The Lost Lode

By Silas K. Hocking

An adventure romance, taking place in England in 1920. When Jasper Blake returns to the small Cornish mining village where he grew up, after making a fortune prospecting in America, he expects life to continue as it did before. To his surprise, many of the people he knew before he left 12 years ago have either died or moved, and there is no one to welcome him. Susie Bassett is one of the few people who eventually recognise him. He had only just turned eighteen and Susie Bassett was twenty-two, but she seemed to him the most wonderful creature that ever breathed. For nearly a year he lived in paradise, and then she married Jim Soper, a farmer who had lost his wife six months previously and who wanted a second Mrs. Soper to take her place. Then ... A week after his arrival he had met his old sweetheart Susie ‒ now the mother of five children ‒ and he received a shock that almost stunned him. At first he did not recognise her. It seemed incredible that this shapeless and uncomely woman was the adorable creature he had worshipped in his youth.

Then Jasper sees this advertisement: Rotherick Grange. To be Let Furnished. Apply to Sleeman & Trapp Solicitors, St. Ivel. Money is no object. He knows that however long he lives he will never be able to spend the vast fortune he made in America. A large country house with servants will be a new experience. It is only when he moves in that he becomes painfully aware of the gulf between the gentry and the educated working man. Sir Wilfrid Courtney, the owner of Rotherick Grange has a young daughter, Enid. Jasper learns that Sir Wilfrid is in major debt to Leopold Strauss, an unpleasant man who is planning to get his hands on Enid Courtney, even though she dislikes him intensely. Sir Wilfrid’s only hope of keeping Rotherick Grange is to find a valuable lode of tin in a mine on his estate (the Lost Lode), or offer Enid to Strauss in marriage in return for being freed from the debt. And Leopold Strauss’ only hope of marrying Enid is to call in the debt before the lode is found. When Jasper hears of this, he knows that even though Enid would not so much as consider him as a husband, he must at all costs stop Straus carrying out his plan, for Enid deserves better. Much better.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781912529452

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About the Book

An adventure romance, taking place in England in 1920. When Jasper Blake returns to the small Cornish mining village where he grew up, after making a fortune prospecting in America, he expects life to continue as it did before. To his surprise, many of the people he knew before he left 12 years ago have either died or moved, and there is no one to welcome him. Susie Bassett is one of the few people who eventually recognise him. He had only just turned eighteen and Susie Bassett was twenty-two, but she seemed to him the most wonderful creature that ever breathed. For nearly a year he lived in paradise, and then she married Jim Soper, a farmer who had lost his wife six months previously and who wanted a second Mrs. Soper to take her place. Then ... A week after his arrival he had met his old sweetheart Susie ‒ now the mother of five children ‒ and he received a shock that almost stunned him. At first he did not recognise her. It seemed incredible that this shapeless and uncomely woman was the adorable creature he had worshipped in his youth.

Then Jasper sees this advertisement: Rotherick Grange. To be Let Furnished. Apply to Sleeman & Trapp Solicitors, St. Ivel. Money is no object. He knows that however long he lives he will never be able to spend the vast fortune he made in America. A large country house with servants will be a new experience. It is only when he moves in that he becomes painfully aware of the gulf between the gentry and the educated working man. Sir Wilfrid Courtney, the owner of Rotherick Grange has a young daughter, Enid. Jasper learns that Sir Wilfrid is in major debt to Leopold Strauss, an unpleasant man who is planning to get his hands on Enid Courtney, even though she dislikes him intensely. Sir Wilfrid’s only hope of keeping Rotherick Grange is to find a valuable lode of tin in a mine on his estate (the Lost Lode), or offer Enid to Strauss in marriage in return for being freed from the debt. And Leopold Strauss’ only hope of marrying Enid is to call in the debt before the lode is found. When Jasper hears of this, he knows that even though Enid would not so much as consider him as a husband, he must at all costs stop Straus carrying out his plan, for Enid deserves better. Much better.

The Lost Lode

By

Silas K. Hocking

White Tree Publishing Edition

Original book first published 1920

This abridged edition ©White Tree Publishing 2019

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-45-2

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

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The Lost Lode is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

This book cover is from a vintage postcard of the period, showing the Cornish town of Penzance.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Publisher’s Notes

1. The Lure

2. Jasper Makes an Offer

3. The Experiment Begins

4. Seeing it Through

5. Confidences

6. Food for Reflection

7. The Philosophy of Clothes

8. The Unexpected

9. Playing Host

10. Jasper says No

11. Conflicting Emotions

12. Straus Scents Danger

13. Discomfited

14. A Talk by the Way

15. Anxiety

16. Treachery

17. Facts and Inferences

18. Depression

19. At Close Quarters

20. Drifting

21. In the Wood

22. Playing the Game

23. A Crisis

24. Found

25. Cross Purposes

26. Postponed

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About the Author

Silas K. (Kitto) Hocking (1850-1935) was born in Cornwall in a tin mining area near St Austell. His father was a tenant farmer who also had a part share in a tin mine, which is why Cornwall and tin mining feature in several of Hocking’s stories, based on first-hand experience. After he left school. Hocking started work as a mining surveyor, but was influenced by a young Methodist preacher who encouraged him to become an ordained minister. He moved from Cornwall to a Circuit in Newport in South Wales, and then to Liverpool.

