Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Jack.credit to ryan

Jack.Ryan and three of his fellow wounded companions were carried to a room at Mellows Farm, where they were immediately and intensively treated. Jack.Ryan was the most seriously injured as he jumped into the ocean with a rope tied around his waist when rough waves slammed him onto the reef.In fact, he was almost dead when his companions brought him back to shore. The brave lad was therefore obliged to stay in bed for several days, which made him extremely irritable.But when he was allowed to sing as long as he liked, he held back the pain, and all day long the farm of Melos resounded with his merry, sonorous voice.However Jack.The only thing Ryan took away from this adventure was that he was more afraid of these ghosts and other goblins, who for their amusement made trouble with the poor world, and who were responsible for the disaster in Mortara.It's hard to make Jack.Ryan was convinced that the Lady of the Lighthouse didn't exist, and that the sudden flash of light among the ruins could only be attributed to some physical phenomenon.No reasoning could convince him.His companions were more stubborn in superstition than he was.According to them, one of the Lighthouse Ladies led Mortara to the coast with malice.As for if you want to punish it with this, you have to punish the storm in the same way!Judges can issue whatever warrants they deem fit.There's no way to imprison a ray of light and chain a fellow out of reach.And, if it must be said, future searches seem to justify this superstitious interpretation of things, at least superficially.

Sure enough, the judge in charge of the investigation into the crash of Mortara came to question the various witnesses to the disaster.All agreed that the shipwreck had been caused by the miraculous presence of Mrs. Lighthouse on the ruins of Castle Donald. As you can imagine, it is impossible for the courts to accept similar reasons for themselves.It is a purely physical phenomenon which arose on these ruins, and in this respect there can be no doubt.But was it accidental or malicious?This is what the judge must seek to prove. The word malice cannot be abused.No need to go back in history to find evidence from Amolek's history.On the coast of Brittany there are many thieves of unowned property who make a living of this, luring ships to the shore to divide up their relics.Sometimes a resinous clump is lit at night to lure a ship into certain channels from which it will never come out again.Sometimes a torch is tied to the horns of a bull, and the torch is allowed to walk freely with the animal, tricking a crew to follow it.These schemes resulted in the inevitable loss of the ship, and the looters profited from it.In order to destroy these barbarous customs, the intervention of the judiciary and severe vigilance had to be relied on.Could it be that this time, a criminal hand is re-emulating the ancient tradition of looting ship relics?

This is what the police consider, regardless of Jack.What is Ryan and his mates thinking.When the latter heard of the investigation, they divided into two factions, some merely shrugging their shoulders, while others, more timidly, declared that supernatural beings would be annoyed and new misfortunes would come. However, the investigation was done very carefully and the police went to Fort Donald where they conducted the most rigorous search ever. The first thing the judge wanted to find out was whether there were any footprints left on the ground that could be attributed to other feet than those of the goblins.There is no way to restore the shallowest of footprints, old or new.However, it had rained overnight and the ground was still quite wet, leaving few footprints.

Monster footprints!Jack.exclaimed Ryan, when he found that the initial search had turned up nothing, and it would be nice to find a house god's footprints on the swamp water! This first part of the investigation was therefore fruitless.There may not be much more to be gained in the second part, either. It concerns, indeed, how the fire was kindled on the top of the ancient tower, what matter provided the combustion, and, lastly, what remnants of this combustion left behind. On the first point, there was nothing, neither match stubs nor old scraps of paper with which to light any kind of flame.

Regarding the second point, there is also nothing.There was neither dead grass nor wood chips to be found, but the fire burned so vigorously at night that it had to be supplied with hay and wood chips in large quantities. As for the third point, no further clarification is possible.There was no ashes of any kind, no residue of fuel of any kind, not even the approximate location of the flames.Nowhere was it blackened, neither on the ground nor on the rocks.Should it be concluded from this that the flames were held by some criminal?This is beyond belief, for, according to witnesses, the flames spread so wide that the crew of the Mortara could be seen for miles out to sea through the fog.

good!Jack.Ryan exclaimed, Mrs. Lighthouse can do without matches!She blows, which is enough to set the air around her ablaze, and her fire never leaves ashes! From all this he concluded that the judges had wasted their labors in vain, and that a new legend would be added to so many others which would make the calamity of Mortara forever remembered and irreplaceable. Arguably reaffirming the apparition of Mrs. Lighthouse. However, Jack.Ryan was such a brave lad with such a strong physique that he couldn't have been bedridden for long.Some minor bruises and dislocations are also not suitable for bed rest.He has no time to be sick.And without the time of sickness, in these healthful parts of the lowlands people are seldom sick.

