event.
During two minutes--that is to say, to the depth of about 120 feet, the
descent continued without any incident.
No lateral gallery opened from the side walls of the pit, which was
gradually narrowing into the shape of a funnel. But Harry began to feel
a fresher air rising from beneath, whence he concluded that the bottom
of the pit communicated 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 living being whatever had sought refuge in the deep and mysterious
abyss, he had either left it, or, if there, by no movement did he in the
slightest way betray his presence.
Harry, becoming more suspicious the lower he got, now drew his knife and
held it in his right hand. At a depth of 180 feet, his feet touched the
lower point and the cord slackened and unwound no further.
Harry breathed more freely for a moment. One of the fears he entertained
had been that, during his descent, the cord might be cut above him, but
he had seen no 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 look into it, and only by creeping could it be followed; but as
he wanted to see in which direction it led, and whether another abyss
opened from it, he lay down on the ground and began to enter it on hands
and knees.
An obstacle speedily arrested his progress. He fancied he could perceive
by touching it, that a human body lay across the passage. A sudden
thrill of horror and surprise made him hastily draw back, but he again
advanced and felt more carefully.
His senses had not deceived him; a body did indeed lie there; and he
soon ascertained that, although icy cold at the extremities, there was
some vital heat remaining. In less time than it takes to tell it, Harry
had drawn the body from the recess to the bottom of the shaft, and,
seizing his lamp, he cast its lights on what he had found, exclaiming
immediately, “Why, it is a child!”
The child still breathed, but so very feebly that Harry expected it to
cease every instant. Not a moment was to be lost; he must carry this
poor little creature 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 the child to his breast with his left arm, and,
keeping his right hand free to hold the 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 with
redoubled care, for more than his own life was now in danger.
For a few minutes all went well, no accident seemed to threaten him,
when suddenly he heard the sound of a great rush of air from beneath;
and, looking down, he could dimly perceive through the gloom a broad
mass arising until it passed him, striking him as it went by.
It was an enormous bird--of what sort he could not see; it flew upwards
on mighty wings, then paused, hovered, and dashed fiercely down upon
Harry, who could only wield his knife in one hand. He defended himself
and the child as well as he could, but the ferocious bird seemed to aim
all its blows at him alone. Afraid of cutting the cord, he could not
strike it as he wished, and the struggle was prolonged, while Harry
shouted with all his might in hopes of making his comrades hear.
He soon knew they did, for they pulled the rope up faster; a distance
of about eighty feet remained to be got over. The bird ceased its direct
attack, but increased 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, to cut it.
Harry felt overcome with terrible dread. One strand of the rope gave
way, and it 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
only half the cord.
Harry dropped his knife, and by a superhuman effort succeeded, at the
moment the rope was giving way, in catching hold of it with his right
hand above the cut made by the beak of the bird. But, powerfully as he
held it in his iron grasp, he could feel it gradually slipping through
his fingers.
He might have caught it, and held on with both hands by sacrificing the
life of the child he supported in his left arm. The idea crossed him,
but was banished in an instant, although he believed himself quite
unable to hold out until drawn to the surface. For a second he closed
his eyes, believing they were about to plunge back into the abyss.
He looked up once more; the huge bird had disappeared; his hand was
at the very extremity of the broken rope--when, just as his convulsive
grasp was failing, he was seized by the men, and with the child was
placed on the level ground.
The fearful strain of anxiety removed, a reaction took place, and Harry
fell fainting into the arms of his friends.
CHAPTER XII. NELL ADOPTED
A COUPLE of hours later, Harry still unconscious, and the child in a
very feeble state, were brought to the cottage by Jack Ryan and his
companions. The old overman listened to the account of their adventures,
while Madge attended with the utmost care to the wants of her son, and
of the poor creature whom he had rescued from the pit.
Harry imagined her a mere child, but she was a maiden of the age of
fifteen or sixteen years.
