A Maid of the Silver Sea

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A Maid of the Silver Sea

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Title: A Maid of the Silver Sea
Author: John Oxenham
Release Date: January 29, 2005 [eBook #14832]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAID OF THE SILVER SEA***
E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

A MAID OF THE SILVER SEA
by
JOHN OXENHAM
With Frontispiece in Colour by Harold Copping
Hodder and Stoughton Warwick Square, London, E.C.

TO MY FRIEND EDWARD BAKER OF LA CHAUMIERE, SARK
ON WHOSE MOST HOSPITABLE AND SUPREMELY COMFORTABLE VERANDAH, LOOKING OUT TO THE FAIR COAST OF FRANCE, THIS STORY WAS PARTLY WRITTEN, I INSCRIBE THE SAME IN REMEMBRANCE OF MANY DELIGHTFUL DAYS TOGETHER

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HOW TWO LAY IN A CLEFT
CHAPTER II
HOW NANCE CAME TO BE HERSELF
CHAPTER III
HOW THE NEW MINE CAPTAIN CAME
CHAPTER IV
HOW GARD MADE NEW ACQUAINTANCES
CHAPTER V
HOW NANCE SHONE THROUGH HER MODEST VEILING
CHAPTER VI
HOW GRANNIE SCHEMED SCHEMES
CHAPTER VII
HOW GARD FOUGHT GALES AND TOM
CHAPTER VIII
HOW TOM WANTED TO BUT DIDN'T DARE
CHAPTER IX
HOW OLD TOM FOUND THE SILVER HEART
CHAPTER X
HOW YOUNG TOM FOUND HIS MATCH
CHAPTER XI
HOW GARD DREW NEARER TO HIS HEART'S DESIRE
CHAPTER XII
HOW NANCE CAME UP THE MAIN SHAFT WITHOUT GOING DOWN IT
CHAPTER XIII
HOW GARD REFUSED AN OFFER AND MADE AN ENEMY
CHAPTER XIV
HOW THEY WENT THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF THE NARROW WAY
CHAPTER XV
HOW TWO FELL OUT
CHAPTER XVI
HOW ONE FELL OVER
CHAPTER XVII
HOW TOM WENT TO SCHOOL FOR THE LAST TIME
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW PETER'S DIPLOMACY CAME TO NOUGHT
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE SARK MEN FELT ABOUT IT
CHAPTER XX
HOW SARK CRAVED BLOOD FOR BLOOD
CHAPTER XXI
HOW LOVE TOOK LOVE TO SANCTUARY
CHAPTER XXII
HOW THE STARS SANG OF HOPE
CHAPTER XXIII
HOW NANCE SENT FOOD AND HOPE TO HIM
CHAPTER XXIV
HOW HE SAW STRANGE SIGHTS
CHAPTER XXV
HOW HE LIVED THROUGH THE GREAT STORM
CHAPTER XXVI
HOW HE HELD THE ROCK
CHAPTER XXVII
HOW ONE CAME TO HIM LIKE AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOW THE OTHERS CAME TO MAKE AN END
CHAPTER XXIX
HOW HE CAME INTO AN UNKNOWN PLACE
CHAPTER XXX
HOW NANCE WATCHED FROM AFAR
CHAPTER XXXI
HOW TWO WENT IN AND THREE CAME OUT
CHAPTER XXXII
HOW JULIE MEDITATED EVIL
CHAPTER XXXIII
HOW HOPE CAME ONCE AGAIN
CHAPTER XXXIV
HOW JULIE'S SCHEMES FELL FLAT
CHAPTER XXXV
HOW AN ANGEL CAME BRINGING THE TRUTH
CHAPTER XXXVI
HOW HE CAME HOME FROM L'ETAT
CHAPTER XXXVII
HOW THEY LAID TRAPS FOR THE DEVIL
CHAPTER XXXVIII
HOW THEY LAID THE DEVIL BY THE HEELS
CHAPTER XXXIX
HOW THEY THANKED GOD FOR HIS MERCIES
CHAPTER I
HOW TWO LAY IN A CLEFT
A girl and a boy lay in a cubby-hole in the north side of the cliff overlooking Port Gorey, and watched the goings-on down below.
The sun was tending towards Guernsey and the gulf was filled witn golden light. A small brig, unkempt and dirty, was nosing towards the rough wooden landing-stage clamped to the opposite rocks, as though doubtful of the advisability of attempting its closer acquaintance.
"Mon Gyu, Bern, how I wish they were all at the bottom of the sea!" said the girl vehemently.
"Whe--e--e--w!" whistled the boy, and then with a twinkle in his eye,--"Who's got a new parasol now?"
"Everybody!--but it's not that. It's the bustle--and the dirt--and the noise--and oh--everything! You can't remember what it was like before these wretched mines came--no dust, no noise, no bustle, no dirty men, no silly women, no nothing as it is now. Just Sark as it used to be. And now--! Mon Gyu, yes I wish the sea would break in through their nasty tunnels and wash them all away--pumps and engines and houses--everything!"
And up on the hillside at the head of the gulf the great pumping-engine clacked monotonously "Never! Never! Never!"
"You've got it bad to-day, Nan," said the boy.
"I've always got it bad. It makes me sick. It has changed everything and everybody--everybody except mother and you," she added quickly. "Get--get--get! Why we hardly used to know what money was, and now no one thinks of anything but getting all they can. It is sickening."
"S--s--s--s--t!" signalled the boy suddenly, at the sound of steps and voices on the cliff outside and close at hand.
"Tom," muttered the boy.
"And Peter Mauger," murmured the girl, and they both shrank lower into their hiding-place.
It was a tiny natural chamber in the sharp slope of the hill. Ages ago the massive granite boulders of the headland, loosened and undercut by the ceaseless assaults of wind and weather and the deadly quiet fingers of the frost, had come rolling down the slope till they settled afresh on new foundations, forming holes and crannies and little angular chambers where the splintered shoulders met. In time, the soil silted down and covered their asperities, and--like a good colonist--carrying in itself the means of increase,