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 man Silfax, and contrary to his intentions." "You describe everything exactly as it must have happened, Mr.Starr," returned old Simon.

"The old 'Monk' is mad enough now, at any rate!" "All the better," quoth Madge.
"I don't know that," said Starr, shaking his head; "it is a terrible sort of madness this." "Ah! now I understand that the very thought of him must have terrified poor little Nell, and also I see that she could not bear to denounce her grandfather.

What a miserable time she must have had of it with the old man!" "Miserable with a vengeance," replied Simon, "between that savage and his owl, as savage as himself.

Depend upon it, that bird isn't dead.
That was what put our lamp out, and also so nearly cut the rope by which Harry and Nell were suspended." "And then, you see," said Madge, "this news of the marriage of our son with his granddaughter added to his rancor and ill-will." "To be sure," said Simon.

"To think that his Nell should marry one of the robbers of his own coal mine would just drive him wild altogether." "He will have to make up his mind to it, however," cried Harry.