She gazed at them with vague and wondering eyes; and the thin face,
drawn by suffering, the pallid complexion, which light could never have
tinged, and the fragile, slender figure, gave her an appearance at once
singular and attractive. Jack Ryan declared that she seemed to him to be
an uncommonly interesting kind of ghost.
It must have been due to the strange and peculiar circumstances under
which her life hitherto had been led, that she scarcely seemed to belong
to the human race. Her countenance was of a very uncommon cast, and her
eyes, hardly able to bear the lamp-light in the cottage, glanced around
in a confused and puzzled way, as if all were new to them.
As this singular being reclined on Madge’s bed and awoke to
consciousness, as from a long sleep, the old Scotchwoman began to
question her a 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 the Gaelic language, which was often spoken by Simon and his family.
Madge immediately brought her some food; she was evidently famished. It
was impossible 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, my
lassie?” 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 better than
days! Simon, Harry, Jack, and the rest, looked on with an air of mingled
compassion, wonder, and sympathy. The state of this poor thing, clothed
in a miserable garment of coarse woolen stuff, seemed to impress them
painfully.
Harry, more than all the rest, seemed attracted by the very peculiarity
of this poor stranger. He drew near, took Nell’s hand from his mother,
and looked directly at her, while something like a smile curved her
lip. “Nell,” he said, “Nell, away down there--in the mine--were you all
alone?”
“Alone! alone!” cried the girl, raising herself hastily. Her features
expressed terror; her eyes, which had appeared to soften as Harry looked
at her, became quite wild again. “Alone!” repeated she, “alone!”--and
she fell back on the bed, as though deprived of all strength.
“The poor bairn is too weak to speak to us,” said Madge, when she had
adjusted the pillows. “After a good rest, and a little more food, she
will be stronger. Come away, Simon and Harry, and all the rest of you,
and let her go to sleep.” So Nell was left alone, and in a very few
minutes slept profoundly.
This event caused a great sensation, not only in the coal mines, but in
Stirlingshire, and ultimately throughout the kingdom. The strangeness of
the story was exaggerated; the affair could not have made more commotion
had they found the girl enclosed in the solid rock, like one of those
antediluvian creatures who have occasionally been released by a stroke
of the pickax from their stony prison. Nell became a fashionable wonder
without knowing it. Superstitious folks made her story a new subject for
legendary marvels, and were inclined to think, as Jack Ryan told Harry,
that Nell was the spirit of the mines.
“Be it so, Jack,” said the young man; “but at any rate she is the good
spirit. It can have been none but she who brought us bread and water
when we were shut up down there; and as to the bad spirit, who must
still be in the mine, we’ll catch him some day.”
Of course James Starr had been at once informed of all this, and came,
as soon as the young girl had sufficiently recovered her strength, to
see her, and endeavor to question her carefully.
She appeared ignorant of nearly everything relating to life, and,
although evidently intelligent, was wanting in many elementary ideas,
such as time, for instance. She had never been used to its division, and
the words signifying hours, days, months, and years were unknown to her.
Her eyes, accustomed to the night, were pained by the glare of the
electric discs; but in the dark her sight was wonderfully keen, the
pupil dilated in a remarkable manner, and she could see where to others
there appeared profound obscurity. It was certain that her brain had
never received any impression of the outer world, that her eyes had
never looked beyond the mine, and that these somber depths had been all
the world to her.
The poor girl probably knew not that there were a sun and stars, towns
and counties, a mighty universe composed of myriads of worlds. But
until she comprehended the significance of words at present conveying no
precise meaning to 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 the subject excited evident alarm in the mind of this
strange girl. Either Nell could not or would not reply to questions, but
that some secret existed in connection 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 we
found 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 certain amount of uneasiness with regard to this persistent silence.
They found it impossible to forget all that had appeared so inexplicable
at the time they made the discovery of the coal mine; and although that
was three years ago, and nothing new had happened, they always expected
some fresh attack on the part of the invisible enemy.
