Chapter 15 Chapter Fifteen Nell at the Cottage

Two hours later, Harry, who had not immediately regained consciousness, and the dying child, were in Jack.With the help of Ryan and his buddies to the cottage. There, the incidents were told to the old foreman, while Madge took care of the poor creature her son had just rescued. Harry had thought it was a child he had brought out of the abyss. It was a girl, fifteen or sixteen at the most.Her eyes were blurred and filled with fear.Her thin face, drawn out by misery, the color of her golden-haired face which never seemed to have been bathed in light, her thin and small figure, all this made the person strange and charming. .Jack.Ryan compares her to an elf with a somewhat supernatural appearance, and not for nothing.Because of the circumstances, the girl may have lived in an anomalous center until then, and she appeared to be only half human.Her facial expression is peculiar.Her eyes, tired from the light of the cottage, stared blankly, and everything seemed new to her.

To this strange being, who was then lying on Madge's bed, as if coming back to life from a long sleep, the old Scotch lady addressed her first. May I have your name?she asked her. Neil [Note], the girl replied. [Note] Nell is an abbreviation of Elena. Nell, continued Madge, are you unwell? I'm hungry, Nell answered, I haven't eaten, since From the few words she said, Nell was not used to speaking, and the language she used was that old Gay whisper, Simon.The kind of language that Ford and his family used often. In response to the girl, Ma Deqi immediately brought her some food.Nell was starving to death.How long had she been at the bottom of this well?No one can tell.

How many days have you been there, girl?Madge asked. Nell didn't answer.She didn't seem to understand the question being asked of her. how many days?Madge asked again. sky?Nell replied that the word didn't seem to mean anything to her. Then she shook her head like someone who doesn't understand the question. Madge took Neil's hand and caressed it, expressing her complete trust in her. How old are you, girl?she asked, looking at her kindly and reassuringly. Nell gave the same negative signal. Yes, yes, Madge went on, how many years? Year?Nell replied. The word, to a young girl, has no more meaning than the word sky.

Simon.Ford, Harry, Jack.Ryan and his mates looked at her with pity and sympathy.The condition of the poor fellow, in his ragged coarse coat, was almost that of a prisoner. Harry, more than anyone else, felt irresistibly drawn to Nell's strangeness itself. He now stepped forward.He picked up her hand that Ma Deqi had just put down.He looked closely at Nell face to face, and a smile began to form on her lips, and he said to her: Are you alone in the coal mine over there Nell? one person!one person!The girl stood up and cried out. At this time, her facial expression showed terror.Her eyes, softened just now under the young man's gaze, became wild again.

one person!one person!As she repeated, she fell back on Madge's bed as if she had been exhausted. The poor child was still too weak to answer our words, said Madge, after re-laying the girl, that a few hours of rest and a good meal would restore her strength.Come on, Simon!Come on, Harry!Come here, friends, let her sleep! Under Madge's arrangement, Nell was left alone, and it was certain that she would fall into a deep sleep before long. The incident was not without a stir, not only in the coal mines, but in Stirlingshire, and, shortly afterwards, throughout the United Kingdom.Nell's strange reputation thus expanded.It is thought that a maiden shut up in the shale, like a man antediluvian in Noah's day, was freed from the gangue of the shale with a single pickaxe, and so the matter received no more brilliance.

Unbeknownst to Nell, she has become very fashionable.In her the superstitious found a new subject for their legends.They like to imagine Nell as the elf of New Aberfoyle, when Jack.When Ryan told this to his friend Harry: Well, replied the young man, in conclusion.That's right, Jack!Anyway, this is a kind elf!He who saved us, brought us bread and water, when we were imprisoned in the coal mines!That could only be him!As for that bad elf, if he's still in the mine, we're supposed to find him someday! As you might expect, engineer James J.Starr was the first to be informed of the incident.

The young girl, who had regained her strength the next day at the cottage, was questioned by him with great concern.He felt she didn't know most things in life.But she was very clever, and everyone soon found out.However, she lacks certain basic concepts: the concept of time is one of them.It was found that she was not used to dividing time into hours and days, the words themselves were foreign to her.Besides, her eyes, accustomed to the night, were not at ease with the light of the electric pan.In the dark, however, her vision has a remarkable acuity, and her pupils are dilated so that she can see in total darkness.It was also true that her brain never made impressions of the outside world, her field of vision was only the size of a coal mine, and for her the whole of humanity was contained in this dungeon.Poor girl, does she know that there is a sun and stars, cities and villages, and a universe in which all things gather?One has to wonder, then, whether she can pack a definite meaning into her head when she doesn't yet know certain words.

