Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

Living in such an environment, the most precious wishes are fulfilled, and the Simon Ford family is very happy.However, it can be seen that Harry, whose personality is already a bit gloomy, is becoming more and more "introverted" as Madge said.Jack Ryan, contagious as his cheerful mood was, failed to make him "extroverted." One Sunday—it was June—two friends were walking by Lake Malcolm.Coal City shut down.Outside, a storm is falling.The heavy rain made hot steam rise from the ground.On the ground in the county people were suffocating. The electric pans cast a light that the sun of Britain must have envied, a misty sun unfit for a Sunday sun.

Jack Ryan alerted his friend Harry to the noisy crowd of sightseers.But the latter didn't seem to care much about his words. "Look, Harry!" exclaimed Jack Ryan, "so eager to see us! Let's go, my friend! Dispel your melancholy thoughts and do the better for our place! You To make all those above think that someone might be envious of their lot!" "Jack," Harry replied, "leave me alone! You're happy when you're both happy, and that's enough!" "Let the devil take me away!" Jack Ryan retorted quickly, "if your melancholy doesn't end up infecting me! My eyes are getting cloudy, my mouth is tightening, and the laughter stays in my Deep in my throat, the song in my memory is leaving me! Tell me, Harry, what's the matter with you?"

"You know that, Jack." "Always that thought?" "always." "Ah! my poor Harry!" replied Jack Ryan, shrugging his shoulders. "If, like me, you put all this on the account of the goblin in the mines, you'll be at peace!" "You know very well, Jack, that goblins exist only in your imagination, and besides, I haven't seen one in New-Aberfoyle since the work resumed." "I hope so, Harry! But if the ghosts don't show up again, I don't think there will be any of those people you want to attribute all these extraordinary events to!"

"I'll find them, Jack!" "Ah! Harry! Harry! Those elves in New-Aberfoyle are not easy to spot!" "I'll find them, those elves you call them!" Harry went on confidently. "So, you want punishment?..." "Punishment and reward, Jack. If one hand has locked us in this alley, I will not forget that the other hand has saved us! No! I will never forget him!" "Ah! Harry!" replied Jack Ryan, "are you quite sure that the hands are not part of the same body?" "Why, Jack? How could you have such a thought?"

"Of course... you know... Harry! Those who live in the Abyss... don't look like us!" "They look just like us, Jack!" "Ah no! Harry... no... besides, can you imagine some lunatic getting in..." "A madman!" replied Harry. "A madman with such a coherent mind! A madman, the villain hasn't stopped hurting us since the day he broke the ladder in the Yale Mine!" "But he doesn't hurt anymore, Harry. For three years, there hasn't been another act of malice, either to you or to your family!" "What's that, Jack," replied Harry, "I have a hunch that the villain, whoever he is, hasn't given up his plans. I can't say who I am to tell you that. Likewise, Jack, I want to find out who he is and where he came from, for the benefit of the new mine."

"For the benefit of the new mining land? . . . " asked Jack Ryan, rather surprised. "Yes, Jack," continued Harry, "I don't know if I'm mistaken, but I see from this whole affair that there is an interest contrary to ours. I've thought about it a lot, and I don't believe I Mistake. You recall this inexplicable chain of events, all logically connected together. That anonymous letter, contrary to my father's, proved in the first place that there was someone who knew about our plans and wanted to stop it. A plan has come true. Mr. Starr came to see us at the Dochart Coal Bunker. As soon as I took him into the mine a huge boulder was thrown at us and immediately broke the ladder of the Yale Mine to cut off all access. Our exploration began An experiment which might have shown the existence of a new deposit was not possible because the cracks in the slate were blocked. Nevertheless, the test was made, and the vein was found. We came back the way we came. A strong Drifts. Our lights broke. It was pitch black around us. But we were still able to walk down the dark alley... We couldn't find an exit to get out. The exit was blocked. We were imprisoned. All right , Jack, don't you see a sinister thought in all this? Yes, there was a man hiding in the coal mines, and he hasn't been caught yet, but not supernatural, as you stubbornly think. He's trying to keep us out of the coal mines , from a motive I cannot comprehend. He was there... Some presentiment tells me he is still there, and who knows if he will prepare some terrible blow!—Well, Jack, even if I must risk my life, I want to find him too!"