They resolved to explore the mysterious well, and did so, well armed
and in considerable numbers. But nothing suspicious was to be seen; the
shaft communicated with lower stages of the crypt, hollowed out in the
carboniferous bed.
Many a time did James Starr, Simon, and Harry talk over these things. If
one or more malevolent beings were concealed in the coal-pit, and there
concocted mischief, Nell surely could have warned them of it, yet she
said nothing. The slightest 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 would certainly escape her by-and-by.
By the time Nell had been a fortnight in the cottage, she had become a
most intelligent and zealous assistant to old Madge. It was clear that
she instinctively felt she should remain in the dwelling where she had
been so charitably received, and perhaps never dreamt of quitting it.
This family was all in all to her, and to the good folks themselves Nell
had seemed an adopted child from the moment when she first came beneath
their roof. Nell was in truth a charming creature; her new mode of
existence added to her beauty, for these were no doubt the first happy
days of her life, and her heart was full of gratitude towards those to
whom she owed them. Madge felt towards her as a mother would; the old
woman doted upon her; in short, she was beloved by everybody. Jack Ryan
only regretted one thing, which was that he had not saved her himself.
Friend Jack often came to the cottage. He sang, and Nell, who had never
heard singing before, admired it greatly; but anyone might see that she
preferred to Jack’s songs the graver conversation of Harry, from whom by
degrees she learnt truths concerning the outer world, of which hitherto
she had known nothing.
It must be said that, since Nell had appeared in her own person, Jack
Ryan had been 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 that time Harry unexpectedly made a discovery
which, in part at least, accounted for the apparition of the
fire-maidens among the ruins of Dundonald Castle at Irvine.
During several days he had been engaged in exploring the remote
galleries of the prodigious excavation towards the south. At last he
scrambled with difficulty up a narrow passage which branched off through
the upper rock. To his great astonishment, he suddenly found himself in
the open air. The passage, after ascending obliquely to the surface of
the ground, led out directly among the ruins of Dundonald Castle.
There was, therefore, a communication between New Aberfoyle and the
hills crowned by this ancient castle. The upper entrance to this
gallery, being completely concealed by stones and brushwood, was
invisible from without; at the time of their search, therefore, the
magistrates had been able to discover nothing.
A few days afterwards, James Starr, guided by Harry, came himself to
inspect this curious natural opening into the coal mine. “Well,”
said he, “here is enough to convince the most superstitious among us.
Farewell to all 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, it can’t be
better, and may be worse than they are.”
“That’s true, Harry,” said the engineer; “but what’s to be done? It is
plain that, whatever the beings are who hide in the mine, they reach
the surface of the earth by this passage. No doubt it was the light of
torches waved by them during that dark and stormy night which attracted
the MOTALA towards the rocky coast, and like the wreckers of former
days, they would have plundered the unfortunate vessel, had it not been
for Jack Ryan and his friends. Anyhow, so far it is evident, and here
is the mouth of the den. As to its occupants, the question is--Are they
here still?”
“I say yes; because Nell trembles when we mention them--yes, because
Nell will not, or dare not, speak about them,” answered Harry in a tone
of decision.
Harry was surely in the right. Had these mysterious denizens of the pit
abandoned it, or ceased to visit the spot, what reason could the girl
have had for keeping silence?
James Starr could not rest till he had penetrated this mystery. He
foresaw that the whole future of the new excavations must depend upon
it. Renewed and strict precautions were therefore taken. The authorities
were informed of the discovery of the entrance. Watchers were placed
among the ruins of the castle. Harry himself lay hid for several nights
in the thickets of brushwood which clothed the hill-side.
Nothing was discovered--no human being emerged from the opening. So
most people came to the conclusion that the villains had been finally
dislodged from the mine, and that, as to Nell, they must suppose her to
be dead at the bottom of 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, it became difficult to conceal this lurking-place, and it might
reasonably be hoped they were gone, and that nothing for the future was
to be dreaded from them.