As for finding out if Nell lived alone in the depths of New Aberfoyle, James.Starr had to give up answering this question.Indeed, every hint of the subject excites terror in this peculiar nature.Either Nell couldn't, or she didn't want to answer.But, sure, there was some secret there that she could reveal. Do you want to stay with us?Do you want to go back to where you were before?James.Starr asked her.To the first of these two questions: Ah, yes!said the girl.To the second question she answered with a horrified cry, but that was all. In the face of this stubborn silence, James.Stahl, and Simon and Harry with him.Ford couldn't help feeling a certain apprehension.They could not forget the inexplicable events that accompanied the discovery of the coal mines.However, despite the absence of any new incidents for three years, they had been waiting for some new attack from their invisible enemy.They also want to explore the mysterious well.They went, well armed, and with many men.But they found no suspicious traces.That well communicates with the lower levels of the dungeon dug out of the carbonite layer.

James.Starr, Simon and Harry talked about these things a lot.Is there one or more bad guys hiding in the coal mine, are they setting some kind of trap.Maybe Nell could say it, but she wouldn't.The slightest hint of a girl's past would cause panic, and it seemed better not to force it.Over time, her secrets will no doubt be revealed. During Nell's arrival at the cottage for a fortnight she became old man Madge's most astute and most industrious helper.Evidently, never to leave the home that had so kindly received her seemed to her so natural that it probably did not even occur to her that she might live elsewhere in the future.The Fords were enough for her, not to mention, in the minds of these good people, she was their adopted child from the moment Nell entered the cottage.

Indeed, Nell is lovely.Her new life has made her beautiful.There was no doubt that for the first time in her life she was living a good life.Her heart was filled with gratitude to those who had done her a favor.Madge developed a thoroughly maternal sympathy for Nell, and the old foreman soon became infatuated with it.Besides, everyone loves her.friend jackRyan regrets only one thing: that he didn't save her himself.He often comes to the cottage.He sang, and Nell, who had never heard it sang, thought it was beautiful.But it can be seen that the young girl liked Harry's more serious talk more than Jack.Ryan's song, and he taught her little by little things about the outside world that she didn't know yet.

