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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!
"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.
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.
With rigid fingers she pointed to the following words traced upon it during the night: "Simon Ford, you have robbed me of the last vein in our old pit. Harry, your son, has robbed me of Nell. Woe betide you! Woe betide you all! Woe betide New Aberfoyle! "Silfax!" exclaimed Simon and Madge together. "Who is this man?" demanded Harry, looking alternately at his father and at the maiden.
Her hair was bound with the "snood," the usual head-dress of Scottish maidens. All proceeded towards St. Giles's chapel, which had been handsomely decorated for the occasion. The electric discs of light which illuminated Coal Town blazed like so many suns. A luminous atmosphere pervaded New Aberfoyle.
So, then, whilst they had been exploring the vast cavern, the way back had been purposely closed against them by a hostile hand. THREE years after the events which have just been related, the guide-books recommended as a "great attraction," to the numerous tourists who roam over the county of Stirling, a visit of a few hours to the mines of New Aberfoyle.
In that case the entire excavation, vast as it was, would be completely flooded. Not a single inhabitant of New Aberfoyle would escape death. But when the foremost fugitives reached the entrance to the tunnel, they encountered Simon Ford, who had quitted his cottage.
His only grief had been to perceive the bed becoming impoverished, and to see the hour approaching when the seam would be exhausted. It was then he devoted himself to the search for new veins in all the Aberfoyle pits, which communicated underground one with another. He had had the good luck to discover several during the last period of the working.
"The work was hard, but it was interesting, as are all struggles." "No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers of landslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps of thunder. One had to guard against all those perils! You say well! It was a struggle, and consequently an exciting life." "The miners of Alva have been more favored than the miners of Aberfoyle, Mr.
However, it was more particularly in the depths of the mysterious mines of Aberfoyle, which border on the Alloa mines and occupy part of the county of Stirling, that the name of Starr had acquired the greatest renown. There, the greater part of his existence had been passed. Besides this, James Starr belonged to the Scottish Antiquarian Society, of which he had been made president.
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