Liverpool is where Hocking became famous as an author. Wikipedia lists nearly one hundred of his publications, the majority of which are books. In Liverpool, Hocking’s appointment was near the docks, in the centre of the city slums. Two years later he married, and wrote his most famous book, Her Benny, published in 1879, based on the street children of the city.

Hocking devoted more and more time to his writing, and in 1895 he retired from the Methodist ministry to devote his time to writing. He was a committed pacifist, and hated all wars, something that comes out in many of his stories. Some of Hocking’s books contain a clear Christian message, and others are adventure stories and romances without any strong religious teaching. Although many are quite dark, with descriptions of violence, they have a standard of morality to be expected from a Methodist minister.

Silas K Hocking is a much neglected author today, and White Tree Publishing has selected a small number of his books with storylines and plots that have not dated.

Silas Hocking had two sons, of whom one died young, and two daughters. He was not the only author in the family. His brother Joseph, and his sister Salome, both became bestselling writers of novels.

Hocking once met Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Discussing Holmes’s problem with disposing of Moriarty, Hocking writes that he told Doyle, Why not bring him out to Switzerland and drop him down a crevasse? It would save funeral expenses! Doyle is reported to have laughed, but said it wasn’t a bad idea. Hocking wondered later if he had influenced Doyle, because shortly afterwards Doyle did indeed cause Moriarty to disappear over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Sherlock Holmes also fell, as Doyle had decided to end the stories – although Holmes reappeared later when Doyle realised he had made a mistake!

Unedited copies of many of Hocking’s books are available as modern reprints, or as scans from a variety of internet sites, as well as some original titles from sites like AbeBooks. White Tree Publishing only publishes carefully selected older titles, edited with modern punctuation, shorter sentences and paragraphs, and abridged where necessary in order to make them much more readable today.

Silas K. Hocking died in September 1935, in London.

Publisher’s Note

There are 26 chapters in this book. In the back are advertisements for our other books, so this book may end earlier than expected! The last chapter is marked as such. We aim to make our eBooks free or for a nominal cost, and cannot invest in other forms of advertising. However, word of mouth by satisfied readers will also help get our books more widely known. When the story ends, please write a short review and take a look at the other books we publish: Christian non-fiction, Christian fiction, and books for younger readers.

THE LOST LODE

Chapter 1

The Lure

Jasper Blake paused on the crest of the hill, and looked long and searchingly at the little grey Cornish town that nestled in the valley below.

Twelve years before, he had paused on the same spot and looked back ‒ looked back with a heavy heart and eyes that were too dim to see very clearly.

He was leaving home then ‒ going out into the great world alone and unfriended to seek his fortune. Now he was back again, and it seemed for a moment as if he had never been away. Nothing had changed. The trees and hedges and fields were just as green as when he left, the river rippled and flashed in the valley as it had always done, the old church tower stood square and defiant as ever. It might even be the same cuckoo that was calling from a neighbouring wood.

A little back from the town was the house in which he was born, the fields in which he had worked, the coal yard and store shed which had been his father’s pride. Then suddenly the illusion vanished. He had come back, but he had not come home. He had no home. His father was dead, his stepmother had removed to some other part of the country, and the little homestead had passed to other hands. No one knew of his coming. There was no one to welcome his return.

Brushing his hand hastily across his eyes, he picked up his bag and started down the hill. Half an hour later he was seated before a substantial tea of bacon and eggs in the parlour of the Red Lion. John Juliff, the landlord, had eyed him enquiringly. Strangers were not often seen in Pengowan, and Jasper was unmistakably a stranger. Moreover he made a striking figure anywhere ‒ tall, straight, broad-shouldered, with crisp, wavy hair, clear grey eyes, a firm jaw, and skin deeply bronzed by wind and sun. People did not usually pass him without a second look.

Stranger in these parts? Juliff enquired.

Not exactly, Jasper answered.

Don’t remember to ’ave seen ’ee before.

Very likely. I’ve not been in Pengowan lately.

Staying long?

Not quite certain. Depends, you know.... And Jasper smiled up into the landlord’s face.

We can make ’ee comfortable at the Red Lion ‒ that is, you don’t seem to have much luggage, he added suddenly.

Jasper smiled again. A Cornishman is nothing if not inquisitive. Also the implied doubt was unmistakable.

Luggage is coming on by carrier, he said. I walked here from the station.