Harry spoke with such confidence that his friend was deeply moved. Jack Ryan felt deeply that Harry had a point - at least as far as the past was concerned.Whether the cause of these extraordinary events is natural or supernatural, these events cannot be disputed. Still, the brave lad did not give up his way of interpreting these events.But he knew that Harry would never admit that some elf had been involved in these events, and he turned the conversation abruptly to an episode that seemed to contradict the hostility to the Fords. "Well, Harry," said he, "if I have to give you reasons on some points, don't you think, as I do, that a benevolent ghost might have saved your life when he brought you bread and water? Yours……"

"Jack," Harry replied, interrupting him, "the savior you're going to describe as a supernatural being is just as real as the villain I mentioned, and, besides, the two I'm going to search all the way to the farthest and deepest place in the mine." "But do you have any signs that can point you to look for?" Jack Ryan asked. "Maybe," replied Harry, "you see, five miles west of New-Aberfoyle, under the basement that holds Loch Romney, there's a cenote that's vertically submerged in the The belly of the seam itself. 8 days ago, I wanted to measure its depth. However, when I lowered the depth sounder, I was leaning over the wellhead at that time, and I felt the air heaving in it, as if being winged slapping hard."

"That's some stray bird that got into the drift below the mine," Jack answered. "That's not all, Jack," went on Harry, "just this morning, I was back at the well, and there, listening, I believe I heard some kind of moaning sound..." "A groan!" cried Jack. "You heard me wrong, Harry! It was a push of air...if it wasn't for a goblin..." "Tomorrow, Jack," Harry went on, "I'll know what to do about it." "Tomorrow?" Jack asked, looking at his friend. "Yes! Tomorrow, I will descend into that abyss."

"Harry, it's an adventure, do it!" "No, Jack, I'm going to ask God to help me go down. Tomorrow, the two of us will go down to that well with some friends. Take a long rope to which I'll tie myself, and you promise to pass a suitable The signal put me down and pulled me up—can I trust you, Jack?" "Harry," Jack Ryan replied, shaking his head, "I will do as you ask, but, I tell you again, you are wrong." "It's better to be wrong than to regret not doing something," said Harry firmly. "Well, tomorrow morning, at six o'clock, quietly! Goodbye, Jack!"