Jack.Ryan recovered quickly as a result.He had just gotten out of bed, and he wanted to put some plans into practice before returning to work at Melos Farm.This involves visiting his partner Harry to find out why the latter missed his appointment at the Irwin clan festival.For a man like Harry, who always walks the talk, this missed appointment was hard to explain.Besides, the old foreman's son hadn't heard that the newspapers had detailed the disaster at Motara in incredible detail.He should know Jack.Ryan's part in the rescue and what happened to him, on Harry's part, wouldn't have come to the farm to shake his friend Jack.Ryan's hand looked too cold.

If Harry didn't come, he couldn't come.Jack.Ryan would rather deny the existence of Mrs. Lighthouse than believe Harry's indifference to him. So, two days after the disaster, Jack.Ryan left the farm happily, like a solid young man who doesn't feel any pain at all.He sang a refrain so loudly that the cliffs echoed as he headed for the railway station via Glasgow to Stirling and Callander. There, as he waited in the railway station, his eye was first attracted by a placard plastered on the wall, which was copied in great numbers, which read as follows: On December 4 this year, James of Edinburgh.Engineer Stahl boarded De.Prince of Galle.He disembarked at Stirling that same day.Since then, there has been no further news from him.

Any information concerning him is kindly requested to be directed to the President of the Royal Society in Edinburgh. Jack.Ryan stopped in front of such a notice and read it twice, showing a look of extreme surprise. Mr Starr!is it him?But I happened to meet him with Harry on the ladder in Yale Mine on the 4th of December!It's been ten days since we met!However, since then, he has not shown up again!Could this explain my partner's future festival in Irving? Therefore, he did not take the time to write to the President of the Royal Society to report what he wanted to know about James.Starr's news, the brave boy jumped on the train, determined to go to Yale mine first.Once there, if necessary, he would go straight down the Dorchard Coal Shaft to find Harry, and with him the engineer James.Starr.

Three hours later, he got off the train at Callander Station and hurried to Yale Mine. They didn't show up again, he thought to himself, why?Is some obstruction holding them back?Is something important enough to keep them in the coal mine?I will figure it out! So Jack.Ryan picked up the pace and was at Yale Mine in less than an hour. From the outside, nothing has changed.Including the silence around the coal bunker.There is not a living thing in this barren place. Jack.Ryan walked through the collapsed lean-to roof covering the wellhead.He looked into the shaft hole and saw nothing.He listened with his ears and heard nothing.