James Starr, however, could not feel sure about it; neither could Harry
be satisfied on the subject, often repeating, “Nell has clearly been
mixed up with all this secret business. If she had nothing more to fear,
why should she keep silence? It cannot be doubted that she is happy with
us. She likes us all--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 she believes it better for us, as well as
for herself, that she should remain mute in a way otherwise so
unaccountable.”
In consequence of these opinions, it was agreed by common consent
to avoid all allusion to the maiden’s former mode of life. One day,
however, Harry was led to make known to Nell what James Starr, his
father, mother, and himself believed they owed to her interference.
It was a fete-day. The miners made holiday on the surface of the
county of Stirling as well as in its subterraneous domains. Parties of
holiday-makers were moving about in all directions. Songs resounded in
many places beneath the sonorous vaults of New Aberfoyle. Harry and Nell
left the cottage, and slowly walked along the left bank of Loch Malcolm.
Then the electric brilliance darted less vividly, and the rays were
interrupted with fantastic effect by the sharp angles of the picturesque
rocks which supported the dome. This imperfect light suited Nell, to
whose eyes a glare was very 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 is such as you
describe it to me, Harry.”
“I cannot by any words, Nell, give you an idea either of his splendor
or of 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 of the coal mine, you never once have been up to the surface
of the earth?”
“Never once, Harry,” said she; “I do not believe that, even as an
infant, my father or mother ever carried me thither. I am sure I should
have retained some impression of the open air if they had.”
“I believe you would,” answered Harry. “Long ago, Nell, many children
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 of things above-ground. But now the railway through our great tunnel
takes us in a few 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! I want to look upon the works of the Almighty.’”
“I shall soon say so, Harry, I hope,” replied the girl; “I shall soon go
with you to the world above; and yet--”
“What are you going to say, Nell?” hastily cried Harry; “can you
possibly regret having quitted that gloomy abyss in which you spent your
early years, and whence we drew you half dead?”
“No, Harry,” answered Nell; “I was only thinking that darkness is
beautiful as well as light. If you but knew what eyes accustomed to its
depth can see! Shades flit by, which one longs to follow; circles mingle
and intertwine, and one could gaze on them forever; black hollows, full
of indefinite gleams of radiance, lie deep at the bottom of the mine.
And then the voice-like sounds! Ah, Harry! one must have lived down
there to understand what I 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, Harry
thought he might press the subject a little further, so he said, “But
one might be easily lost in these great galleries, Nell. Were you not
afraid of losing your way?”
“Oh, no, Harry; for a long time I had known every turn of the new mine.”
“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 a
great distance.”
“They were my father and mother,” said Harry; “and I was there too; we
have always lived there--we never would give up the old dwelling.”
“Perhaps it would have been better for you if you had,” murmured the
maiden.
“Why so, Nell? Was it not just because we were obstinately resolved to
remain that we ended by discovering the new vein of coal? And did not
that discovery 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,” replied Nell
earnestly; “for others--who can tell?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing--nothing. But it used to be very dangerous at that time to
go into the new cutting--yes, very dangerous indeed, Harry! Once some
rash people made their way into these chasms. They got a long, long way;
they were lost!”
“They were lost?” said Harry, looking at her.
“Yes, lost!” repeated Nell in a trembling voice. “They could not find
their way out.”
“And there,” cried Harry, “they were imprisoned during eight long
days! They were at the point of death, Nell; and, but for a kind and
charitable being--an angel perhaps--sent by God to help them, who
secretly brought them a little food; but for a mysterious guide, who
afterwards led to them their deliverers, they never would have escaped
from that living tomb!”
“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
fixedly into his eyes that his feelings were stirred to their depths.
“You were there?” at last she uttered.
“I was indeed,” said Harry, after a pause, “and she to whom we 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 so much affected.
“Those who saved your life, Nell,” added he in a voice tremulous with
emotion, “already owed theirs to you; do you think they will ever forget
it?”
