he passage.

If a cleft or side opening presented itself, he felt with his hand
that it was not the main way; either the cleft was too shallow, or the
opening too narrow, and he thus kept in the right road.

In darkness through which the eye could not in the slightest degree
pierce, this difficult return lasted two hours. By reckoning the time
since they started, taking into consideration that the walking had not
been rapid, Starr calculated that he and his companions were near the
opening. In fact, almost immediately, Harry stopped.

"Have we got to the end of the gallery?" asked Simon Ford.

"Yes," answered the young miner.

"Well! have you not found the hole which connects New Aberfoyle with the
Dochart pit?"

"No," replied Harry, whose impatient hands met with nothing but a solid
wall.

The old overman stepped forward, and himself felt the schistous rock. A
cry escaped him.

Either the explorers had strayed from the right path on their return,
or the narrow orifice, broken in the rock by the dynamite, had been
recently stopped up. James Starr and his companions were prisoners in
New Aberfoyle.

CHAPTER IX. THE FIRE-MAIDENS

A WEEK after the events just related had taken place, James Starr's
friends had become very anxious. The engineer had disappeared, and no
reason could be brought forward to explain his absence. They learnt, by
questioning his servant, that he had embarked at Granton Pier. But from
that time there were no traces of James Starr. Simon Ford's letter had
requested secrecy, and he had said nothing of his departure for the
Aberfoyle mines.

Therefore in Edinburgh nothing was talked of but the unaccountable
absence of the engineer. Sir W. Elphiston, the President of the Royal
Institution, communicated to his colleagues a letter which James Starr
had sent him, excusing himself from being present at the next meeting
of the society. Two or three others produced similar letters. But though
these documents proved that Starr had left Edinburgh--which was known
before--they threw no light on what had become of him. Now, on the part
of such a man, this prolonged absence, so contrary to his usual habits,
naturally first caused surprise, and then anxiety.

A notice was inserted in the principal newspapers of the United Kingdom
relative to the engineer James Starr, giving a description of him and
the date on which he left Edinburgh; nothing more could be done but to
wait. The time passed in g