Les indes-noirs. English

  CHAPTER XIII. ON THE REVOLVING LADDER

  THE mining operations at New Aberfoyle continued to be carried on verysuccessfully. As a matter of course, the engineer, James Starr, as wellas Simon Ford, the discoverers of this rich carboniferous region, sharedlargely in the profits.

  In time Harry became a partner. But he never thought of quittingthe cottage. He took his father's place as overman, and diligentlysuperintended the works of this colony of miners. Jack Ryan was proudand delighted at the good fortune which had befallen his comrade. Hehimself 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 towardsNell. Harry would not confess to them; but Jack only laughed at him whenhe 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 ofthe party when Nell should pay her first visit to the upper surface ofthe county of Stirling. He wished to see her wonder and admiration onfirst beholding the yet unknown face of Nature. He very much hoped thatHarry would take him with them when the excursion was made. As yet,however, the latter had made no proposal of the kind to him, whichcaused him to feel a little uneasy as to his intentions.

  One morning Jack Ryan was descending through a shaft which led from thesurface to the lower regions of the pit. He did so by means of one ofthose ladders which, continually revolving by machinery, enabled personsto ascend and descend without fatigue. This apparatus had loweredhim about a hundred and fifty feet, when at a narrow landing-place heperceived Harry, who was coming up to his labors for the day.

  "Well met, my friend!" cried Jack, recognizing his comrade by the lightof the electric lamps.

  "Ah, Jack!" replied Harry, "I am glad to see you. I've got something topropose."

  "I can listen to nothing till you tell me how Nell is," interrupted JackRyan.

  "Nell is all right, Jack--so much so, in fact, that I hope in a month orsix 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 SaintMungo! I think an immense deal of bonny Nell! A fine young creature likethat, who has been brought up in the mine, is just the very wife for aminer. 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 tostop him. "Don't you begin to feel jealous, Harry?" asked Jack in a moreserious tone.

  "Not at all," answered Harry quietly.

  "But if you don't marry Nell yourself, you surely can't expect her toremain a spinster?"

  "I expect nothing," said Harry.

  A movement of the ladder machinery now gave the two friends theopportunity--one to go up, the other down the shaft. However, theyremained where they were.

  "Harry," quoth Jack, "do you think I spoke in earnest just now aboutNell?"

  "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 abit 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 weretheir daughter. Why don't you make her so in reality? Why don't youmarry her?"

  "Come, Jack," said Harry, "you are running on as if you knew how Nellfelt on the subject."

  "Everybody knows that," replied Jack, "and therefore it is impossible tomake 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 wasstepping 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; Iwish 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 tomake me a promise which would be irrevocable."

  "What can you mean, Harry?"

  "I mean just this--that, it being certain Nell has never been outsidethis coal mine in the very depths of which she was born, it stands toreason that she knows nothing, and can comprehend nothing of what existsbeyond it. Her eyes--yes, and perhaps also her heart--have everythingyet to learn. Who can tell what her thoughts will be, when perfectly newimpressions shall be made upon her mind? As yet she knows nothing ofthe world, and to me it would seem like deceiving her, if I led her todecide in ignorance, upon choosing to remain all her life in the coalmine. Do you understand me, Jack?"

  "Hem!--yes--pretty well. What I understand best is that you are going tomake me miss another turn of the ladder."

  "Jack," replied Harry gravely, "if this machinery were to stopaltogether, if this landing-place were to fall beneath our feet, youmust 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 AuldReekie."

  "No indeed, Jack; I am perfectly able myself to educate the person whois 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 realknowledge of the upper world. To illustrate my meaning, Jack, supposeyou were in love with a blind girl, and someone said to you, 'In amonth's time her sight will be restored,' would you not wait till aftershe 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 wishher to see what I am, and what the life really is to which she wouldbind herself. In short, she must have daylight let in upon the subject!"

  "Well said, Harry! Very well said indeed!" cried Jack. "Now I see whatyou 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 ofour 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 willperceive 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 theheights, I plunge into the depths."

  "Fare ye well. Jack!" returned Harry, himself laying hold of the risingladder; "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 excursion to the faceof the earth comes off!"

  "So you shall, Jack, I promise you!"

  A fresh throb of the machinery placed a yet more considerable distancebetween 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, orstars, after she's seen the whole of them?"

  "No, Jack!"

  "Why, you yourself, old fellow! still you! always you!" And Jack's voicedied away in a prolonged "Hurrah!"

  Harry, after this, applied himself diligently, during all his sparetime, to the work of Nell's education. He taught her to read and towrite, and such rapid progress did she make, it might have been saidthat she learnt by instinct. Never did keen intelligence more quicklytriumph over utter ignorance. It was the wonder of all beholders.

>   Simon and Madge became every day more and more attached to their adoptedchild, whose former history continued to puzzle them a good deal. Theyplainly saw the nature of Harry's feelings towards her, and were farfrom displeased thereat. They recollected that Simon had said to theengineer on his first visit to the old cottage, "How can our son everthink of marrying? Where could a wife possibly be found suitable for alad whose whole life must be passed in the depths of a coal mine?"

  Well! now it seemed as if the most desirable companion in the world hadbeen led to him by Providence. Was not this like a blessing direct fromHeaven? So the old man made up his mind that, if the wedding did takeplace, the miners of New Aberfoyle should have a merry-making at CoalTown, which they would never during their lives forget. Simon Fordlittle knew what he was saying!

  It must be remarked that another person wished for this union of Harryand Nell as much as Simon did--and that was James Starr, the engineer.Of course he was really interested in the happiness of the two youngpeople. But another motive, connected with wider interests, influencedhim to desire it.

  It has been said that James Starr continued to entertain a certainamount of apprehension, although for the present nothing appeared tojustify it. Yet that which had been might again be. This mystery aboutthe new cutting--Nell was evidently the only person acquainted with it.Now, if fresh dangers were in store for the miners of Aberfoyle, howwere they possibly to be guarded against, without so much as knowing thecause of them?

  "Nell has persisted in keeping silence," said James Starr very often,"but what she has concealed from others, she will not long hide from herhusband. Any danger would be danger to Harry as well as to the restof us. Therefore, a marriage which brings happiness to the lovers, andsafety to their friends, will be a good marriage, if ever there is sucha thing here below."

  Thus, not illogically, reasoned James Starr. He communicated his ideasto old Simon, who decidedly appreciated them. Nothing, then, appeared tostand in the way of the match. What, in fact, was there to prevent it?They loved each other; the parents desired nothing better for their son.Harry's comrades envied his good fortune, but freely acknowledged thathe deserved it. The maiden depended on no one else, and had but to givethe consent of her own heart.

  Why, then, if there were none to place obstacles in the way of thisunion--why, as night came on, and, the labors of the day being over, theelectric lights in the mine were extinguished, and all the inhabitantsof Coal Town at rest within their dwellings--why did a mysterious formalways emerge from the gloomier recesses of New Aberfoyle, and silentlyglide through the darkness?

  What instinct guided this phantom with ease through passages so narrowas to appear to be impracticable?

  Why should the strange being, with eyes flashing through the deepestdarkness, come cautiously creeping along the shores of Lake Malcolm? Whyso directly make his way towards Simon's cottage, yet so carefullyas hitherto to avoid notice? Why, bending towards the windows, did hestrive to catch, by listening, some fragment of the conversation withinthe closed shutters?

  And, on catching a few words, why did he shake his fist with a menacinggesture towards the calm abode, while from between his set teeth issuedthese words in muttered fury, "She and he? Never! never!"