it only by bringing my lamp near to the cracks in the rock.

Harry has done it as well as I."
"At what height?" asked Starr.

"Ten feet from the ground," replied Harry.
James Starr had seated himself on a rock. After critically

inhaling the air of the cavern, he gazed at the two miners,
almost as if doubting their words, decided as they were.

In fact, carburetted hydrogen is not completely scentless,
and the engineer, whose sense of smell was very keen, was astonished

that it had not revealed the presence of the explosive gas.
At any rate, if the gas had mingled at all with the surrounding air,

it could only be in a very small stream. There was no danger
of an explosion, and they might without fear open the safety lamp

to try the experiment, just as the old miner had done before.
What troubled James Starr was, not lest too much gas

mingled with the air, but lest there should be little or none.
"Could they have been mistaken?" he murmured. "No: these men know

what they are about. And yet--"
He waited, not without some anxiety, until Simon Ford's phenomenon should

have taken place. But just then it seemed that Harry, like himself,
had remarked the absence of the characteristic odor of fire-damp;

for he exclaimed in an altered voice, "Father, I should say the gas
was no longer escaping through the cracks!"

"No longer!" cried the old miner--and, pressing his lips tight together,
he snuffed the air several times.

Then, all at once, with a sudden movement, "Hand me
your lamp, Harry," he said.

Ford took the lamp with a trembling hand. He drew off the wire gauze
case which surrounded the wick, and the flame burned in the open air.

As they had expected, there was no explosion, but, what was
more serious, there was not even the slight crackling which

indicates the presence of a small quantity of firedamp.
Simon took the stick which Harry was holding, fixed his lamp

to the end of it, and raised it high above his head, up to where
the gas, by reason of its buoyancy, would naturally accumulate.

The flame of the lamp, burning straight and clear, revealed no
trace of the carburetted hydrogen.

"Close to the wall," said the engineer.
"Yes," responded Ford, carrying the lamp to that part

of the wall at which he and his son had, the evening before,
proved the escape of gas.

The old miner's arm trembled whilst he tried to hoist the lamp up.
"Take my place, Harry," said he.

Harry took the stick, and successively presented the lamp to the different
fissures in the rock; but he shook his head, for of that slight crackling

peculiar to escaping fire-damp he heard nothing. There was no flame.
Evidently not a particle of gas was escaping through the rock.

"Nothing!" cried Ford, clenching his fist with a gesture rather
of anger than disappointment.

A cry escaped Harry.
"What's the matter?" asked Starr quickly.

"Someone has stopped up the cracks in the schist!"
"Is that true?" exclaimed the old miner.

"Look, father!" Harry was not mistaken. The obstruction
of the fissures was clearly visible by the light of the lamp.

It had been recently done with lime, leaving on the rock a long
whitish mark, badly concealed with coal dust.

"It's he!" exclaimed Harry. "It can only be he!"
"He?" repeated James Starr in amazement.

"Yes!" returned the young man, "that mysterious being who haunts
our domain, for whom I have watched a hundred times without

being able to get at him--the author, we may now be certain,
of that letter which was intended to hinder you from coming to see

my father, Mr. Starr, and who finally threw that stone at us
in the gallery of the Yarrow shaft! Ah! there's no doubt about it;

there is a man's hand in all that!"
Harry spoke with such energy that conviction came instantly" target="_blank" title="ad.立即，立刻">instantly and fully

to the engineer's mind. As to the old overman, he was already convinced.
Besides, there they were in the presence of an undeniable fact--

the stopping-up of cracks through which gas had escaped freely
the night before.

"Take your pick, Harry," cried Ford; "mount on my shoulders, my lad!
I am still strong enough to bear you!" The young man understood

in an instant. His father propped himself up against the rock.
Harry got upon his shoulders, so that with his pick he could reach

the line of the fissure. Then with quick sharp blows he attacked it.
Almost directly afterwards a slight sound was heard, like champagne

escaping from a bottle--a sound commonly expressed by the word "puff."
Harry again seized his lamp, and held it to the opening.

There was a slight report; and a little red flame, rather blue
at its outline, flickered over the rock like a Will-o'-the-Wisp.

Harry leaped to the ground, and the old overman, unable to contain his
joy, grasped the engineer's hands, exclaiming, "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!

Mr. Starr. The fire-damp burns! the vein is there!"
CHAPTER VII NEW ABERFOYLE

THE old overman's experiment had succeeded. Firedamp, it is
well known, is only generated in coal seams; therefore the existence

of a vein of precious combustible could no longer be doubted.
As to its size and quality, that must be determined later.

"Yes," thought James Starr, "behind that wall lies a carboniferous bed,
undiscovered by our soundings. It is vexatious that all the apparatus

of the mine, deserted for ten years, must be set up anew. Never mind.
We have found the vein which was thought to be exhausted, and this time

it shall be worked to the end!"
"Well, Mr. Starr," asked Ford, "what do you think of our discovery?

Was I wrong to trouble you? Are you sorry to have paid this visit
to the Dochart pit?"

"No, no, my old friend!" answered Starr. "We have not lost
our time; but we shall be losing it now, if we do not return

immediately to the cottage. To-morrow we will come back here.
We will blast this wall with dynamite. We will lay open

the new vein, and after a series of soundings, if the seam
appears to be large, I will form a new Aberfoyle Company,

to the great satisfaction of the old shareholders.
Before three months have passed, the first corves full of coal

will have been taken from the new vein."
"Well said, sir!" cried Simon Ford. "The old mine will grow young again,

like a widow who remarries! The bustle of the old days will soon
begin with the blows of the pick, and mattock, blasts of powder,

rumbling of wagons, neighing of horses, creaking of machines!
I shall see it all again! I hope, Mr. Starr, that you will not think

me too old to r锟絪um?my duties of overman?"
"No, Simon, no indeed! You wear better than I do, my old friend!"

"And, sir, you shall be our viewer again. May the new working
last for many years, and pray Heaven I shall have the consolation

of dying without seeing the end of it!"
The old miner was overflowing with joy. James Starr fully

entered into it; but he let Ford rave for them both.
Harry alone remained thoughtful. To his memory recurred

the succession of singular, inexplicable circumstances
314

attending the discovery of the new bed. It made him uneasy
about the future.

An hour afterwards, James Starr and his two companions were