Did ’ee now? A longish walk, and a warm afternoon, too.

Jasper was busy with his food at the moment and did not reply.

Been in furren parts, p’raps? Juliff suggested pleasantly, after a considerable pause.

Yes.

Done well, I ’ope?

Middling.

Lots of young men go abroad from these parts, but most of ’em don’t ever come ’ome again.

Is that so?

Seems a pity, but mining is nothing as good as it used to be. Plenty of maidens ’bout ’ere don’t ever get a chance of finding a man.

Getting no reply to this, Juliff at length walked slowly out of the room to discuss the stranger with his wife.

When Jasper had satisfied his hunger, he donned his broad rimmed wide-awake hat and sauntered out into the street. The day was drawing to a close, and very few people were about. Of these, no one recognised him. He passed the church, and the schoolhouse, and the Methodist chapel, and came at length to the bridge that spanned the river.

For a while he leaned over the parapet and contemplated the silently flowing water. Then he turned back and struck up another street until he came to the coal yard that once had belonged to his father. A man was busy locking up, but Jasper did not recognise him, and so passed on. He came at length to the house in which he had been born. For some time he stood still with his hands deep in his pockets. Beyond the house were fields, every one of which he knew so well. It seemed as if time had stood still. Nothing had changed. He was still a youth. The great world beyond the hills was unexplored.

Then with a deep intake of his breath he turned away and slowly retraced his steps.

It was dark when he reached the Red Lion. The evening had turned chilly, and Mrs. Juliff had lighted a fire in the parlour.

Pulling up an armchair he began to feel unaccountably depressed. During all the years of his absence he had looked forward to this day ‒ to this homecoming. What he had expected he did not quite know. For a dozen years he had dreamed of Pengowan. It was saturated with the passion and romance of youth. There was no other place on earth that could compare with it. Memory had hallowed it and glorified it. He had looked back on it through a golden haze. And now....

His life seemed to pass before him in a series of pictures. His childhood. The death of his mother when he was twelve. The coming of his stepmother two years later: her iron rule and bitter tongue. His work in the fields and in Trelogan tin mine beyond the hill: his growing unhappiness, and then the dawn of love, or what he imagined was love. He had only just turned eighteen and Susie Bassett was twenty-two, but she seemed to him the most wonderful creature that ever breathed. For nearly a year he lived in paradise, and then she married Jim Soper, a farmer who had lost his wife six months previously and who wanted a second Mrs. Soper to take her place.

When Jasper pleaded and expostulated, she laughed at Jasper’s troubled face. A month later his father gave him forty pounds and his blessing, and told him to go out and seek his fortune.

He recalled his landing at Quebec half dead from seasickness, and then his steady drift westward ‒ ever westward. It took him eleven years to reach the Yukon, and during these years he had tried his hand at nearly everything. He had worked on railroads and on farms and in lumber mills. He had been tram conductor and cowboy. He had hunted for pelts in the great forests, and trapped salmon in the rivers. He had slept in the open and wintered in wooden shacks. Had listened to stories by camp fires and fallen asleep to dream of home. He had suffered from frostbite and hunger and blistered feet. He had tramped days on end over mountain passes and through interminable forests. He had given up hope more than once and lain down to die.

As he listened to the crackling of the fire in the grate, those years seemed like a dream. Or was he dreaming now?

He leaned forward and picked up the poker and stirred the fire. Evidently he was wide awake. That long and bitter trail across the mountains with scores of others was real enough. Real, too, the staking out his claim at haphazard, and then....

How the desperate fellows who had been his companions on the long trek had envied him. Luck had come at last. In a day, he was rich beyond anything he had ever dreamed.

To other fortunate ones gold had spelt Seattle, or ’Frisco, or Los Angeles, or the cities back east: Toronto, or Chicago, or Washington, or New York. To him it spelt Pengowan. There was only one thought in his mind, one desire in his heart ‒ he must get back home. His Cornish hills called to him across ocean and mountain and plain; the lure of his native land was in his blood; it had never left him during all the years of his absence. Nothing would ever satisfy him until he had seen again the little grey town lying in the lap of the hills. It was a homesickness that only the sight of home would cure.

What would happen to him when he got home he had not stopped to enquire. He would probably be disappointed. He knew his father was dead, and old home had passed into other hands ‒ so much in a brief letter his stepmother had condescended to inform him. He had no relatives ‒ at least none that counted ‒ and such friends as he once had would probably have forgotten him. Yet the lure held him, dominated him, drove out every other desire. As soon as he had settled his affairs and banked his gold he turned his face eastward, and for nearly a month he travelled almost continuously.

And now...?

He settled himself farther back in his chair, his eyes narrowed in earnest thought. Pengowan had been his objective, and beyond it he had not troubled to look. And yet now, within a couple of hours after his arrival, he was up against