down in the refuge
places. Lifts went incessantly up and down, worked by powerful engines
on the surface of the soil. Coal Town was throughout brilliantly lighted
by the electric lamps at full power.

Mining operations were being carried on with the greatest activity; coal
was being piled incessantly into the trucks, which went in hundreds
to empty themselves into the corves at the bottom of the shaft. While
parties of miners who had labored during the night were taking needful
rest, the others worked without wasting an hour.

Old Simon Ford and Madge, having finished their dinner, were resting at
the door of their cottage. Simon smoked a good pipe of tobacco, and from
time to time the old couple spoke of Nell, of their boy, of Mr. Starr,
and wondered how they liked their trip to the surface of the earth.
Where would they be now? What would they be doing? How could they stay
so long away from the mine without feeling homesick?

Just then a terrific roaring noise was heard. It was like the sound of a
mighty cataract rushing down into the mine. The old people rose hastily.
They perceived at once that the waters of Loch Malcolm were rising. A
great wave, unfurling like a billow, swept up the bank and broke against
the walls of the cottage. Simon caught his wife in his arms, and carried
her to the upper part of their dwelling.

At the same moment, cries arose from all parts of Coal Town, which was
threatened by a sudden inundation. The inhabitants fled for safety to
the top of the schist rocks bordering the lake; terror spread in all
directions; whole families in frantic haste rushed towards the tunnel in
order to reach the upper regions of the pit.

It was feared that the sea had burst into the colliery, for its
galleries and passages penetrated as far as the Caledonian Canal. In
that case the entire excavation, vast as it was, would be completely
flooded. Not a single inhabitant of New Aberfoyle would escape death.

But when the foremost fugitives reached the entrance to the tunnel, they
encountered Simon Ford, who had quitted his cottage. "Stop, my friends,
stop!" shouted the old man; "if our town is to be overwhelmed, the
floods will rush faster than you can; no one can possibly escape. But
see! the waters are rising no further! it appears to me the danger is
over."

"And our comrades at the far end of the works--what about them?" cried
some of the miners.

"There is nothing to fear for them," replied Simon; "t