So, in order not to let Jack Ryan still try to stop his plan to continue, Harry suddenly left his friend and went back to the cottage. It should be admitted, however, that Jack's concerns were not exaggerated at all.Harry is in danger if someone with hostility threatens him if he is going down the well that the young miner is going to explore.However, is it possible for him to do that? "And," thought Jack Ryan again, "why go to such lengths to explain a chain of events that could be so easily explained by the supernatural intervention of the spirit of the mine?" Whatever he thought, Jack Ryan and three miners from his team accompanied Harry to the head of the suspected well the next day. Harry said nothing about his plan, neither to James Starr nor to the old foreman.Jack Ryan, too, was cautious on his part and said nothing.When other miners saw them set off, they thought it was just a simple survey along the vertical section of the ore seam. Harry brought a long rope, 200 feet long.This rope is not thick, but very strong.Harry didn't have to use his wrists to get up and down, just that the rope was strong enough to bear his weight.It fell to his companions to help him slide into the shaft hole, and it was up to them to pull him out of the shaft hole.Give the rope a shake as a signal between them and him. The well is quite wide, with a head diameter of twelve feet.A beam was laid across like a bridge so that the rope would remain on the axis of the well as it slid across its face.Necessary precautions were taken so that Harry would not hit the side wall as he slid down. Harry was ready. "You still insist on exploring this abyss?" Jack Ryan asked him in a low voice. "Yes, Jack," Harry replied. The rope was tied first around Harry's waist and then under his armpit to keep his body from tipping over. In this state, Harry's hands can move freely.He had a safety light on his belt, and he carried one of those Scotch knives in a leather sheath. Harry walked forward to the center of the beam, and the rope had passed around it. Then his buddies slid him down, and he made his way slowly down the well.As the rope turned slightly, his light shone at each point on the side of the well in turn, and Harry was able to examine the side of the well carefully. These walls are made of coal flakes and are too slippery to climb on. Harry figured he was sliding at a moderate rate - about a foot a second.He can thus see clearly and be prepared for all events. Two minutes later, at a depth of about 120 feet, the descent occurred without incident.There is no lateral drift on the well wall, and the well wall shrinks gradually in a funnel shape.But Harry felt that the air coming up from below was fresher - so he concluded that the lowest part of the city was connected to an alley in the lower dungeon. The rope is always slipping.Total darkness.And there was silence.If a living person, whoever he was, had taken shelter in this mysterious and deep abyss, he was not here at this time, and there was no activity to reveal his existence. Harry became more and more worried the further he slid, he drew the knife from the case and held it in his right hand. At a depth of 148 feet, Harry felt the ground below as the rope slackened and was no longer unrolling. Harry gasped.One of his fears didn't happen, that the rope was cut above him as he descended.Besides, he found no recess in the side of the well where anyone could hide. The lower end of the well is extremely narrow. Harry removed the lamp from his belt and moved it across the ground.His guess was not wrong. A narrow alleyway submerges laterally beneath the deposit.You have to bend over to get in, and you have to crawl on your hands to make your way down the alley. Harry wanted to see in which direction the passage branched off, and whether it led into some chasm. He lay on the ground and began to crawl.But almost immediately a barrier blocked him. He felt that the obstacle was a body that blocked the passage from the sense of touch. Harry backed away in some violent revulsion, then came back again. His feelings did not deceive him.What stopped him just now was indeed a body.He grabbed him and found him frozen, but not quite cold. He drew him towards him, brought him back down the well, and shone the light on him, needless to say, only for a moment. "A child!" Harry exclaimed. The child found at the bottom of the abyss was still breathing, but so weakly that Harry thought he was about to stop.It was therefore necessary without delay to bring the poor child back to the mouth of the well, and to the cottage, where Madge would take care of her as best she could. Forgetting all other worries, Harry adjusted the ropes around his belt again, hung the lamp from it, picked up the baby, and held him to his chest with his left arm, freeing his right arm for the armed.He sent the agreed signal, causing the rope to be pulled upwards slowly. The rope tightened and began to pull up slowly. Harry looked around him with increased attention.Now he was no longer alone at risk. All went well for the first minute of the ascent, and nothing seemed to happen suddenly, when Harry thought he heard a gust of wind which moved the layers of air deep down the shaft.He looked below him and caught a glimpse of an object coming up a little in the gloom, flying by and nearly touching him. It was a huge bird, he couldn't recognize what kind, and it was flying upward with a sudden flutter of wings. The huge bird stopped, glided for a moment, and then swooped down on Harry with great ferocity. Harry had only his right arm that he could use to fend off the animal's terrifying beak. So Harry resisted, trying to protect the child.But it wasn't the child that the bird attacked, it was him.Limited by the rope's spin, he couldn't slash fatally at it. The fight went on, and Harry yelled, hoping his cries would be heard above. The shout was heard, for the rope went up fast at once. There are 80 feet of altitude left to climb.Then the bird swooped on Harry even more ferociously.The latter slashed at it, slashing its wings, and the bird uttered a piercing cry and disappeared into the depths of the well. But the situation was horrific. Harry cut the rope when he swung the knife at the bird, and one strand of the rope has now snapped. Harry's hair stood on end. The rope snapped bit by bit, at a height of more than a hundred feet from the bottom of the abyss! Harry gave a cry of despair. The second strand failed due to the double load carried by the half-cut rope. Harry dropped the knife, and at the moment when the rope was about to break, he grabbed the upper half of the rope with his right hand with a superhuman measure.But, despite the iron strength of his wrist, he felt the rope slipping from his fingers little by little. He could have sacrificed the child he held in one arm and grabbed the rope again with both hands...he didn't even want to think about it. But Jack Ryan and his mates, spurred on by Harry's yelling transition, pulled harder. Harry didn't think he could last long enough to get back up to the head of the well.His face was bloodshot, he closed his eyes for a moment, waiting to fall into the abyss, and then he opened them again... However, just when he was about to let go of the rope and he was too exhausted to hold on anymore, he was caught and dropped to the ground with the child. That's when Harry realized he was lying unconscious in the arms of his friends.