EXPLORING
At Harry’s call, James Starr, Madge, and Simon Ford entered through the
narrow orifice which put the Dochart pit in communication with the new
mine. They found themselves at the beginning of a tolerably wide
gallery. One might well believe that it had been pierced by the hand of
man, that the pick and mattock had emptied it in the working of a new
vein. The explorers question whether, by a strange chance, they had not
been transported into some ancient mine, of the existence of which even
the oldest miners in the county had ever known.
No! It was merely that the geological layers had left this passage when
the secondary earths were in course of formation. Perhaps some torrent
had formerly dashed through it; but now it was as dry as if it had been
cut some thousand feet lower, through granite rocks. At the same time,
the air circulated freely, which showed that certain natural vents
placed it in communication with the exterior atmosphere.
This observation, made by the engineer, was correct, and it was evident
that the ventilation of the new mine would be easily managed. As to the
fire-damp which had lately filtered through the schist, it seemed to
have been contained in a pocket now empty, and it was certain that the
atmosphere of the gallery was 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 were satisfied. There was nothing but coal around them. A sort
of emotion kept them silent; even Simon Ford restrained himself. His
joy overflowed, not in long phrases, but in short ejaculations.
It was perhaps imprudent to venture so far into the crypt. Pooh! they
never thought of how they were to get back.
The gallery was practicable, not very winding. They met with no noxious
exhalations, nor did any chasm bar the path. There was no reason for
stopping for a whole hour; James Starr, Madge, Harry, and Simon Ford
walked on, though there was nothing to show them what was the exact
direction of this unknown tunnel.
And they would no doubt have gone farther still, if they had not
suddenly come to the end of the wide road which they had followed since
their entrance into the mine.
The gallery ended in an enormous cavern, neither the height nor depth
of which could be calculated. At what altitude arched the roof of this
excavation—at what distance was its opposite wall—the darkness totally
concealed; but by the light of the lamp the explorers could discover
that its dome covered a vast extent of still water—pond or lake—whose
picturesque rocky banks were lost in obscurity.
“Halt!” exclaimed Ford, stopping suddenly. “Another step, and perhaps
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 legs have need
of a rest. And you, Madge, don’t you feel tired after so long a walk?”
“Not over much, Mr. Starr,” replied the sturdy Scotchwoman; “we have
been accustomed to explore the old Aberfoyle mine for whole days
together.”
“Tired? nonsense!” interrupted Simon Ford; “Madge could go ten times as
far, if necessary. But once more, Mr. Starr, wasn’t my communication
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 long while!”
replied the engineer; “the small part of this marvelous mine 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 has
never deceived me!”
“I wish to believe you, Simon,” replied the engineer, smiling. “As far
as I can judge from this short exploration, we possess the elements of
a working which will last for centuries!”
“Centuries!” exclaimed Simon Ford; “I believe you, sir! A thousand
years and more will pass before the last bit of coal is taken out of
our new mine!”
“Heaven grant it!” returned Starr. “As to the quality of the coal which
crops out of these walls?”
“Superb! Mr. Starr, superb!” answered Ford; “just look at it yourself!”
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; “the surface
of this piece of coal is shining! We have here fat coal, rich in
bituminous 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 competition with Swansea and Cardiff! Well, stokers will quarrel
for it still, and if it costs little to extract it from the mine, it
will not sell at a less price outside.”
“Indeed,” said Madge, who had taken the fragment of coal and was
examining it with the air of a connoisseur; “that’s good quality of
coal. Carry it home, Simon, carry it back to the cottage! I want this
first piece of coal to burn under our kettle.”
“Well said, wife!” answered the old overman, “and you shall see that I
am not mistaken.”
“Mr. Starr,” asked Harry, “have you any idea of the probable direction
of this long passage which we have been following since our entrance
into the new mine?”
“No, my lad,” replied the engineer; “with a compass I could perhaps
find out its general bearing; but without a compass I am here like a
sailor in open sea, in the midst of fogs, when there is no sun by which
to calculate his position.”
“No doubt, Mr. Starr,” replied Ford; “but pray don’t compare our
position with that of the sailor, who has everywhere and always an
abyss under his feet! We are on firm ground here, and need never be
afraid of foundering.”
“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 by an unjust
comparison! I only meant to say one thing, and that is that we don’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, as the
young miner was doing. His ears, which were very sharp, had caught a
dull sound, like a distant murmur. His companions were not long in
hearing it themselves. It was above their heads, a sort of rolling
sound, in which though it was so feeble, the successive _crescendo_ and
_diminuendo_ could be distinctly heard.
