CHAPTER V

HOW NANCE SHONE THROUGH HER MODEST VEILING


As soon as the old captain's time was up, Gard took up his work in the
mines with energetic hopefulness.

His hopefulness was unbounded. His energy he tempered with all the tact
and discretion his knowledge of men, and his experience in handling
them, had taught him.

His father had been lost at sea the year after his son was born. His
mother, a good and God-fearing woman, had strained every nerve to give
her boy an education. She died when Stephen was fourteen. He took to his
father's calling and had followed it with a certain success for ten
years, by which time he had attained the position of first mate.

Then the owner of the Botallack Mine, in Cornwall, having come across
him in the way of business, and been struck by his intelligence and
aptitude, induced him by a lucrative appointment to try his luck on
land.

The managers of the Sark Mines, seeking a special man for somewhat
special circumstances, had applied to Botallack for assistance, and
Stephen Gard came to Sark as the representative of many hopes which, so
far, had been somewhat lacking in results.