Part 6 (1/2)
In the first rank of the believers in the supernatural in the Dochart pit figured Jack Ryan, Harry's friend He was the great partisan of all these superstitions All these wild stories were turned by hireat applause in the winter evenings
But Jack Ryan was not alone in his belief His coly, that the Aberfoyle pits were haunted, and that certain strange beings were seen there frequently, just as in the Highlands To hear the of the kind appeared Could there indeed be a better place than a dark and deep coal oblins, and other actors in the fantastical dramas? The scenery was all ready, why should not the supernatural personages come there to play their parts?
So reasoned Jack Ryan and his comrades in the Aberfoyle mines We have said that the different pits coalleries Thus there existed beneath the county of Stirling a vast tract, full of burrows, tunnels, bored with caves, and perforated with shafts, a subterranean labyrinth, which h belonging to different pits, oftenfrom their work Consequently there was a constant opportunity of exchanging talk, and circulating the stories which had their origin in the mine, from one pit to another These accounts were trans fro in wonder as they went
Two men, however, better educated and with more practical minds than the rest, had always resisted this teree believed in the intervention of spirits, elves, or goblins These tere Si to inhabit the disood Madge, like every Highland wo towards the supernatural But she had to repeat all these stories to herself, and so she did, most conscientiously, so as not to let the old traditions be lost
Even had Simon and Harry Ford been as credulous as their companions, they would not have abandoned thea single day, obstinate and immovable in their convictions, the father and son took their picks, their sticks, and their la the rock with a sharp blow, listening if it would return a favor-able sound So long as the soundings had not been pushed to the granite of the prireed that the search, unsuccessful to-day, ht to be resu Aberfoyle back to its former prosperity If the father died before the hour of success, the son was to go on with the task alone
It was during these excursions that Harry was more particularly struck by certain phenoht to explain Several ti some narrow cross-alley, he seemed to hear sounds similar to those which would be produced by violent blows of a pickax against the wall
Harry hastened to seek the cause of this ht fro miner's lamp, thrown on the wall, revealed no trace of any recent ith pick or crowbar Harry would then ask himself if it was not the effect of soe and fantastic echo At other tiht into a suspicious-looking cleft in the rock, he thought he saw a shadow He rushed forward Nothing, and there was no opening to per to evade his pursuit!
Twice in onethe west end of the pit, distinctly heard distant reports, as if soe of dynamite The second time, after many careful researches, he found that a pillar had just been blown up
By the light of his lamp, Harry carefully examined the place attacked by the explosion It had not been made in a simple embankment of stones, but in a mass of schist, which had penetrated to this depth in the coal stratum Had the object of the explosion been to discover a new vein? Or had someone wished simply to destroy this portion of the mine? Thus he questioned, and when he made known this occurrence to his father, neither could the old overman nor he himself answer the question in a satisfactory way
”It is very queer,” Harry often repeated ”The presence of an unknown being in the mine seems impossible, and yet there can be no doubt about it 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? But for what reason? I will find that out, if it should cost ht before the day on which Harry Ford guided the engineer through the labyrinth of the Dochart pit, he had been on the point of attaining the object of his search He was going over the southwest end of the e lantern in his hand All at once, it seeuished, soe cut obliquely through the rock He darted forward
His search was in vain As Harry would not admit a supernatural explanation for a physical occurrence, he concluded that certainly so prowled about 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 hts, they would, without fail, have called the so, nor did his father And when they talked over these phenomena, evidently due to a physical cause, ”My lad,” the old man would say, ”we must wait It will all be explained some day”
However, it must be observed that, hitherto, neither Harry nor his father had ever been exposed to any act of violence If the stone which had fallen at the feet of James Starr had been thrown by the hand of some ill-disposed person, it was the first criminal act of that description
James Starr was of opinion that the stone had becoallery; but Harry would not ad to him, the stone had not fallen, it had been thrown; for otherwise, without rebounding, it could never have described a trajectory as it did
Harry saw in it a direct atteineer
CHAPTER VI SIMON FORD'S EXPERIMENT
THE old clock in the cottage struck one as Jaht 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 overineer to the very end of the Dochart pit
After following the principal gallery for a distance of two miles, the three explorers--for, as will be seen, this was a regular exploration--arrived at the entrance of a narrow tunnel It was like a nave, the roof of which rested on ork, covered hite moss It followed very nearly the line traced by the course of the river Forth, fifteen hundred feet above
”So we are going to the end of the last vein?” said James Starr
”Ay! You know the ineer, ”it will be difficult to go further than that, if I don't mistake”
”Yes, indeed, Mr Starr That here our picks tore out the last bit of coal in the seaave that last blow, and it re-echoed in my heart more dismally than on the rock Only sandstone and schist were round us after that, and when the truck rolled towards the shaft, I folloith h it were a funeral It see with it”
The gravity hich the old ineer, as not far fro his sentiments They were those of the sailor who leaves his disabled vessel--of the proprietor who sees the house of his ancestors pulled down He pressed Ford's hand; but now the latter seized that of the engineer, and, wringing it: