s of the mine.

The old overman, full of mingled compassion and anger, made known to the
engineer and Harry all that the name of Silfax had revealed to him. It
explained the whole mystery. Silfax was the mysterious being so long
vainly sought for in the depths of New Aberfoyle.

"So you knew him, Simon?" demanded Mr. Starr.

"Yes, that I did," replied the overman. "The Harfang man, we used to
call him. Why, he was old then! He must be fifteen or twenty years older
than I am. A wild, savage sort of fellow, who held aloof from everyone
and was known to fear nothing--neither fire nor water. It was his own
fancy to follow the trade of 'monk,' which few would have liked.
The constant danger of the business had unsettled his brain. He was
prodigiously strong, and he knew the mine as no one else--at any rate,
as well as I did. He lived on a small allowance. In faith, I believed
him dead years ago."

"But," resumed James Starr, "what does he mean by those words, 'You have
robbed me of the last vein of our old mine'?"

"Ah! there it is," replied Simon; "for a long time it had been a fancy
of his--I told you his mind was deranged--that he had a right to the
mine of Aberfoyle; so he became more and more savage in temper the
deeper the Dochart pit--his pit!--was worked out. It just seemed as if
it was his own body that suffered from every blow of the pickax. You
must remember that, Madge?"

"Ay, that I do, Simon," replied she.

"I can recollect all this," resumed Simon, "since I have seen the name
of Silfax on the door. But I tell you, I thought the man was dead, and
never imagined that the spiteful being we have so long sought for could
be the old fireman of the Dochart pit."

"Well, now, then," said Starr, "it is all quite plain. Chance made known
to Silfax the new vein of coal. With the egotism of madness, he believed
himself the owner of a treasure he must conceal and defend. Living in
the mine, and wandering about day and night, he perceived that you had
discovered the secret, and had written in all haste to beg me to come.
Hence the letter contradicting yours; hence, after my arrival, all the
accidents that occurred, such as the block of stone thrown at Harry, the
broken ladder at the Yarrow shaft, the obstruction of the openings into
the wall of the new cutting; hence, in short, our imprisonment, and then
our deliverance, brought about by the kind assistance of Nell, who acted
of course without the knowledge of this