Where's my lamp!He cried out, why are you not in the old place? Jack.The lamp Ryan used on his rounds of coal bunkers was usually kept in a corner, near the landing of the ladder above. The lamp is gone. So intricate in the first place!Jack.Ryan thought, starting to get very restless. Then, without hesitation, although he was very superstitious. I'm going, he said, even though the coal bunker is darker than the deepest part of hell! So he began to descend a long chain of ladders that disappeared into the shadowy mineshaft. Take that risk, Jack.Ryan must have lost none of his former miner experience and is intimately familiar with the Dochart coal bunkers.Besides, he was walking down cautiously.He probed each step with his foot, some of which were already eaten away by worms.In this empty space of fifteen hundred feet, any slip of the foot would be fatal.Jack.Ryan thus counted the platforms he kept leaving in order to reach the lower level.He knew he had to cross the thirtieth platform before his feet could reach the sill of the coal bunker.Once there, he thought, he would be free to find the cottage, which, as you all know, was built at the end of Main Lane. Jack.In this way Ryan descended to platform twenty-six, so he was no more than two hundred feet from the bottom of the well. Here he lowered his legs to find the first rung of the twenty-seventh ladder.But his legs dangled in the air but couldn't touch any foothold. Jack.Ryan knelt down on the platform.He tried to grab the top of the ladder with his hands in vain. Obviously.The twenty-seventh ladder was not in place, that is, it had been withdrawn. Old Nick must have passed by!he thought, feeling a kind of fear. Jack stood up, arms folded, still hoping to break through the impenetrable darkness, and he waited.Then it occurred to him that if he couldn't get down, the people who lived in the mines couldn't come up either.In fact, there is no longer any passage between the surface of the county and the depths of the coal bunker.If those ladders under Yale Mine had been taken away after his last visit to the cottage, Simon.What would become of Ford, his wife, his son and the engineer?Obviously, James.Starr's continued disappearance proved that since that day Jack.He hadn't left the coal bunker since Ryan met him in the Yale Mine.How has the cottage been maintained since then?Are these poor souls imprisoned fifteen hundred feet underground, not short of the necessities of life? All these thoughts passed Jack.Ryan's mind.He knew very well that he would never reach the cottage by himself.Cut off the passage, is this malicious?He didn't find it suspicious.The judges will see anyway, but they must be notified as soon as possible. Jack.Ryan leaned over the platform. Harry!Harry!He yelled loudly. Harry's name echoed several times before finally disappearing in the deepest part of Yale Mine. Jack.Ryan hurried back up the ladder above, and he saw sunlight again.He doesn't delay a moment.Without pausing he returned to Carrandon Station again.He had only to wait a few minutes for the express train to Edinburgh.So, at three o'clock in the afternoon, he visited the Chancellor's house. There, he was briefed.The exact details he provided make its authenticity beyond doubt.President of the Royal Society W.Sir Elphiston is not only James.A colleague of Starr's and a personal friend at that, he was immediately notified and asked to lead the imminent search of the Dochart coal bunker.A few policemen were sent under him, and they were equipped with lights.Pickaxes, long rope ladders, and daily necessities and blood-activating medicines were not forgotten.Then, in Jack.Under the leadership of Ryan, all the people rushed to the coal mine of Aberfoyle. That night, W.Sir Elphiston, Jack.Ryan and the police arrived at the mouth of the Yale Mine, and they went down to platform twenty-seven, a few hours before Jack.It was on this platform that Ryan stopped. They tied the lamp to the end of a long rope and lowered it deep into the mine, when the last four ladders could be seen missing. There is no doubt that the entire internal and external passages of the Dochart coal bunker were deliberately cut off. What are we waiting for, sir?Jack.Ryan asked impatiently. We'll wait for these lights to come back up again, my boy, W.replied Sir Elphiston, and then, as we descend to the ground of the last bungalow, you will take us Go to the cottage, Jack.cried Ryan, down to the deepest abyss of the coal bunker, if necessary! As soon as the lights were pulled up, the police fastened the rope ladder to the platform, and the rope ladder spread out in the mine.The same goes for the following platforms.It is possible to drop from one platform to another. There is no difficulty in doing so.Jack.Ryan was the first to hang from these quivering ladders!Moreover, the first to reach the mine shaft. W．Sir Effiston and the police soon joined him. The circular clearing formed under the Yale Mine was desolate, but W.Sir Elphiston was not without surprise to hear Jack.Ryan exclaimed: Here are some ladders, half burnt pieces! burn it! W．Ser Elphiston repeated, sure enough, those were long-cooled ashes! Do you think, sir, Jack.Ryan asked, James.Stahl engineers interested in burning these ladders and cutting off communication with the outside? No, W.answered Sir Elphiston, still pensive, "Go, lad, to the Cottage!"There we will know the truth. Jack.Ryan shook his head incredulously.But he took a lamp from the policeman and walked quickly down the main lane of Dochart's coal bunker. Everyone followed behind him. A quarter of an hour later, W.Sir Elphiston and his companions went to the hole, and in the innermost part built Simon.Ford's cottage.There was no light in the cottage windows. Jack.Ryan hurried to the door and pushed it open hard. The cottage was empty. They examine the rooms of the gloomy dwelling.There was no trace of violence in the room.Everything was in order, as if old Madge was still there.The stockpile of necessities is even plentiful enough to feed the Ford family for days. The disappearance of the owner of the cottage is therefore inexplicable.But is there any sure way of finding out when they left the cottage?Yes, because in this place where there is no distinction between night and day, Ma Deqi is used to marking each day on the calendar with a cross. The calendar hangs on the living room wall.And the last cross was drawn on December 6th, which means that James.On the second day of Starr's arrival, Jack.Ryan could tell. Therefore, it turns out that Simon.Ford, his wife, his son, and his guests had left the cottage since December 6th, that is, ten days ago. Could a new survey of the coal bunker, undertaken by the engineer, justify so long a disappearance?Obviously not. W．