All four stood for some minutes, their ears on the stretch, without
uttering a word. All at once Simon Ford exclaimed, “Well, I declare!
Are trucks already running on the rails of New Aberfoyle?”
“Father,” replied Harry, “it sounds to me just like the noise made 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 we should be
under Loch Katrine.”
“The roof cannot have much thickness just here, if the noise of the
water is perceptible.”
“Very little indeed,” answered James Starr, “and that is the reason
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 of Forth.”
“Well! what does it matter after all?” returned Simon Ford; “the seam
won’t be any the worse because it is under a loch. It would not be the
first time that coal has been looked for under the very bed of the
ocean! When we have to work under the bottom of the Caledonian Canal,
where will be the harm?”
“Well said, Simon,” cried the engineer, who could not restrain a smile
at the overman’s enthusiasm; “let us cut our trenches under the waters
of the sea! Let us bore the bed of the Atlantic like a strainer; let us
with our picks join our brethren of the United States through the
subsoil of the ocean! let us dig into the center of the globe if
necessary, to tear out the last scrap of coal.”
“Are you joking, Mr. Starr?” asked Ford, with a pleased but slightly
suspicious look.
“I joking, old man? no! but you are so enthusiastic that you carry me
away into the regions of impossibility! Come, let us return to the
reality, which is sufficiently beautiful; leave our picks here, where
we may find them another day, and let’s take the road back to the
cottage.”
Nothing more could be done for the time. Later, the engineer,
accompanied by a brigade of miners, supplied with lamps and all
necessary tools, would resume the 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 to the orifice opened by
the dynamite, so there was no fear of their losing themselves.
But as James Starr was proceeding towards the gallery Simon Ford
stopped him.
“Mr. Starr,” said he, “you see this immense cavern, this subterranean
lake, whose waters bathe this strand at our feet? Well! it is to this
place I mean to change my dwelling, here I will build a new cottage,
and if some brave fellows will follow my example, before a year is over
there will be one town more inside old England.”
James Starr, smiling approval of Ford’s plans, pressed his hand, and
all three, preceding Madge, re-entered the gallery, on their way back
to the Dochart 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 right and left. It seemed as if the
returning was to be accomplished as easily as the going, when an
unexpected accident occurred which rendered the situation of the
explorers very serious.
Just at a moment when Harry was raising his lamp there came a rush of
air, as if 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. All the 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 on the way back to the cottage?”
Harry did not answer. He wondered if he ought to suspect the hand of a
mysterious being in this last accident? Could there possibly exist in
these depths an enemy whose unaccountable antagonism would one day
create serious difficulties? Had someone an interest in defending the
new coal field against any attempt at working it? In truth that seemed
absurd, yet the facts spoke for themselves, and they accumulated in
such a way as to change simple presumptions into certainties.
In the meantime the explorers’ situation was bad enough. They had now,
in the midst of black darkness, to follow the passage leading to the
Dochart pit for nearly five miles. There they would still have an
hour’s walk before reaching the cottage.
“Come along,” said Simon Ford. “We have no time to lose. We must grope
our way along, like blind men. There’s no fear of losing our way. The
tunnels which open off our road are only just like those in a molehill,
and by following the chief gallery we shall of course reach the opening
we got in at. After that, it is the old mine. We know that, and it
won’t be the first time that Harry and I have found ourselves there in
the 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 up the rear. Above everything, don’t let us get separated.”
All complied with the old overman’s instructions. As he said, by
groping carefully, they could not mistake the way. It was only
necessary to make the hands take the place of the eyes, and to trust to
their instinct, which had with Simon Ford and his son become a second
nature.
James Starr and his companions walked on in the order agreed. They did
not speak, but it was not for want of thinking. It became evident that
they had an adversary. But what was he, and how were they to defend
themselves against these mysteriously-prepared attacks? These
disquieting ideas crowded into their brains. However, this was not the
moment to get discouraged.
Harry, his arms extended, advanced with a firm step, touching first one
and then the other side of the passage.
If a cleft or side opening presented itself, he felt with his hand that
it was not 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 they started, taking into consideration that the walking had not
been rapid, Starr calculated that he and his companions were near the
opening. In fact, almost immediately, 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
the Dochart pit?”
“No,” replied Harry, whose impatient hands met with nothing but a solid
wall.
The old overman stepped forward, and himself felt the schistous rock. A
cry escaped him.
Either the explorers had strayed from the right path on their return,
or the narrow orifice, broken in the rock by the dynamite, had been
recently stopped up. James Starr and his companions were prisoners in
New Aberfoyle.