CHAPTER XIII. ON THE REVOLVING LADDER
THE mining operations at New Aberfoyle continued to be carried on very
successfully. As a matter of course, the engineer, James Starr, as well
as Simon Ford, the discoverers of this rich carboniferous region, shared
largely in 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 the works of this colony of miners. Jack Ryan was proud
and delighted at the good fortune which had befallen his comrade. He
himself was getting on very well also.
They frequently met, either at the cottage or at the works in the pit.
Jack did not fail to remark the sentiments entertained by Harry towards
Nell. Harry would not confess to them; but Jack only laughed at him when
he shook his head and tried to deny any special interest in her.
It must be noted that Jack Ryan had the greatest possible wish to be of
the party when Nell should pay her first visit to the upper surface of
the county of Stirling. He wished to see her wonder and admiration on
first beholding the yet unknown face of Nature. He very much hoped that
Harry would take him with them when the excursion was made. As yet,
however, the latter had made no proposal of the kind to him, which
caused him to feel a little uneasy as to his intentions.
One morning Jack Ryan was descending through a shaft which led from the
surface to the lower regions of the pit. He did so by means of one of
those ladders which, continually revolving by machinery, enabled persons
to ascend and descend without fatigue. This apparatus had lowered
him about a hundred and fifty feet, when at a narrow landing-place he
perceived Harry, who was coming up to his labors for the day.
“Well met, my friend!” cried Jack, recognizing his comrade by the light
of the electric lamps.
“Ah, Jack!” replied Harry, “I am glad to see you. I’ve got something to
propose.”
“I can listen to nothing till you tell me how Nell is,” interrupted Jack
Ryan.
“Nell is all right, Jack--so much so, in fact, that I hope in a month 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 shall do.”
“What will you do?”
“Marry her myself, if you don’t; so look sharp,” laughed Jack. “By Saint
Mungo! I think an immense deal of bonny Nell! A fine young creature like
that, who has been brought up in the mine, is just the very wife for a
miner. She is an orphan--so am I; and if you don’t care much 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 a more
serious tone.
“Not at all,” answered Harry quietly.
“But if you don’t marry Nell yourself, you surely can’t expect her to
remain a spinster?”
“I expect nothing,” said Harry.
A movement of the ladder machinery now gave the two friends the
opportunity--one to go up, the other down the shaft. However, they
remained where they were.
“Harry,” quoth Jack, “do you think I spoke in earnest just now 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 a
bit 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
their daughter. Why don’t you make her so in reality? Why don’t you
marry her?”
“Come, Jack,” said Harry, “you are running on as if you knew how Nell
felt on the subject.”
“Everybody knows that,” replied Jack, “and therefore it is impossible to
make you jealous of any of us. But here goes the ladder again--I’m off!”
“Stop a minute, Jack!” cried Harry, detaining his companion, who was
stepping onto the moving staircase.
“I say! you seem to mean me to take up my quarters here altogether!”
“Do be serious and listen, Jack! I want to speak in earnest myself now.”
“Well, I’ll listen till the ladder moves again, not a minute longer.”
“Jack,” resumed Harry, “I need not pretend that I do not love Nell; 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 to
make me a promise which would be irrevocable.”
“What can you mean, Harry?”
“I mean just this--that, it being certain Nell has never been outside
this coal mine in the very depths of which she was born, it stands to
reason that she knows nothing, and can comprehend nothing of what exists
beyond it. Her eyes--yes, and perhaps also her heart--have everything
yet to learn. Who can tell what her thoughts will be, when perfectly new
impressions shall be made upon her mind? As yet she knows nothing of
the world, and to me it would seem like deceiving her, if I led her to
decide in ignorance, upon choosing 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 are going to
make me miss another turn of the ladder.”
“Jack,” replied Harry gravely, “if this machinery were to stop
altogether, if this landing-place were to fall beneath our feet, you
must and shall hear what I have to say.”