It should be said that since Nell appeared in a natural image, Jack.Ryan found himself having to admit that his faith in goblins had waned somewhat.Moreover, two months later, his superstition was dealt a fresh blow. It is true that around that time Harry made a rather unexpected discovery, but one that partly explains the appearance of the Lighthouse Lady on the ruins of Castle Donald in Irving. One day, after a long exploration in the southern part of the mine, which had lasted for several days, through the last passages of the vast subterranean structure, Harry trudged up a narrow passage which was Openworked in the spacing of the slate.Suddenly, to his astonishment, he was out in the open.The alley, after climbing crookedly up to the ground, ended in the ruins of Castle Donald.Thus there is a secret passage between New Aberfoyle and the castle-covered hills.It was impossible to see the exit above this passageway from the outside, because it was so tightly blocked by stones and thorns.Therefore, it is impossible for the judges to go inside during the investigation. A few days later, James.Under the leadership of Harry, Stahl came to inspect the natural layout of the coal deposit in person. This, he said, would serve to convince the superstitious people in the mine.Farewell, those goblins and goblins and Mrs. Lighthouse! I don't think, Mr Starr, replied Harry, that we have reason to be thankful for that!Their successors will be no better and probably worse, for sure! Indeed, Harry, continued the engineer, but what to do in this matter?Obviously, no matter what kind of people are hiding in the mine, they are connected to the ground through this alley.Doubtless it was they who, torches in hand, lured Mortara to the shore that stormy night; Jack.Ryan and his pals aren't there!Whatever the reason, in short, everything is explained clearly.The exit to the lair is there!As for the people who lived there, I don't know if they still live there now. Still there, because Nell shuddered to hear it said to her!Harry replied confidently, yes, because Nell was unwilling or afraid to speak about it! Harry may be right.If the mysterious guest at the coal mine had left there, or died.What reason does a young girl have for keeping silent? However, James.Starr was adamant about getting to the bottom of the secret.He had a hunch that future new digs might depend on this.The strictest precautions are therefore resumed.Notified the judge.Police secretly occupy the ruins of Donald's Castle.Harry himself lay in ambush for several nights among the brambles that densely covered that hill.Nothing was found.No one emerged through that exit. It was quickly concluded that the rascals might have left New Aberfoyle at last, and, as for Nell, they might have thought she had died down the well of the well they had abandoned her in.Before mining, coal mines may have provided them with a reliable refuge from all searches.However, since then, the environment has never been the same.It becomes difficult to hide the nest.So there is reason to hope that the future will no longer be alarming.However, James.Stahl wasn't entirely reassured, and Harry, too, couldn't budge, so he kept repeating: Nell had apparently been involved in the whole mystery.If she had nothing to be afraid of, why was she keeping silent?There is no need to doubt whether she is happy with us?She loves each of us!She adores my mother!There is something terrible in her keeping silent about her past, about things that would take our worry away from the future!The secret that her consciousness forbids her to reveal weighs on her heart!Or, more for our benefit than hers, she thought it right to shut herself up in this inexplicable silence! After various considerations, it was agreed that it would be expedient to avoid all conversation which might recall the young girl's past. However, one day, Harry had to teach Nell to know James.Things Starr, his father, his mother, and himself thought she should know. It was a holiday.Doesn't work as well underground as it does above ground in Stirlingshire.There are not many people walking.Under the acoustically sound vaults of New Aberfoyle, there are twenty places singing. Harry and Nell left the cottage and walked slowly along the left bank of Lake Malcolm.There the electric light cast not very strong, and the beams broke into various shapes at the corners of the picturesque cliffs that supported the dome.This kind of half-darkness was better suited to Nell's eyes, which were terribly ill-adapted to light. After walking for an hour, Harry and his companions stopped in front of the chapel of St. Giles, which was built on a natural platform overlooking the lake. Your eyes, Nell, aren't used to the sun yet, said Harry, and sure, they can't stand the sun's rays. "No, no doubt," replied the maiden, if the sun was as you pictured me, Harry. Nell, went on Harry, when I tell you I cannot give you an exact idea of ​​the splendor and beauty of this universe that your eyes have never seen but, tell me, from your birth deep in the coal mines Since that day, you have never been on the ground, is it possible? Never, Harry, replied Nell, and I don't think a father or a mother ever carried me outside, even as a child.I will definitely keep a little memory of the outside! I believe that, replied Harry, and besides, at that time, Nell, there were a lot of other people like you who never left the mine.It's hard to get out there, and I know more than one lad or girl who at your age doesn't know everything on the ground that you don't!But now, in a matter of minutes, the great tunnel of railways can bring us to the ground in the county.I am therefore anxious, Nell, to hear you say to me: Come, Harry, my eyes can bear the sun, and I would like to see the sun!I would like to see God's masterpiece! I'll tell you, Harry, replied the girl, not long, I hope.I'll go with you to appreciate the outside world, but What are you trying to say, Nell?Harry asked hastily, do you regret leaving that dark abyss where you spent the first years of your life and were almost dead when we brought you out of it? No, Harry, said Nell, I just think that darkness is beautiful too.If only you could learn to see everything in it with eyes accustomed to the darkest!There is a passing shadow that everyone likes to fly with them!Sometimes, it is some circles intertwined in front of the eyes that make people no longer want to come out of it!Underneath the shaft of the coal mine, there are three black holes filled with dim light.Besides, some voices can be heard talking to you!See, Harry, you have to have lived there to understand what I feel, what I can't express to you! Aren't you afraid, Neil, when you're alone? Harry, answered the young girl, the only time I'm not afraid is when I'm alone. Nell's voice changed a little as she said this, but Harry thought she should be pressed a little, so he said: But you'll get lost in these long alleys, Nell, aren't you afraid of getting lost there? no harry.I've known all the turns in the new coal mines for a long time! Do you not go out there occasionally? Yes, occasionally the girl hesitated to answer, and occasionally, I came all the way to the old mines at Aberfoyle. Then you recognize the old cottage? Cottages Yes, but only seen from afar, those who live in cottages! That's my father and my mother, Harry replied, that's me!We never want to give up our old home! It may be more beneficial to you there!The girl whispered. But why, Nell?Is it because our obstinate refusal to leave there has led us to discover new deposits?And this discovery has brought happiness to a whole group of people who have worked their way up here to be well-to-do, and to you, Nell, you who have gained life.Discover something totally yours! for me!Neil hurriedly replied, yes!No matter what happens!Who knows about others? What do you want to say? nothing nothing!But there was danger sneaking in.At that time, in the new coal mine!Yes!Great danger!Harry!One day, some unwary people entered those abysses.They go far, far, far!they lost their way lost way?Harry asked, looking at Nell. Yes lost, replied Nel, with a trembling voice, and their lights went out!they can't find their way So there, cried Harry, eight long days in captivity, Nell, they were on the verge of death!If God had not sent them a rescuer, perhaps an angel, who quietly brought them a little food, if not for a mysterious guide, who, after this, led their rescuer to them , they will never get out of that tomb! But how did you know this?asked the young girl. Because of those people, that's James.Starr that's my father that's me, Nell! Nell raised her head and seized the young man's hand, and she looked at him so intently that the latter felt self-conscious from the bottom of his heart. you!The girl said it again. Yes!Harry replied, and there was a moment of silence, but the one who saved our lives, was you!Neil!That could only be you! Nell buried her head in her hands.No answer.Harry had never seen her so moved before. Those who saved you, Nell, he added in an excited voice, have been saved by you, and you think they might forget?