The Child of the Cavern

Word reaches retired engineer James Starr that the exhausted Aberfoyle colliery in Scotland may hold coal after all. Following a cryptic letter deep underground, he finds the Ford family still living in the depths and, with them, a vast unworked seam that soon gives rise to an entire subterranean town lit by electric light. But someone resents the intrusion. Rockfalls, floods, and a cut ladder point to a hidden enemy who wants the mine sealed forever, while a girl named Nell, raised in total darkness and ignorant of the sun, holds the key to the mystery. Verne blends industrial ambition with Gothic suspense beneath the Scottish hills. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB edition.