Sir Elphiston thought so at least.After examining the cottage carefully, he was at a loss as to what to do. Total darkness.The flickering light in the policeman's hand could only carve out streaks of light in the impenetrable darkness. Suddenly, Jack.Ryan let out a cry. there!there!He said. His finger points to a stronger light that flickers in the darkness beyond the alley. Friends, go after the light! W．Ser Elphiston answered. This is a will-o'-the-wisp!Jack.Ryan exclaimed, what's the use?We can never catch up with it. The president of the Royal Society and the policemen, not too superstitious, rushed in the direction of the moving light.Jack.Ryan bravely joined the chase and did not fall last. It was a long and tiring chase.The glowing lantern appears to be carried by a small but extremely nimble figure.Each time, in an instant, the man disappeared behind a certain embankment, and then he was seen again in the depths of a horizontal alley.A quick sharp turn took him out of sight again.He seemed to have vanished at last, but suddenly the light of his lantern blazed brightly again.Anyway, it's hard to beat him, Jack.Ryan insisted that he was not without reason. During an hour of this pointless chase, W.Sir Elphiston and his companions penetrated deep into the southwestern section of Dochart's coal bunkers.They, too, are finally wondering if they're dealing with some elusive house god. However, at this moment, the distance between the house god and the people trying to catch up with him seemed to shrink.Was it because this unknown person who was running away was tired, or was this person trying to take W.Sir Elphiston and his companions led to where perhaps the inhabitants of those cottages were also led?This question is not easy to answer. Nevertheless, seeing the distance shortened, the police stepped up their efforts.The light had been shining more than two hundred steps ahead of them, but now it was less than fifty steps away.The gap is still shrinking.People with wind lanterns are now more visible.A few times, when he looked back, he could vaguely make out the profile of a human face, and at least a goblin would not have such a face, Jack.Ryan had to admit it had nothing to do with a supernatural being. So, he speeded up his running: Come on, friends!he cried, he was tired!We'll catch up to him in no time, and if he talks as well as he escapes, he'll be able to tell us a lot! However, at this point the chase becomes more difficult.Indeed, in the middle of the deepest part of the bunker, narrow tunnels criss-cross like the paths of a labyrinth.In this labyrinth, a person with a lantern can easily outrun the police.He had only to turn off his lamp and rush into the depths of some dark sanctuary beyond. However, on this point, W.Sir Elphiston thought, if he wants to get rid of us, why doesn't he do it? The elusive fellow had not done so until then, but just as the thought crossed W.As Sir Elphiston thought, the lights went out suddenly, and almost at once the policemen who continued to pursue came to a narrow opening in the middle of the slate.At the end of a narrow tunnel. Going through the tunnel, relighting their lamps, and going through the hole that opened to them, the pair of W.Sir Elphiston, Jack.For Ryan and their partners, it was just a matter of moments. But before they had walked a hundred paces, they entered a new alley, wider and higher, and they stopped suddenly. There, near the rock face, lay four bodies, perhaps four corpses! James.Starr! W．said Sir Elphiston. Harry!Harry!Jack.Ryan yelped, jumping on top of his friend. Indeed, this is the engineer, Madge, Simon and Harry.Ford, they lay there motionless. But at this moment, one of these bodies stood upright, and the old Ma Deqi murmured these words in a debilitated voice: water!Water, water first! W．Sir Elphiston, Jack.Ryan and the cops tried to bring the Engineer and his buddies back to consciousness, making them swallow a few drops of the blood-boosting potion.The medicine worked on them almost immediately.These wretched souls were starving to death after ten days in New Aberfoyle. However, the reason why they did not die James during such a long period of imprisonment.Starr told W.Sir Elphiston that's because three times they found a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water beside them!Needless to say, the savior who kept them alive couldn't have done more! W．Sir Elphiston wondered if this was the very moment that had just led them to James.The work of that house god where Starr and his companions lay. Anyway, the engineer, Madge, Simon and Harry.Ford was rescued.They passed by the man with the lantern again and seemed to be pointing to W.Sir Elphiston's narrow exit led back to the cottage. And James.The reason why Starr and his companions were unable to find the exit of the alley opened by the dynamite was because the exit was firmly blocked by overlapping rocks, so that in the darkness they both It cannot be identified, nor can it be removed. So, while they were exploring the vast dungeon, all the passages linking old and new Aberfoyle were deliberately closed by a hostile hand!