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The Underground City-Part10_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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And without taking time to inform the President of the Royal Institution

by letter, what he knew relative to James Starr, Jack jumped into



the train, determining to go first of all to the Yarrow shaft.

There he would descend to the depths of the pit, if necessary,



to find Harry, and with him was sure to be the engineer James Starr.

"They haven't turned up again," said he to himself. "Why? Has anything



prevented them? Could any work of importance keep them still at

the bottom of the mine? I must find out!" and Ryan, hastening his steps,



arrived in less than an hour at the Yarrow shaft.

Externally nothing was changed. The same silence around.



Not a living creature was moving in that desert region.

Jack entered the ruined shed which covered the opening of the shaft.



He gazed down into the dark abyss--nothing was to be seen.

He listened--nothing was to be heard.



"And my lamp!" he exclaimed; "suppose it isn't in its place!"

The lamp which Ryan used when he visited the pit was usually



deposited in a corner, near the landing of the topmost ladder.

It had disappeared.



"Here is a nuisance!" said Jack, beginning to feel rather

uneasy. Then, without hesitating, superstitious though he was,



"I will go," said he, "though it's as dark down there as in the lowest

depths of the infernal regions!"



And he began to descend the long flight of ladders, which led

down the gloomy shaft. Jack Ryan had not forgotten his old



mining habits, and he was well acquainted with the Dochart pit,

or he would scarcely have dared to venture thus.



He went very carefully, however. His foot tried each round,

as some of them were worm-eaten. A false step would entail



a deadly fall, through this space of fifteen hundred feet.

He counted each landing as he passed it, knowing that he could



not reach the bottom of the shaft until he had left the thirtieth.

Once there, he would have no trouble, so he thought,



in finding the cottage, built, as we have said, at the extremity

of the principal passage.



Jack Ryan went on thus until he got to the twenty-sixth landing,

and consequently had two hundred feet between him and the bottom.



Here he put down his leg to feel for the first rung of the twenty-seventh

ladder. But his foot swinging in space found nothing to rest on.



He knelt down and felt about with his hand for the top of the ladder.

It was in vain.



"Old Nick himself must have been down this way!" said Jack,

not without a slight feeling of terror.



He stood considering for some time, with folded arms,

and longing to be able to pierce the impenetrable darkness.



Then it occurred to him that if he could not get down,

neither could the inhabitants of the mine get up. There was now no



communication between the depths of the pit and the upper regions.

If the removal of the lower ladders of the Yarrow shaft had been



effected since his last visit to the cottage, what had become

of Simon Ford, his wife, his son, and the engineer?



The prolonged absence of James Starr proved that he had not

left the pit since the day Ryan met with him in the shaft.



How had the cottage been provisioned since then?

The food of these unfortunate people, imprisoned fifteen hundred



feet below the surface of the ground, must have been exhausted

by this time.



All this passed through Jack's mind, as he saw that by himself

he could do nothing to get to the cottage. He had no doubt



but that communication had been interrupted

with a malevolent intention. At any rate, the authorities must



be informed, and that as soon as possible.

Jack Ryan bent forward from the landing.



"Harry! Harry!" he shouted with his powerful voice.

Harry's name echoed and re-echoed among the rocks, and finally died



away in the depths of the shaft.

Ryan rapidly ascended the upper ladders and returned to the light of day.



Without losing a moment he reached the Callander station, just caught the

express to Edinburgh, and by three o'clock was before the Lord Provost.



There his declaration was received. His account was given so clearly

that it could not be doubted. Sir William Elphiston, President of



the Royal Institution, and not only colleague, but a personal

friend of Starr's, was also informed, and asked to direct



the search which was to be made without delay in the mine.




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