Chapter 2 Chapter 2 on the way

when jamesAfter Starr read the second letter, which was the opposite of the first letter, his racing thoughts stopped suddenly. What does it mean?he wondered. James.Starr picked up the half-torn envelope again.Same as that letter.The envelope was postmarked by the Aberfoyle Post Office.The letter was therefore sent from the same location in Stirlingshire.The letter was not written by the old miner as obvious.But it is also evident that the author of the second letter knew the foreman's secret, since he expressly withdrew the invitation of the engineer to Yale Mine. Is the first notification really meaningless now?Someone wanted to stop James.Starr going, whether useful or not?To be more precise, could it be maliciously obstructing Simon.Ford's plan?

This is James.Starr thought of it after some deliberation.This contradiction between the two letters only aroused in him a stronger desire to go to the Dochart coal bunker.Besides, if only one of these is a hoax, it's best to check it out.But James.It seemed to Starr that the first letter should be believed more than the second letter, that is, trusting people like Simon.An invitation from someone like Ford, not this notice from his anonymous opponents. Indeed, since someone is trying to influence my decision, he thought, then Simon.This notice from Ford must have been extremely important!Tomorrow, I will go to the appointment according to the designated place and agreed time!

That night, James.Stahl had his travel supplies prepared for him.As he was likely to be away for several days, he wrote a letter giving advance notice of his inability to attend the next meeting of the Society, W.Sir Elphiston.He also turned down two or three things he might have been asked to do during the week.Then, after having ordered the servants to have a traveling bag ready, he went to bed, more excited than the event might have brought him. Next day, at five o'clock, James.Starr jumped out of bed, dressed warmly because of the cold rain and left his home in Cannon Gate to catch a steamboat at Granton Wharf, which would travel up the Worth River in three hours. sterling.

Probably the first time, James.Starr did not look back at Holy Cross, the palace of Scotland's ancient rulers, as he passed through Cannon Gate.He didn't look at the guards in front of the palace tunnel in ancient Scottish dress, green cloth petticoats, plaid kerchiefs, and long-haired goatskin bags hanging from their laps.Although he, like all true descendants of the old Caledonian Canal, is WalterScotus' ardent admirer, the engineer, as he had never forgotten to do it before, did not even look at the inn where Waverly was staying, where the tailor had sent him the famous, Bodflores The plaid suit that Widow Hart so naively admired.Nor did he salute the little square, where the mountain folk had risked hitting Flora Esper after the pretender's victory.mark.Ivo's dangerous shot.He looked at the jail clock, which had its broken face extending into the middle of the street, just to make sure that he had never missed the sailing time.It has to be admitted that at the corner of Nerho, his eyes did not sweep the great reformer John.Knox's house, he is Mary.Stuart was the only man who couldn't seduce with a smile.However, after walking from High Street to People's Street, which is so delicately described in the novel "The Abbess", he rushed towards the magnificent bridge connecting the three hills of Edinburgh on Long Street.

【Note】The main street and famous street of old Edinburgh. A few minutes later, James.Starr arrived at the mainline railway station, and in half an hour the train took him to Newport, a pretty fishing village a mile from Lane, the port of Edinburgh.The rising tide then flooded the dark, rocky beach again.The gratings were bathed in the foremost waves, a sort of chain-supported breakwater.On the left, one of the ships plying between Edinburgh and Stirling on the River Worth is moored at Granton Wharf. At this time, de.Black smoke billowed from the chimney of the Prince of Galle, and the ship's boiler made a dull sound.As the bell rang, it only struck a few times, and the late passengers hurried to run.Among those were merchants, peasants, ministers, easily recognizable by their shorts, long coats, and thin white ribbons round their necks.

James.Starr wasn't the last on board.He jumped briskly to De.On the deck of the Prince of Galle.Not one of the passengers thought of taking shelter in the saloon of the steamer, in spite of the heavy rain.All remained where they were, wrapped in their traveling clothes, and a few drank gin or whiskey from their bottles now and then to warm themselves, as they called body-dressing.At the last bell, the cable was let go, and De.The Prince of Galle shifted to get out of the small anchorage that sheltered her from the waves of the North Sea. The Firth of Worth, the name given to the bay dug between the Pfeiffer coast to the north and the Linlierg, Edinburgh and Haddingtonshire coasts to the south.It forms the little estuary of the Worth, a less important river, like the deep and swift Thames or the Merseyside, which flows from Ben.Down the slopes on the west side of Soft Dreams and drop into the sea at Kincardine.

