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
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Maid of the Silver Sea by John Oxenham
- 2: And watched the goings on down below
- 3: But on none more than old Tom Hamon
- 4: That his father thrashed instead of humouring him
- 5: CHAPTER IIHOW NANCE CAME TO BE HERSELF And little Nance
- 6: Esteemed Grannie as an Olympian
- 7: Among the rocks of Little Sark
- 8: From her favourite calf Jeanetton
- 9: While the cuckoos were of earth
- 10: Nance swam into the blow hole's cave at a very low tide
- 11: With Bernel and a tiny crasset lamp for company
- 12: But he's just crazy 'bout them mines
- 13: And they crept out behind a gorse bush
- 14: Hamon introduced them briefly as his wife and daughter
- 15: And Peter Mauger Peter repeated the performance
- 16: Hamon it meant some extra household work
- 17: And Bernel made play with his supper
- 18: Over there in Sark across the Coupee
- 19: Had applied to Botallack for assistance
- 20: Hamon Grannie had promptly ordered him in for inspection
- 21: And laughing merrily with Bernel
- 22: And recognized Nance and Bernel
- 23: Hamon bore with the black sheep quietly
- 24: The great shafts sank deeper and deeper
- 25: Hamon was silent and full of thought
- 26: If the good God set silver inside Sark
- 27: All property is sold subject to the retraite
- 28: Like the bull wounded to the quick
- 29: As they dipped down towards the Coupee
- 30: The Sark girls must do the same
- 31: And Gard turned and went over to Nance and Bernel
- 32: The gale caught them at the Coupee
- 33: And could hear their voices Nance and Bernel and Mrs
- 34: Gard was saying as they passed
- 35: Into the flange of a thick wooden frame
- 36: No little labour to rediscover his vein on the opposite side
- 37: Old Tom Hamon was dead and buried
- 38: Nance and Bernel had sprung up also
- 39: The apportionment of those lots
- 40: And was miner only by accident as it were
- 41: For bathing with Bernel was one thing
- 42: Sark men ought to be able to swim
- 43: Just the same as Little Sark is joined to Sark
- 44: Nance and Bernel were doing the only thing possible
- 45: Tanquerel to see them carried out at once
- 46: Hamon and Nance found themselves with a large cornfield
- 47: Neither deaf nor dumb nor yet a fool
- 48: It's pretty lonely up at Plaisance too
- 49: Your Sark men are difficult very difficult
- 50: And why did he go to Plaisance then
- 51: And when Gard came up to dinner next day
- 52: Hamon lets him run after that girl of hers as she does
- 53: Maybe it would be a good thing for little Nance if you did
- 54: It was almost at a venture that he said Nance
- 55: You'll have to help me across the Coupee
- 56: But Nance laid an entreating hand on his arm
- 57: Running after men's wives and our Nance
- 58: He had no wish to see him go reeling over into Coupee bay
- 59: Tom Hamon was drunk last night and hit me in the face
- 60: Hamon followed her and closed the door
- 61: Just before he reached the sunk way to the Coupee
- 62: He took the Coupee cliff in flank
- 63: Cries the Senechal to the thronging crowd
- 64: Peter Mauger went thoughtfully home
- 65: You know what the Sark men are
- 66: In his absence the Senechal conducted the proceedings
- 67: Between Plaisance and the Coupee
- 68: Then the Senechal said very kindly
- 69: Pointed a shaking hand at Gard
- 70: And they sped away into Little Sark
- 71: Bernel heard them planning it all
- 72: Gard found it no easy matter to follow Nance
- 73: Bernel told me to tell you it throws a little high
- 74: His eye rested on the shattered fragments of Little Sark
- 75: For the new matches had not yet penetrated to Sark
- 76: Rifted and chasmed by the fury of the waves
- 77: Felt again the trembling of her hand for him on the Coupee
- 78: To show that cormorants were never satisfied
- 79: An innumerable company quite beyond his ken
- 80: When he crawled out of his burrow
- 81: The mist clung close about him
- 82: But they won't forget Grannie in a hurry
- 83: What do you and Nance expect me to do
- 84: But chiefly white because of Nance
- 85: A silly young cormorant was standing gazing into the water
- 86: The sea was a weltering bath of blood
- 87: Local events in Sark dated came when it did
- 88: And over there in Sark was Nance
- 89: He wriggled through a crevice and wormed slowly on
- 90: Groping there in that dense darkness and utter silence
- 91: Flaked sparks into the tinder till it caught and flared
- 92: So whipped it up with more cognac
- 93: He levied on the puffins again
- 94: The great tentacles had never moved
- 95: Commanded the passage from Breniere
- 96: He longed for a pair of Sark eyes
- 97: Did Bernel try to come across last night Yes
- 98: It was terrible to think of Bernel
- 99: If it takes effery man and effery boat in Sark
- 100: My things are in the gorse above Breniere
- 101: As the dark waters swirled below them
- 102: But his heart was out upon the black waters alongside Nance
- 103: And it might have swallowed Nance
- 104: As the boats slowly circled the rock
- 105: And slipped safely under the overhanging slab
- 106: And dreamed that the dead man came crawling down the tunnel
- 107: And John Drillot found himself bound to the adventure
- 108: Peter Vaudin as solemnly agreed
- 109: While not unpalatable beaten up with cognac
- 110: If he knew anything of Sark men and miners
- 111: The passage widened and continued to widen
- 112: Its great tentacles streaming out behind
- 113: And back to her look out by Breniere went Nance
- 114: For if she and Bernel had never discovered it
- 115: And was at her post above Breniere as soon as it was light
- 116: And that John Trevna should follow close behind
- 117: Trevna wormed along up the tunnel
- 118: John Trevna gazed open mouthed
- 119: And took the dead man from Trevna
- 120: It was after midnight when Nance stole across the fields
- 121: For Nance could have only one reason for going across there
- 122: I will wave to you from Breniere
- 123: She could wound Gard through Nance
- 124: While there was Nance there was hope
- 125: He could crawl into his innermost cavern
- 126: And the white figure in the bows was truly Nance
- 127: Peter Mauger was killed last night
- 128: He went to Little Sark last night
- 129: That man had been found under the Coupee
- 130: One to the Senechal and one to the Doctor
- 131: And in silence pulled back to Creux Harbour
- 132: And when the Senechal beckoned to one of the circumstances
- 133: And they saw Gard sitting between Nance and the Senechal
- 134: Old Nikki Never mind his name lest his descendants
- 135: Coming up out of black Coupee Bay
- 136: For whoever undertook the role of decoy
- 137: To all of which Gard fully assented
- 138: Night after night Gard slowly crossed the Coupee
- 139: That nightly trip across the Coupee
- 140: The devil's down in Coupee Bay
- 141: Said the Senechal sententiously
- 142: Said Stephen Gard with fervour for Bernel