Sappers and Miners

Sappers and Miners, by George
Manville Fenn

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Title: Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea
Author: George Manville Fenn
Illustrator: Hal Hurst
Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21367]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAPPERS
AND MINERS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Sappers and Miners, by George Manville Fenn.
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This must be one of Manville Fenn's very best books. The suspense is
totally gripping, right to the very end. Normally Fenn places his
moments of terror at the very end of a chapter, so that this book with 52
chapters must have quite a few of them.
When preparing this book for publication on the web, the editor was
truly sorry when the work ended, so greatly had he enjoyed every
moment of it.
The action takes place in Cornwall, in and around an old tin-mine,
possibly dating back to Roman and Phoenician days, for these people
obtained much of the tin they needed to make bronze, from Cornwall,
and many of the mines are still there, with many miles of workings,
often going out far beneath the sea.
You should enjoy reading or listening to this book very much--as much,
I hope, as the editor of it has done.
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SAPPERS AND MINERS, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
CHAPTER ONE.
BASS FOR BREAKFAST.
"Have some more bass, Gwyn?"
"Please, father."
"You should not speak with your mouth full, my dear," said Mrs
Pendarve, quietly.
"No, mother; but I didn't like to keep father waiting."
"And between the two stools you came to the ground, eh?" said Colonel

Pendarve, smiling. "Never mind; hold your plate. Lucky for us, my
dear, that we have only one boy. This fellow eats enough for three."
"Well, but, father, we were down by the boat at daybreak, and the sea
air makes one so hungry."
"Say ravenous or wolfish, my boy. But go on. It certainly is a delicious
fish, and Dolly has cooked it to a turn. They were rising fairly, then?"
"Yes, father; we rowed right out to the race, off the point, and for ever
so long we didn't see a fish and sat there with our rods ready."
Gwyn talked away, but with his mouth rather full of fried bass and
freshly-baked bread all the same.
"And of course it was of no use to try till a shoal began to feed."
"Not a bit, father,--and Joe said we might as well come back; but when
the sun rose they were breaking all round us, and for half-an-hour we
kept hooking them at nearly every throw. Come and see the rest of my
catch; they're such beauties, as bright as salmon."
"That's right, but don't let any of them be wasted. Keep what you want,
mamma, dear, and give the others away. What did you use--a big fly?"
"No, father, those tiny spoon-baits. They come at them with a rush.
Then they left off biting all at once, and--some more coffee, please,
mother--and we rowed back home, and met Captain Hardock on the
pier."
"Ah, did you?"
"Yes, father; and we gave him two pairs of fine ones, and he said they
looked as bright as newly-run tin."
"Humph! Yes, that man thinks of nothing else but tin."
"And he began about it again this morning, father," said Gwyn, eagerly.

"Indeed!" said Colonel Pendarve; and Gwyn's mother looked up
inquiringly from behind the silver coffee-urn.
"Yes, father," said Gwyn, helping himself to more fresh, yellow
Cornish butter and honey. "He said what a pity it was that you did not
adventure over the old Ydoll mine and make yourself a rich man,
instead of letting it lie wasting on your estate."
"My estate!" said the Colonel, smiling at his wife--"a few score acres of
moorland and rock on the Cornish coast!"
"But he says, father, he is sure that the old mine is very rich."
"And that I am very poor, Gwyn, and that it would be nice for me to
make a place for a mining captain out of work."
"But you will not attempt anything of the kind, my dear," said Mrs
Pendarve, anxiously.
"I don't think, so, my dear. We have no money to spare for speculating,
and I don't think an old Indian cavalry officer on half-pay is quite the
man to attempt such a thing."
"But old Hardock said you were, father, and that you and