ck to the cottage! I want this
first piece of coal to burn under our kettle."

"Well said, wife!" answered the old overman, "and you shall see that I
am not mistaken."

"Mr. Starr," asked Harry, "have you any idea of the probable direction
of this long passage which we have been following since our entrance
into the new mine?"

"No, my lad," replied the engineer; "with a compass I could perhaps find
out its general bearing; but without a compass I am here like a sailor
in open sea, in the midst of fogs, when there is no sun by which to
calculate his position."

"No doubt, Mr. Starr," replied Ford; "but pray don't compare our
position with that of the sailor, who has everywhere and always an abyss
under his feet! We are on firm ground here, and need never be afraid of
foundering."

"I won't tease you, then, old Simon," answered James Starr. "Far be it
from me even in jest to depreciate the New Aberfoyle mine by an unjust
comparison! I only meant to say one thing, and that is that we don't
know where we are."

"We are in the subsoil of the county of Stirling, Mr. Starr," replied
Simon Ford; "and that I assert as if--"

"Listen!" said Harry, interrupting the old man. All listened, as the
young miner was doing. His ears, which were very sharp, had caught
a dull sound, like a distant murmur. His companions were not long in
hearing it themselves. It was above their heads, a sort of rolling
sound, in which though it was so feeble, the successive CRESCENDO and
DIMINUENDO could be distinctly heard.

All four stood for some minutes, their ears on the stretch, without
uttering a word. All at once Simon Ford exclaimed, "Well, I declare! Are
trucks already running on the rails of New Aberfoyle?"

"Father," replied Harry, "it sounds to me just like the noise made by
waves rolling on the sea shore."

"We can't be under the sea though!" cried the old overman.

"No," said the engineer, "but it is not impossible that we should be
under Loch Katrine."

"The roof cannot have much thickness just here, if the noise of the
water is perceptible."

"Very little indeed," answered James Starr, "and that is the reason this
cavern is so huge."

"You must be right, Mr. Starr," said Harry.

"Besides, the weather is so bad outside," resumed Starr, "that the
waters of the loch must be as rough as those of the Firth of Forth."

"Well! what does it matter after all?" returned Simon Ford; "the seam
won't be any the worse because it