“Well done, Harry! that’s how I like to be spoken to! Let’s settle,
then, that, before you marry Nell, she shall go to school in Auld
Reekie.”
“No indeed, Jack; I am perfectly able myself to educate the person who
is to be my wife.”
“Sure that will be a great deal better, Harry!”
“But, first of all,” resumed Harry, “I wish that Nell should gain 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, ‘In a
month’s time her sight will be restored,’ would you not wait till after
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 wish
her to see what I am, and what the life really is to which she would
bind herself. In short, she must have daylight let in upon the subject!”
“Well said, Harry! Very well said indeed!” cried Jack. “Now I see what
you are driving at. And when may we expect the operation to come off?”
“In a month, Jack,” replied Harry. “Nell is getting used to the light of
our reflectors. That is some preparation. In a month she will, I hope,
have seen the earth and its wonders--the sky and its splendors. She will
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 soar to the
heights, I plunge into the depths.”
“Fare ye well. Jack!” returned Harry, himself laying hold of the rising
ladder; “mind you say nothing about what I have been telling you.”
“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 the face
of the earth comes off!”
“So you shall, Jack, I promise you!”
A fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more considerable distance
between the friends. Their voices sounded faintly to each other. Harry,
however, could still hear Jack shouting:
“I say! do you know what Nell will like better than either sun, moon, or
stars, after she’s seen the whole of them?”
“No, Jack!”
“Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!” And Jack’s voice
died away in a prolonged “Hurrah!”
Harry, after this, applied himself diligently, during all his spare
time, to the work of Nell’s education. He taught her to read and to
write, and such rapid progress did she make, it might have been said
that she learnt by instinct. Never did keen intelligence more quickly
triumph over utter ignorance. 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 the nature of Harry’s feelings towards her, and were far
from displeased thereat. They recollected that Simon had said to the
engineer on his first visit to the old cottage, “How can our son ever
think of marrying? Where could a wife possibly be found suitable for a
lad whose whole life must be passed in the depths of a coal mine?”
Well! now it seemed as if the most desirable companion in the world had
been led to him by Providence. Was not this like a blessing direct from
Heaven? So the old man made up his mind that, if the wedding did take
place, the miners of New Aberfoyle should have a merry-making at Coal
Town, which they would never during 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 Nell as much as Simon did--and that was James Starr, the engineer.
Of course he was really interested in the happiness of the two young
people. But another motive, connected with wider interests, influenced
him to desire it.
It has been said that James Starr continued to entertain a certain
amount of apprehension, although for the present nothing appeared to
justify it. Yet that which had been might again be. This mystery about
the new cutting--Nell was evidently the only person acquainted with it.
Now, if fresh dangers were in store for the miners of Aberfoyle, how
were they possibly to be guarded against, without so much as knowing the
cause of them?
“Nell has persisted in keeping silence,” said James Starr very often,
“but what she has concealed from others, she will not long hide from her
husband. Any danger would be danger to Harry as well as to the rest
of us. Therefore, a marriage which brings happiness to the lovers, and
safety to their friends, will be a good marriage, if ever there is such
a thing here below.”
Thus, not illogically, reasoned James Starr. He communicated his ideas
to old Simon, who decidedly appreciated them. Nothing, then, appeared to
stand in the way of the match. What, in fact, was there to prevent it?
They loved each other; the parents desired nothing better for their son.
Harry’s comrades envied his good fortune, but freely acknowledged that
he deserved it. The maiden depended on no one else, and had but to give
the consent of her own heart.
Why, then, if there were none to place obstacles in the way of this
union--why, as night came on, and, the labors of the day being over, the
electric lights in the mine were extinguished, and all the inhabitants
of Coal Town at rest within their dwellings--why did a mysterious form
always emerge from the gloomier recesses of New Aberfoyle, and silently
glide through the darkness?
