thought he might press the subject a little further, so he said,
"But one might be easily lost in these great galleries, Nell. Were you
not afraid of losing your way?"
"Oh, no, Harry; for a long time I had known every turn of the new mine."
"Did you never leave it?"
"Yes, now and then," answered the girl with a little hesitation;
"sometimes I have been as far as the old mine of Aberfoyle."
"So you knew our old
cottage?"
"The
cottage! oh, yes; but the people who lived there I only saw
at a great distance."
"They were my father and mother," said Harry; "and I was there too;
we have always lived there--we never would give up the old dwelling."
"Perhaps it would have been better for you if you had,"
murmured the maiden.
"Why so, Nell? Was it not just because we were obstinately resolved
to remain that we ended by discovering the new vein of coal?
And did not that discovery lead to the happy result of providing
work for a large population, and restoring them to ease and comfort?
and did it not
enable us to find you, Nell, to save your life,
and give you the love of all our hearts?"
"Ah, yes, for me indeed it is well,
whatever may happen,"
replied Nell
earnestly" target="_blank" title="ad.认真地;急切地">
earnestly; "for others--who can tell?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing--nothing. But it used to be very dangerous at that time
to go into the new cutting--yes, very dangerous indeed, Harry! Once some
rash people made their way into these chasms. They got a long, long way;
they were lost!"
"They were lost?" said Harry, looking at her.
"Yes, lost!"
repeated Nell in a trembling voice.
"They could not find their way out."
"And there," cried Harry, "they were imprisoned during eight long days!
They were at the point of death, Nell; and, but for a kind
and
charitable being--an angel perhaps--sent by God to help them,
who
secretly brought them a little food; but for a
mysterious guide,
who afterwards led to them their deliverers, they never would
have escaped from that living tomb!"
"And how do you know about that?" demanded the girl.
"Because those men were James Starr, my father, and myself, Nell!"
Nell looked up
hastily, seized the young man's hand, and gazed so
fixedly into his eyes that his feelings were stirred to their depths.
"You were there?" at last she uttered.
"I was indeed," said Harry, after a pause, "and she to whom we
owe our lives can have been none other than yourself, Nell!"
Nell hid her face in her hands without speaking.
Harry had never seen her so much affected.
"Those who saved your life, Nell," added he in a voice tremulous
with
emotion, "already owed
theirs to you; do you think they
will ever forget it?"
CHAPTER XIII ON THE REVOLVING LADDER
THE
mining operations at New Aberfoyle continued to be carried on
very
successfully. As a matter of course, the engineer, James Starr,
as well as Simon Ford, the discoverers of this rich carboniferous region,
shared largely in the profits.
In time Harry became a
partner. But he never thought
of quitting the
cottage. He took his father's place as overman,
and
diligently superintended the works of this colony of miners.
Jack Ryan was proud and
delighted at the good fortune which had
befallen his comrade. He himself was getting on very well also.
They frequently met, either at the
cottage or at the works in the pit.
Jack did not fail to remark the sentiments entertained by Harry
towards Nell. Harry would not
confess to them; but Jack only
laughed at him when he shook his head and tried to deny any special
interest in her.
It must be noted that Jack Ryan had the greatest possible wish to be
of the party when Nell should pay her first visit to the upper surface
of the county of Stirling. He wished to see her wonder and admiration
on first beholding the yet unknown face of Nature. He very much hoped
that Harry would take him with them when the
excursion was made.
As yet, however, the latter had made no proposal of the kind to him,
which caused him to feel a little
uneasy as to his intentions.
One morning Jack Ryan was
descending through a shaft which led from
the surface to the lower regions of the pit. He did so by means
of one of those
ladders which,
continually revolving by machinery,
enabled persons to
ascend and
descend without fatigue.
This
apparatus had lowered him about a hundred and fifty feet,
when at a narrow landing-place he
perceived Harry, who was coming
up to his labors for the day.
"Well met, my friend!" cried Jack, recognizing his comrade by the light
of the electric lamps.
"Ah, Jack!" replied Harry, "I am glad to see you.
I've got something to propose."
"I can listen to nothing till you tell me how Nell is,"
interrupted Jack Ryan.
"Nell is all right, Jack--so much so, in fact, that I hope in a month
or six weeks--"
"To marry her, Harry?"
"Jack, you don't know what you are talking about!"
"Ah, that's very likely; but I know quite well what I shall do."
"What will you do?"
"Marry her myself, if you don't; so look sharp,"
laughed Jack. "By Saint Mungo! I think an
immense deal of
bonny Nell! A fine young creature like that, who has been
brought up in the mine, is just the very wife for a miner.
She is an orphan--so am I; and if you don't care much for her,
and if she will have me--"
Harry looked
gravely at Jack, and let him talk on without trying
to stop him. "Don't you begin to feel
jealous, Harry?" asked Jack
in a more serious tone.
