Part 12 (1/2)
To begin with, the visitor was transported without danger or fatigue to a level with the workings, at fifteen hundred feet below the surface of the ground Seventunnel, adorned with a castellated entrance, turrets and battleht to the stupendous crypt, hollowed out so strangely in the bowels of the earth
A double line of railway, the wagons being moved by hydraulic power, plied froe 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 electricity played a principal part as an agent of heat and light
Although the ventilation shafts were nuht into New Aberfoyle, yet it had abundance of light This was shed from numbers of electric discs; so on the natural pillars--all, whether suns or stars in size, were fed by continuous currents produced fronetic ht was easily produced all over thethe wires
Below the dome lay a lake of an extent to be compared to the Dead Sea of the Mammoth caves--a deep lake whose transparent waters swarave the name of Loch Malcolm
There, in this ie, which he would not have exchanged for the finest house in Prince's Street, Edinburgh This dwelling was situated on the shores of the loch, and its five s looked out on the dark waters, which extended further than the eye could see Two hborhood of Siineer had given hi but the most imperative necessity ever caused him to leave the pit There, then, he lived in theworld
On the discovery of the new field, all the old colliers had hastened to leave the plow and harrow, and resume the pick and mattock Attracted by the certainty that ould never fail, allured by the high wages which the prosperity of the mine enabled the company to offer for labor, they deserted the open air for an underground life, and took up their abode in the rew up in a picturesque fashi+on; some on the banks of Loch Malcolm, others under the arches which seeht that pressed upon thee So was founded Coal Town, situated under the eastern point of Loch Katrine, to the north of the county of Stirling It was a regular settlement on the banks of Loch Malcolm A chapel, dedicated to St Giles, overlooked it froe rock, whose foot was laved by the waters of the subterranean sea
When this underground toas lighted up by the bright rays thrown fro froe, so fantastic, that it justified the praise of the guide-books, and visitors flocked to see it
It is needless to say that the inhabitants of Coal Toere proud of their place They rarely left their laboring village--in that iain The old overmanthe clied that he was not far wrong All the fa in three years obtained a certain competency which they could never have hoped to attain on the surface of the county Dozens of babies, ere born at the time when the works were resumed, had never yet breathed the outer air
This hteen months since they eaned, and they have not yet seen daylight!”
It ineer's call was Jack Ryan The ht it his duty to return to his old trade But though Melrose farht that Jack Ryan sung no more On the contrary, the sonorous echoes of New Aberfoyle exerted their strong lungs to answer him
Jack Ryan took up his abode in Sie They offered him a room, which he accepted without ceree loved hiree shared his ideas on the subject of the fantastic beings ere supposed to haunt the mine, and the then alone, told each other stories wild enough tothe hyperborean e He was, besides being a jovial coun, he was ood work done, Mr Ford,” said he, a few days after his appointh you narrowly escaped paying for the discovery with your life--well, it was not too dearly bought”
”No, Jack, it was a good bargain we made that time!” answered the old overotten that to you e our lives”
”Not at all,” returned Jack ”You owe theood sense to accept o, isn't that it?” interrupted Harry, grasping his comrade's hand ”No, Jack, it is to you, scarcely healed of your wounds--to you, who did not delay a day, no, nor an hour, that e our being found still alive in the mine!”
”Rubbish, no!” broke in the obstinate fellow ”I won't have that said, when it's no such thing I hurried to find out what had becoive everyone his due, I will add 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's not the less certain that without it we should never have found our way into the gallery, froet out”
”No doubt, Jack,” answered Harry ”It re was as supernatural as you choose to believe”
”Supernatural!” exclaimed Ryan ”But it was as supernatural as a Will-o'-the-Wisp, whowith his lantern in his hand; you may try to catch him, but he escapes like a fairy, and vanishes like a shadow! Don't be uneasy, Harry, we shall see it again some day or other!”
”Well, Jack,” said Simon Ford, ”Will-o'-the-Wisp or not, we shall try to find it, and you et into a scrap if you don't take care, Mr Ford!” responded Jack Ryan