What instinct guided this phantom with ease through passages so narrow
as to appear 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 make his way towards Simon’s cottage, yet so carefully
as hitherto to avoid notice? 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
gesture towards the calm abode, while from between his set teeth issued
these words in muttered 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
Madge took leave, with all manner of good wishes, of four tourists, who
were setting forth from the cottage.
James Starr, Harry, and Jack Ryan were about to lead Nell’s steps over
yet untrodden paths, and to show her the glories of nature by a light to
which she 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 spent above ground, the maiden would be able to see
everything of which she must have remained 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 seem to have collected and set forth specimens of every one of
these terrestrial beauties. As to the heavens, they would be spread
abroad as over the whole earth, with their changeful clouds, serene or
veiled moon, their radiant sun, and clustering stars. The expedition had
been planned so as to combine a view of all these things.
Simon and Madge would have been glad to go with Nell; but they never
left their cottage willingly, and could not make up their minds to quit
their subterranean home for a single day.
James Starr went as an observer and philosopher, curious to note, from
a psychological point of view, the novel impressions made upon Nell;
perhaps also with some hope of detecting a clue to the mysterious events
connected with her childhood. Harry, with a little trepidation, asked
himself whether it was not possible that this rapid initiation into the
things of the exterior world would change 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 the sun. He only trusted
that his gayety would prove contagious, and enliven his traveling
companions, thus rewarding them for letting him join them. Nell was
pensive and silent.
James Starr had decided, very sensibly, to set off in the evening.
It would be very much better for the girl to pass gradually from the
darkness of night to the full light of day; and that would in this way
be managed, since between midnight and noon she would experience the
successive phases of shade and sunshine, 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 for these few
days?”
“Yes, it is, Nell,” replied the young man. “It is needful for both of
us.”
“But, Harry,” resumed Nell, “ever since you found me, I have been as
happy as I can possibly be. You have been teaching me. Why is that not
enough? What am I going up there for?”
Harry looked at her in silence. Nell was giving utterance to nearly his
own thoughts.
“My child,” said James Starr, “I can well understand the hesitation you
feel; but it will be good for you to go with us. Those who love you are
taking you, and they will bring you back again. Afterwards you will be
free, 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 you give 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 nine
o’clock the last train through the tunnel started to convey Nell and
her companions to the surface of the earth. Twenty minutes later they
alighted on the platform where the branch line to New Aberfoyle joins
the railway from Dumbarton to Stirling.
The night was already dark. From the horizon to the zenith, light
vapory clouds hurried through the upper air, driven by a refreshing
northwesterly breeze. The day had been lovely; the night promised to be
so likewise.
On reaching Stirling, Nell and her friends, quitting the train, left the
station immediately. Just before them, between high trees, they could
see a road which led to the banks of the river Forth.
The first physical impression on the girl was the purity of the air
inhaled eagerly by her lungs.
“Breathe it freely, Nell,” said James Starr; “it is fragrant with 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 the westerly wind.”
“Ah!” said Nell, “how I should like to feel myself carried along in that
silent whirl! And what are those shining sparks which glance here and
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
clouds from the deep blue of the firmament. Nell gazed upon the myriad
stars which sparkled overhead. “But how is it,” she said at length,
“that if these are suns, my eyes can endure their brightness?”
“My child,” replied James Starr, “they are indeed suns, but suns at an
enormous distance. The nearest of these millions of stars, whose rays
can reach us, is Vega, that star in Lyra which you observe near the
zenith, and that is fifty thousand millions of leagues distant. Its
brightness, therefore, cannot affect your vision. But our own sun, which
will rise to-morrow, is only distant thirty-eight millions of leagues,
and no human eye can 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 her side, while Jack Ryan roamed about like a young dog, impatient of
the slow pace of 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 giants gesticulating wildly. The sound of the breeze in the
tree-tops, the deep silence during a lull, the distant line of the
horizon, which could be discerned when the road passed over open
levels--all these things filled her with new sensations, and left
lasting impressions on her mind.