"Not at all," answered Harry quietly.
"But if you don't marry Nell yourself, you surely can't expect
her to remain a spinster?"
"I expect nothing," said Harry.
A
movement of the
ladder machinery now gave the two friends
the opportunity--one to go up, the other down the shaft.
However, they remained where they were.
"Harry," quoth Jack, "do you think I spoke in
earnest just
now about Nell?"
"No, that I don't, Jack."
"Well, but now I will!"
"You? speak in
earnest?"
"My good fellow, I can tell you I am quite
capable of giving a friend
a bit of advice."
"Let's hear, then, Jack!"
"Well, look here! You love Nell as
heartily as she deserves.
Old Simon, your father, and old Madge, your mother, both love her
as if she were their daughter. Why don't you make her so in reality?
Why don't you marry her?"
"Come, Jack," said Harry, "you are
running on as if you knew how Nell
felt on the subject."
"Everybody knows that," replied Jack, "and
therefore it is
impossible to make you
jealous of any of us. But here goes
the
ladder again--I'm off!"
"Stop a minute, Jack!" cried Harry, detaining his companion,
who was stepping onto the moving staircase.
"I say! you seem to mean me to take up my quarters here altogether!"
"Do be serious and listen, Jack! I want to speak in
earnest myself now."
"Well, I'll listen till the
ladder moves again, not a minute longer."
"Jack," resumed Harry, "I need not
pretend that I do not love Nell; I wish
above all things to make her my wife."
"That's all right!"
"But for the present I have scruples of
conscience as to asking
her to make me a promise which would be irrevocable."
"What can you mean, Harry?"
"I mean just this--that, it being certain Nell has never
been outside this coal mine in the very depths of which she
was born, it stands to reason that she knows nothing,
and can
comprehend nothing of what exists beyond it.
Her eyes--yes, and perhaps also her heart--have everything
yet to learn. Who can tell what her thoughts will be,
when
perfectly new impressions shall be made upon her mind?
As yet she knows nothing of the world, and to me it would
seem like deceiving her, if I led her to decide in ignorance,
upon choosing to remain all her life in the coal mine.
Do you understand me, Jack?"
"Hem!--yes--pretty well. What I understand best is that you
are going to make me miss another turn of the
ladder."
"Jack," replied Harry
gravely, "if this machinery were to stop altogether,
if this landing-place were to fall beneath our feet, you must and shall
hear what I have to say."
"Well done, Harry! that's how I like to be
spoken to!
Let's settle, then, that, before you marry Nell, she shall go
to school in Auld Reekie."
"No indeed, Jack; I am
perfectly able myself to
educate the person
who is to be my wife."
"Sure that will be a great deal better, Harry!"
"But, first of all," resumed Harry, "I wish that Nell should
gain a real knowledge of the upper world. To illustrate
my meaning, Jack, suppose you were in love with a blind girl,
and someone said to you, 'In a month's time her sight will
be restored,' would you not wait till after she was cured,
to marry her?"
"Faith, to be sure I would!" exclaimed Jack.
"Well, Jack, Nell is at present blind; and before she marries me,
I wish her to see what I am, and what the life really is to which
she would bind herself. In short, she must have
daylight let
in upon the subject!"
"Well said, Harry! Very well said indeed!" cried Jack. "Now I
see what you are driving at. And when may we expect the operation
to come off?"
"In a month, Jack," replied Harry. "Nell is getting used
to the light of our reflectors. That is some preparation.
In a month she will, I hope, have seen the earth and its wonders--
the sky and its splendors. She will
perceive that the limits
of the
universe are boundless."
But while Harry was thus giving the rein to his
imagination, Jack Ryan,
quitting the
platform, had leaped on the step of the moving machinery.
"Hullo, Jack! Where are you?"
"Far beneath you," laughed the merry fellow. "While you soar
to the heights, I
plunge into the depths."
"Fare ye well. Jack!" returned Harry, himself laying hold
of the rising
ladder; "mind you say nothing about what I have
been telling you."
"Not a word," shouted Jack, "but I make one condition."
"What is that?"
"That I may be one of the party when Nell's first
excursionto the face of the earth comes off!"
"So you shall, Jack, I promise you!"
A fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more
considerable distance
between the friends. Their voices sounded
faintly to each other.
Harry, however, could still hear Jack shouting:
"I say! do you know what Nell will like better than either sun,
moon, or stars, after she's seen the whole of them?"
"No, Jack!"
"Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!"
And Jack's voice died away in a prolonged "Hurrah!"
Harry, after this,
applied himself
diligently, during all
his spare time, to the work of Nell's education.
He taught her to read and to write, and such rapid progress did
she make, it might have been said that she
learnt by instinct.
Never did keen
intelligence more quickly
triumph over utter ignorance.
It was the wonder of all beholders.