The Underground City | Page 5

off, is Edinburgh!" answered the man shaking his 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 good old nurse, just
because her milk is dried up! My wife, my boy, and myself, we mean to remain faithful
to her!"
"Good-by then, Simon," replied the engineer, whose voice, in spite of himself, betrayed
some emotion.

"No, I tell you, it's TILL WE MEET AGAIN, Mr. Starr, and not Just '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
patted Harry'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 the overman
had expressed to see him again, during that time Starr had heard nothing of him. It was
after ten years of separation that he got this letter from Simon Ford, requesting him to
take without delay the road to the old Aberfoyle colliery.
A communication of an interesting nature, what could it be? Dochart pit. Yarrow shaft!
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 the engineer's life. Starr re-read his letter. He
pondered over it in all its bearings. 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! Starr
remembered with what minute care the mines had been explored before the definite
cessation of the works. He had himself proceeded to the lowest soundings without finding
the least trace in the soil, burrowed in every direction. They had even attempted to find
coal under strata which are usually below it, such as the Devonian red sandstone, but
without result. James Starr had therefore abandoned the mine with the absolute
conviction that it did not contain another bit of coal.
"No," he repeated, "no! How is it possible that anything which could have escaped my
researches, should be revealed to those of Simon Ford. However, the old overman must
well know that such a discovery would be the one thing in the world to interest me, and
this invitation, which I must keep secret, to repair to the Dochart pit!" James Starr always
came back to that.
On the other hand, the engineer knew Ford to be a clever miner, peculiarly endowed with
the instinct of his trade. He had not seen him since the time when the Aberfoyle colliery
was abandoned, and did not know either what he was doing or 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 at the Callander station.
"I shall go, I shall go!" said Starr, his excitement increasing as the time drew near.
Our worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain is always on the boil, like
a kettle on a hot fire. In some of these brain kettles the ideas bubble over, in others they
just simmer quietly. Now on this day, James Starr'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 the evening, 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 hand unaccustomed to the use of a pen. James Starr
tore it open. It contained only a scrap 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, Simon Ford'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 this second letter
contradicting the first.
"What does this mean?" said he to himself. He took up the torn envelope, and examined it.
Like the other, it bore the Aberfoyle postmark. It had therefore come from the same part
of the county of Stirling. The old miner had evidently not written it. But, no less
evidently, the author of this second letter knew the overman's secret, since it expressly
contradicted the invitation to the engineer to go to the Yarrow shaft.
Was it really true that the