ossible that the solemn act of her marriage
with Harry might be the occasion of some new and dreadful outbreak of
his hatred.

One morning, a week before the day appointed for the ceremony, Nell,
rising early, went out of the cottage before anyone else. No sooner had
she crossed the threshold than a cry of indescribable anguish escaped
her lips.

Her voice was heard throughout the dwelling; in a moment, Madge, Harry,
and Simon were at her side. Nell was pale as death, her countenance
agitated, her features expressing the utmost horror. Unable to speak,
her eyes were riveted on the door of the cottage, which she had just
opened.

With rigid fingers she pointed to the following words traced upon it
during the night: "Simon Ford, you have robbed me of the last vein in
our old pit. Harry, your son, has robbed me of Nell. Woe betide you! Woe
betide you all! Woe betide New Aberfoyle!--SILFAX."

"Silfax!" exclaimed Simon and Madge together.

"Who is this man?" demanded Harry, looking alternately at his father and
at the maiden.

"Silfax!" repeated Nell in tones of despair, "Silfax!"--and, murmuring
this name, her whole frame shuddering with fear and agitation, she was
borne away to her chamber by old Madge.

James Starr, hastening to the spot, read the threatening sentences again
and again.

"The hand which traced these lines," said he at length, "is the same
which wrote me the letter contradicting yours, Simon. The man calls
himself Silfax. I see by your troubled manner that you know him. Who is
this Silfax?"

CHAPTER XVII. THE "MONK"

THIS name revealed everything to the old overman. It was that of the
last "monk" of the Dochart pit.

In former days, before the invention of the safety-lamp, Simon had known
this fierce man, whose business it was to go daily, at the risk of his
life, to produce partial explosions of fire-damp in the passages. He
used to see this strange solitary being, prowling about the mine, always
accompanied by a monstrous owl, which he called Harfang, who assisted
him in his perilous occupation, by soaring with a lighted match to
places Silfax was unable to reach.

One day this old man disappeared, and at the same time also, a little
orphan girl born in the mine, who had no relation but himself, her
great-grandfather. It was perfectly evident now that this child was
Nell. During the fifteen years, up to the time when she was saved by
Harry, they must have lived in some secret abys