ed Jack Ryan. "Ah, sir, I could not see. Since I left
the mine, my eyes have not been accustomed to see in the dark, as they
used to do."

"Ah, I remember a laddie who was always singing. That was ten years ago.
It was you, no doubt?"

"Ay, Mr. Starr, but in changing my trade, I haven't changed my
disposition. It's far better to laugh and sing than to cry and whine!"

"You're right there, Jack Ryan. And what do you do now, as you have left
the mine?"

"I am working on the Melrose farm, forty miles from here. Ah, it's not
like our Aberfoyle mines! The pick comes better to my hand than the
spade or hoe. And then, in the old pit, there were vaulted roofs, to
merrily echo one's songs, while up above ground!--But you are going to
see old Simon, Mr. Starr?"

"Yes, Jack," answered the engineer.

"Don't let me keep you then."

"Tell me, Jack," said Harry, "what was taking you to our cottage
to-day?"

"I wanted to see you, man," replied Jack, "and ask you to come to
the Irvine games. You know I am the piper of the place. There will be
dancing and singing."

"Thank you, Jack, but it's impossible."

"Impossible?"

"Yes; Mr. Starr's visit will last some time, and I must take him back to
Callander."

"Well, Harry, it won't be for a week yet. By that time Mr. Starr's visit
will be over, I should think, and there will be nothing to keep you at
the cottage."

"Indeed, Harry," said James Starr, "you must profit by your friend
Jack's invitation."

"Well, I accept it, Jack," said Harry. "In a week we will meet at
Irvine."

"In a week, that's settled," returned Ryan. "Good-by, Harry! Your
servant, Mr. Starr. I am very glad to have seen you again! I can give
news of you to all my friends. No one has forgotten you, sir."

"And I have forgotten no one," said Starr.

"Thanks for all, sir," replied Jack.

"Good-by, Jack," said Harry, shaking his hand. And Jack Ryan, singing as
he went, soon disappeared in the heights of the shaft, dimly lighted by
his lamp.

A quarter of an hour afterwards James Starr and Harry descended the last
ladder, and set foot on the lowest floor of the pit.

From the bottom of the Yarrow shaft radiated numerous empty galleries.
They ran through the wall of schist and sandstone, some shored up with
great, roughly-hewn beams, others lined with a thick casing of wood. In
every direction embankments supplied the place of the excavated veins.
Artificial pillars were made of stone from neighbori