The road from Granton Pier to the end of this bay is not long, and if you don't need to stop at different piers on both sides of the river, you don't have to make many detours.Cities, villages, and cottages unfold among the groves in the fertile fields on the banks of the Voss.James.Starr hid under the wide gangplank protruding from between the drum-shaped columns, not intending to see anything through the scenery streaked by thin raindrops.What he was more concerned about was whether he had attracted the special attention of a certain passenger.Indeed, the anonymous author of the second letter may have been on this boat.However, engineers were unable to spot any suspicious glances on the spot.

De.When the Prince of Galle left Granton Pier, the direction was towards the narrow strait sandwiched between the two ends of South︱Queen’s Ferry and North︱Queen’s Ferry. From the strait forward, the Worth River formed a passable Lakes for hundred-ton ships.During the brief clearing of the rainy day, the snow-covered summit of Grampian Peak was revealed in the distant clouds and mists. Soon, the steamboat was away from the countryside of Abdur, the island of Colm, on top of which were the remains of a twelfth century hermitage, the ruins of Pemburg Castle, followed by Donebri Sow, where the son-in-law of Murray the Regent was killed, and then the fortified isle of Kavi.The steamer passed the strait of Queen's Ferry, leaving Rosses Castle to its left, where a branch of the Stuarts, who were related to Cromwell's mother, had formerly lived, passed according to A clause of the Treaty of Confederation Always behind the fortified Castle Black, sailed along the docks of Charleston's Little Harbor from which the lime was shipped from Lord Alger's riding stables.Finally, De.The bell of the Prince of Galle reminds everyone of the arrival of Crombie Point Pier.

At that time, the weather was extremely bad, and the rain, under the blow of the strong wind, was smashed into mist by the roaring wind that swept like a tornado. James.Starr was a little worried.Simon.Will Ford's son come as promised?He knew from experience that miners, accustomed to the stillness of the coal mines, were not as ready to face such troublesome surroundings as workers and peasants.It was four miles from Callander to the Dochart Coal Bunker to Yale Mine.In a way, that was why the old foreman's son was late.However, what the engineer thought more about was that the appointment set in the first letter was canceled by the second letter. To be honest, this was his biggest worry.

Anyway, if Harry.Ford will pick up the station when the train arrives at Callander, James.Starr resolved to go alone to the Dochart Coal Bunker, or even straight to the Aberfoyle countryside if necessary.There, he is sure to get Simon.Ford, he will find out where the old foreman is currently living. At this time, de.Pushed by the blades, the Prince of Galle rolled up another huge wave.Nothing could be seen from either side of the river, neither Crombie's country, Toleburn.Torrey Building, New Mill, Caledon Building, Cork Farm, and the salt pond on the right bank.The little port of Bowness, Grange Mouth, dug at the mouth of the Creed Canal, was lost in the damp mist.The ruins of the ancient town of Carlos and its Cistercian Abbey, where the steamboat made a stopover, Kincardine and its building sites, the castle of Erte with its thirteenth-century square bell tower, Clackmaran and It's from Robert.The castle built by Bruce could not even be seen through the slanting rain.

De.The Prince of Galle docked at Alloa Pier and disembarked a few passengers.James.Stahl's heart clenched when he thought of approaching this small town after ten years away, which is an important coal mining base that raised many laborers.His imagination carried him here underground, where the pickaxes of the miners still yielded great profits, and these mines of Alloah, nearly adjoining those of Aberfoyle, continued to add wealth to the county, yet, Those seams adjacent to it have been hollowed out for many years without a single worker. After leaving Alloa, the steamer entered the depths of the many bends formed by the Worth for a stretch of nineteen miles.The boat sailed quickly between the big trees on both banks.For a moment, after a drive, the ruins of Cambuskini Abbey, built in the twelfth century, were revealed.Then came the Castle of Stirling and the eponymous Kingtown, where the two bridges crossed the River Worth, and the brig could not go any further. De.As soon as the Prince of Galle docked, the engineer jumped onto the pier briskly.Five minutes later he was at Stirling Station.An hour later, he got off the car at Kaland, a large village on the left bank of Taishi. There, a young man waited opposite the railway station, and he immediately greeted the engineer. He is Harry, Simon.Ford's son.