Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

Living in such an environment, the most precious wishes are fulfilled, Simon.The Ford family is very happy.However, it can be seen that Harry, who 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 in 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!Jack.Ryan exclaimed, so eager to see us!Let's go, my friend!Dispel your melancholy thoughts a little and do the better for our place!You'd make all those above think that someone might be envious of their lot! Jack, replied Harry, leave me alone!You are happy when two people are happy, that's enough! Let the devil take me away!Jack.Ryan quickly retorted, if your blues don't end up infecting me!My eyes are becoming cloudy, my mouth is tightening, the laughter remains deep in my throat, and the songs in my memory are leaving me!Come on, Harry, what's the matter with you?

You know, Jack. Always that thought? always. ah!My poor Harry!Jack.Ryan shrugged and replied, If, like me, you put all this on the account of the goblin in the mine, you'll have peace of mind! 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 appear any more, I think even less will those people to whom you want to attribute all these extraordinary events! I'll find them, Jack! ah!Harry!Harry!The elves of New Aberfoyle are not easy to spot!

I will find them, those elves you call!Harry continued in a confident tone. So you want punishment? Punish 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! well!Harry!Jack.Ryan replied, are you absolutely sure that the two hands don't belong to the same body? why, jack?How can you have such an idea? Of course you know Harry!Those who live in the abyss don't look like us! They look just like us, Jack! Oh no!Harry stopped talking, can you imagine some crazy person got in? A madman!Harry replied, 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, no malicious behavior has happened again, neither to you nor to your family! What's that, Jack, replied Harry, and I have a hunch the bad guy, whoever he is, hasn't given up on his plans.Why should I say that to you? I can't say.Also, Jack, for the benefit of the new ground, I want to find out who he is and where he comes from. For the benefit of the newly mined land?Jack.Ryan asked, rather surprised. "Yes, Jack," went on 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 think about this question a lot, and I don't believe I could be wrong.You think back to this series of inexplicable events, all of which are logically connected together.That anonymous letter, contrary to my father's, at first proved that there was a man who knew of our plan and wished to prevent it from being carried out.Mr Starr came to see us at the Dochart Coal Bunker.No sooner had I taken him into the mine than a boulder was thrown at us, and immediately broke the ladder in the Yale Mine to cut off all access.Our exploration begins.An experiment that might have revealed the presence of new deposits was prevented because the cracks in the slate were blocked.Despite this, verification was made, and veins were discovered.We come back the way we came.There was a strong draft in the air.Our lights broke.It was pitch black all around us.But we can still walk along the dark alley and can't find the exit to go out.The exit is blocked.We are imprisoned.Well, Jack, don't you see an evil thought in all this?Yes, there is a man hiding in the coal mines who has never been caught, but not supernatural, as you stubbornly think.He tried to prevent us from entering the coal mine, from a motive that I could not understand.He had been there some premonition told me he was still there, and who knows if he might be preparing some terrible blow!Well, Jack, if I have to risk my life, I will find him!

Harry spoke with such confidence that his friend was deeply moved. Jack.Ryan felt 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 had 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?

Jack, replied Harry, interrupting him, the savior you are going to describe as a supernatural being is as real as the villain just mentioned, and I have both of them. To find, go to the farthest and deepest place in the coal mine. But what signs do you have that can point you to look for?Jack.Ryan asked. Possibly, answered Harry, and you see, five miles west of New Aberfoyle, beneath the basement that holds Loch Romney, there's a cenote vertically submerged in the belly of the seam itself.Eight days ago, I wanted to test its depth.However, when I lowered the sounder, as I was leaning over the head of the well, I felt the air heaving in it, as if violently flapped by wings.

That's some stray bird that got into the drift below the coal mine, Jack answered. And that's not all, Jack, went on Harry, just this morning I was back at the well and there, listening, I believe I heard something like a groan A moan!exclaimed Jack, you heard me wrong, Harry!That's the air being pushed if it wasn't a goblin Tomorrow, Jack, Harry went on, I'll know what to do about it. tomorrow?asked Jack, looking at his friend. right!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 get down.Tomorrow, the two of us will go to that well with some friends.Take a long rope to which I will tie myself and you will promise to put me down and pull me up with a suitable signal Can I trust you.Jack?

Harry, Jack.Ryan shook his head and replied, I will do what you ask, but, let me tell you again, you are wrong. It's better to be wrong than regret not doing a good job, Harry said firmly, okay, tomorrow morning, at six o'clock, quietly!Goodbye, Jack! So, in order not to let Jack.Ryan was still trying to stop his plan from going on, and Harry left his friend abruptly 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, Jack.Why, Ryan wondered, had he asked himself so much to explain a chain of events that could so easily be explained by the supernatural intervention of the spirits of the mine? No matter what he thought, the next day, Jack.Ryan and three miners from his team accompanied Harry to the head of the suspected well. Harry said nothing about his plan, neither told James.Starr, also did not tell the old foreman.Jack.Ryan's side was also cautious and didn't say anything.When other miners saw them set off, they thought it was just a simple survey along the vertical section of the ore seam.

Harry had brought a long rope, two hundred 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 was quite wide, twelve feet in diameter at the head.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 the 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. The walls of these wells are made of flaky coal and are too slippery to climb on. Harry calculated that he was sliding at a moderate speed at about a foot a second.He can thus see clearly and be prepared for all events. Two minutes later, that is to say, at a depth of about one hundred and twenty feet, nothing happened during the descent.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 bottom of the well 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 one hundred and forty-eight feet, Harry felt the ground below as the rope slackened and stopped 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 cried out. 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 cord that was 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 a 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. Eighty feet remained 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 just as the rope was about to break, he grabbed the upper half of the rope with his right hand with superhuman strength.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. However, Jack.Ryan and his mates, overstimulated by Harry's yelling, pulled even 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, 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.