After some time she ceased to ask questions, and her companions
respected her silence, not wishing to influence by any words of theirs
the girl’s highly sensitive imagination, but preferring to allow ideas
to arise spontaneously in her soul.
At about half past eleven o’clock, they gained the banks of the river
Forth. There a boat, chartered by James Starr, awaited them. In a few
hours it would convey them all to Granton. Nell looked at the clear
water which flowed up to her feet, as the waves broke gently on the
beach, reflecting the starlight. “Is this a lake?” said she.
“No,” replied Harry, “it is a great river flowing towards the sea, and
soon opening so widely as to resemble a gulf. Taste a little of the
water in the hollow of your hand, Nell, and you will perceive that it is
not sweet 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 as
this,” answered Harry.
“Oh, Harry! Harry!” exclaimed the maiden, “what can that red glow 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 fine big silver
plate, which the spirits of air hand round and round the sky to collect
the stars in, like money.”
“Why, Jack,” said the engineer, laughing, “I had no idea you could
strike out such bold comparisons!”
“Well, but, Mr. Starr, it is a just comparison. Don’t you see the stars
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 moon
eclipses that of stars of the sixth magnitude, therefore they vanish as
she approaches.”
“How beautiful all this is!” repeated Nell again and again, with her
whole soul in her eyes. “But I thought the moon was round?”
“So she is, when ‘full,’” said James Starr; “that means when she is just
opposite to the sun. But to-night the moon is in the last quarter, shorn
of her just proportions, and friend Jack’s grand silver plate looks more
like a barber’s basin.”
“Oh, Mr. Starr, what a base comparison!” he exclaimed, “I was just going
to begin a sonnet to the moon, but your barber’s basin has destroyed all
chance of an inspiration.”
Gradually the moon ascended the heavens. Before her light the lingering
clouds fled away, while stars still sparkled in the west, beyond
the influence of her radiance. Nell gazed in silence on the glorious
spectacle. The soft silvery light was pleasant to her eyes, and her
little trembling hand expressed to Harry, who clasped it, how deeply she
was affected by the scene.
“Let us embark now,” said James Starr. “We have to get to the top of
Arthur’s Seat before sunrise.”
The boat was moored to a post on the bank. A boatman awaited them. Nell
and her friends took their seats; the sail was spread; it quickly filled
before the northwesterly breeze, and they sped on their way.
What a new sensation was this for the maiden! She had been rowed on the
waters of Lake Malcolm; but the oar, handled ever so lightly by Harry,
always betrayed effort on the part of the oarsman. Now, for the first
time, Nell felt herself borne 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 the waters was as though the
boat sailed across a glittering silver field. Little wavelets rippled
along the banks. It was enchanting.
At length Nell was overcome with drowsiness, her eyelids drooped, her
head sank on Harry’s shoulder--she slept. Harry, sorry that she should
miss any of the beauties of this magnificent night, would have aroused
her.
“Let her sleep!” said the engineer. “She will better enjoy the 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 dreaming that you
slept, that’s all.”
The night continued clear. The moon, riding in mid-heaven, diffused
her rays on all sides. In the little port of Granton lay two or three
fishing boats; they rocked 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 so delicious on the sea coast.
A soft, transparent film of vapor lay along the horizon; the first
sunbeam would dissipate it; to the maiden it exhibited that aspect of
the sea which seems to blend it with the sky. Her view was now enlarged,
without producing the impression of the boundless infinity of ocean.
Harry taking Nell’s hand, they followed James Starr and Jack Ryan as
they traversed the deserted streets. To Nell, this suburb of the capital
appeared only a collection of gloomy dark houses, just like Coal Town,
only that the roof was higher, and gleamed with small lights.
She stepped lightly forward, and easily kept pace with Harry. “Are you
not 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 and fly!”
“I say! keep hold of her!” cried Jack Ryan. “Our little Nell is too good
to lose. I feel just as you describe though, myself, when I have not
left the pit for a long time.”
“It is when we no longer experience the oppressive effect of the vaulted
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