being found still alive in the mine!"

"Rubbish, no!" broke in the obstinate fellow. "I won't have that said,
when it's no such thing. I hurried to find out what had become of you,
Harry, that's all. But to give everyone his due, I will add that without
that unapproachable goblin--"

"Ah, there we are!" cried Ford. "A goblin!"

"A goblin, a brownie, a fairy's child," repeated Jack Ryan, "a cousin of
the Fire-Maidens, an Urisk, whatever you like! It's not the less certain
that without it we should never have found our way into the gallery,
from which you could not get out."

"No doubt, Jack," answered Harry. "It remains to be seen whether this
being was as supernatural as you choose to believe."

"Supernatural!" exclaimed Ryan. "But it was as supernatural as a
Will-o'-the-Wisp, who may be seen skipping along with his lantern in
his hand; you may try to catch him, but he escapes like a fairy, and
vanishes like a shadow! Don't be uneasy, Harry, we shall see it again
some day or other!"

"Well, Jack," said Simon Ford, "Will-o'-the-Wisp or not, we shall try to
find it, and you must help us."

"You'll get into a scrap if you don't take care, Mr. Ford!" responded
Jack Ryan.

"We'll see about that, Jack!"

We may easily imagine how soon this domain of New Aberfoyle became
familiar to all the members of the Ford family, but more particularly to
Harry. He learnt to know all its most secret ins and outs. He could even
say what point of the surface corresponded with what point of the mine.
He knew that above this seam lay the Firth of Clyde, that there extended
Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Those columns supported a spur of the
Grampian mountains. This vault served as a basement to Dumbarton. Above
this large pond passed the Balloch railway. Here ended the Scottish
coast. There began the sea, the tumult of which could be distinctly
heard during the equinoctial gales. Harry would have been a first-rate
guide to these natural catacombs, and all that Alpine guides do on
their snowy peaks in daylight he could have done in the dark mine by the
wonderful power of instinct.

He loved New Aberfoyle. Many times, with his lamp stuck in his hat,
did he penetrate its furthest depths. He explored its ponds in a
skillfully-managed canoe. He even went shooting, for numerous birds had
been introduced into the crypt--pintails, snipes, ducks, who fed on the
fish which swarmed in the deep waters. Harry's eyes seemed made for
the dark, j