advanced into the chapel. The Divine blessing was firstinvoked on all present. Then Harry and Nell remained alone before the minister,who, holding the sacred book in his hand, proceeded to say, “Harry, willyou take Nell to be your wife, and will you promise to love her always?”

“I promise,” answered the young man in a firm and steady voice.

“And you, Nell,” continued the minister, “will you take Harryto be your husband, and—”

Before he could finish the sentence, a prodigious noise resounded from without.One of the enormous rocks, on which was formed the terrace overhanging thebanks of Loch Malcolm, had suddenly given way and opened without explosion,disclosing a profound abyss, into which the waters were now wildly plunging.

In another instant, among the shattered rocks and rushing waves appeared acanoe, which a vigorous arm propelled along the surface of the lake. In thecanoe was seen the figure of an old man standing upright. He was clothed in adark mantle, his hair was dishevelled, a long white beard fell over his breast,and in his hand he bore a lighted Davy safety lamp, the flame being protectedby the metallic gauze of the apparatus.

In a loud voice this old man shouted, “The fire-damp is upon you!Woe—woe betide ye all!”

At the same moment the slight smell peculiar to carburetted hydrogen wasperceptibly diffused through the atmosphere. And, in truth, the fall of therock had made a passage of escape for an enormous quantity of explosive gas,accumulated in vast cavities, the openings to which had hitherto been blockedup.

Jets and streams of the fire-damp now rose upward in the vaulted dome; and welldid that fierce old man know that the consequence of what he had done would beto render explosive the whole atmosphere of the mine.

James Starr and several others, having hastily quitted the chapel, andperceived the imminence of the danger, now rushed back, crying out in accentsof the utmost alarm, “Fly from the mine! Fly instantly from themine!”

“Now for the fire-damp! Here comes the fire-damp!” yelled the oldman, urging his canoe further along the lake.

Harry with his bride, his father and his mother, left the chapel in haste andin terror.

“Fly! fly for your lives!” repeated James Starr. Alas! it was toolate to fly! Old Silfax stood there, prepared to fulfill his last dreadfulthreat—prepared to stop the marriage of Nell and Harry by overwhelmingthe entire population of the place beneath the ruins of the coal mine.

As he stood ready to accomplish this act of vengeance, his enormous owl, whosewhite plumage was marked with black spots, was seen hovering directly above hishead.

At that moment a man flung himself into the waters of the lake, and swamvigorously towards the canoe.

It was Jack Ryan, fully determined to reach the madman before he could do thedreadful deed of destruction.

Silfax saw him coming. Instantly he smashed the glass of his lamp, and,snatching out the burning wick, waved it in the air.

Silence like death fell upon the astounded multitude. James Starr, in thecalmness of despair, marvelled that the inevitable explosion was even for amoment delayed.

Silfax, gazing upwards with wild and contracted features, appeared to becomeaware that the gas, lighter than the lower atmosphere, was accumulating far upunder the dome; and at a sign from him the owl, seizing in its claw the lightedmatch, soared upwards to the vaulted roof, towards which the madman pointedwith outstretched arm.

Another second and New Aberfoyle would be no more.

Suddenly Nell sprang from Harry’s arms, and, with a bright look ofinspiration, she ran to the very brink of the waters of the lake.“Harfang! Harfang!” cried she in a clear voice; “here! cometo me!”

The faithful bird, surprised, appeared to hesitate in its flight. Presently,recognizing Nell’s voice, it dropped the burning match into the water,and, describing a wide circle, flew downwards, alighting at the maiden’sfeet.

Then a terrible cry echoed through the vaulted roofs. It was the last sounduttered by old Silfax.

Just as Jack Ryan laid his hand on the edge of the canoe, the old man, foiledin his purpose of revenge, cast himself headlong into the waters of the lake.

“Save him! oh, save him!” shrieked Nell in a voice of agony.Immediately Harry plunged into the water, and, swimming towards Jack Ryan, hedived repeatedly.

But his efforts were useless. The waters of Loch Malcolm yielded not theirprey: they closed forever over Silfax.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE LEGEND OF OLD SILFAX

Six months after these events, the marriage, so strangely interrupted, wasfinally celebrated in St. Giles’s chapel, and the young couple, who stillwore mourning garments, returned to the cottage. James Starr and Simon Ford,henceforth free from the anxieties which had so long distressed them, joyouslypresided over the entertainment which followed the ceremony, and prolonged itto the following day.

On this memorable occasion, Jack Ryan, in his favorite character of piper, andin all the glory of full dress, blew up his chanter, and astonished the companyby the unheard of achievement of playing, singing, and dancing all at once.

It is needless to say that Harry and Nell were happy. These loving hearts,after the trials they had gone through found in their union the happiness theydeserved.

As to Simon Ford, the ex-overman of New Aberfoyle, he began to talk ofcelebrating his golden wedding, after fifty years of marriage with good oldMadge, who liked the idea immensely herself.

“And after that, why not golden wedding number two?”

“You would like a couple of fifties, would you, Mr. Simon?” saidJack Ryan.

“All right, my boy,” replied the overman quietly, “I seenothing against it in this fine climate of ours, and living far from the luxuryand intemperance of the outer world.”

Will the dwellers in Coal Town ever be called to witness this second ceremony?Time will show. Certainly the strange bird of old Silfax seemed destined toattain a wonderful longevity. The Harfang continued to haunt the gloomyrecesses of the cave. After the old man’s death, Nell had attempted tokeep the owl, but in a very few days he flew away. He evidently disliked humansociety as much as his master had done, and, besides that, he appeared to havea particular spite against Harry. The jealous bird seemed to remember and hatehim for having carried off Nell from the deep abyss, notwithstanding all hecould do to prevent him. Still, at long intervals, Nell would see the creaturehovering above Loch Malcolm.

Could he possibly be watching for his friend of yore? Did he strive to pierce,with keen eye, the depths which had engulfed his master?

The history of the Harfang became legendary, and furnished Jack Ryan with manya tale and song. Thanks to him, the story of old Silfax and his bird will longbe preserved, and handed down to future generations of the Scottish peasantry.

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