Bonds of Earth, The

by Thompson, E. V.

  Jenken had great difficulty hiding his delight and Goran said, ‘Albert will be happy with that – but you’re going to lose a very experienced explosives man.’

  ‘True,’ Captain Pyne agreed, ‘but he’ll be on hand to give advice when it’s needed – although I hope it won’t be for anything similar to what’s happened here today. It’s quite obvious the old mine must have been extensively worked beneath Agnes Roach’s land. I’m surprised she said nothing about it.’

  ‘I doubt very much if she or her family before her ever knew. The main workings would have been on Spurre land and I doubt whether the family was any less reluctant to have anyone know anything about its business then than Sir John is today.’

  ‘Well, we’ll know more when the water’s gone and I can get into the old mine and map it out. We were lucky the accident today wasn’t far more serious. We can’t rely on that luck being with us if it should happen again. As it is, the only people who seem to have really suffered are yourself with your cuts and bruises … and Morwenna.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Pyne told me Morwenna had been taken ill because she ran home in such a hurry, is she going to be all right?’

  ‘I hope so. She was asleep when I got home but she certainly looked pale and wan. I suppose she was with you when she became aware of the accident?’

  Surprised by Captain Pyne’s assumption, Goran replied, ‘I haven’t seen her for weeks. What made you think she would have been with me?’

  ‘I thought she was seeing you … I must have mistaken something she said.’

  Shaking his head, Goran said, ‘I haven’t seen her since the day she came to the farm and brought the dictionary Nessa had bought from her for me….’ A sudden thought struck him. ‘Is that why Nessa hasn’t been to the farm to see me, because she believed there was something between Morwenna and me?’

  Thinking fast, Piran Pyne said, ‘I believe there might have been a little misunderstanding about it, but I don’t know how serious it was.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that. I was surprised when it was Morwenna who brought the book to me, and not Nessa. I understood she’d exchanged a bracelet for the dictionary to give it to me.’

  Hesitating for a moment, wondering whether he should tell his secret to Piran Pyne, Goran decided he would. ‘I bought Nessa a replacement bracelet when I went to Liskeard Fair and was hoping to give it to Nessa as a thank you, but what with taking over the farm and haymaking I’ve been kept so busy I haven’t been able to get around to it. To be honest, I’ve been disappointed that she hasn’t been to see me at the farm.’

  Captain Pyne explained that now Nessa knew he was safe she would be spending the next day or two at Caradon with her recently arrived friend whose birthday was being celebrated, but he promised to suggest that she visited Elworthy Farm on her return.

  He realized that Goran cared more about not seeing Nessa than he did about Morwenna being taken ill, and it raised the question of why Morwenna had said she was seeing Goran when it was quite apparent she had not. He sincerely hoped it was not one of his eldest daughter’s malicious little games. But if Morwenna had not spent her time at Elworthy, where had she been when she was away from home so much?

  It was something he needed to think about seriously, but not now. The immediate concern was the future of the Wheal Hope.

  Chapter 28

  ON A WET afternoon, two days after the Wheal Hope was flooded, Goran was in the milking-parlour repairing a wooden manger when Jenken hurried in and said, excitedly, ‘There are a lot of men coming along the track towards the farm, Goran … they look like miners.’

  ‘Are they from Wheal Hope? I wonder what they’re doing down here.’

  ‘I don’t recognize any of them and they don’t look particularly friendly. They’re coming from the direction of the village and not from the moor.’

  Abandoning the manger, Goran stepped outside the milking-parlour and saw a group of some fifty or sixty men heading along the track towards Elworthy. Dressed in the manner adopted by miners, many of them carried sticks and although they were approaching quietly there was an air of aggression about them that made Goran immediately uneasy. But he could think of no reason why they should want to cause him any trouble.

  The gate to the farmyard was open. Entering, the men fanned out in front of him, one of their number stepping forward to confront Goran, saying, ‘We’re here to see how much corn you’ve got.’

  Puzzled, Goran said, ‘I doubt if I have half-a-sack left in the store, I’ll need to buy some in later this week.’

  ‘We’re not interested in what you’ve got for feeding your animals, we’re here to buy what you’ve got to sell, but we intend paying no more than thirty shillings a bushel, none of the fancy prices you’re selling it for in the market.’

  Goran shrugged. ‘You’ll find no corn here apart from what I’ve already told you about. I’m hoping to begin arable farming soon, but Elworthy and Roach Farms have never been anything but pasture land for as long as I’ve known them.’

  ‘Then you won’t mind if we have a look for ourselves to see whether you’re telling the truth, will you?’

  It was phrased as a question but Goran realized the miners were going to search his farm whatever he replied and it angered him.

  ‘Yes I do mind, same as I mind you coming here and stopping me from getting on with my work. I’ve told you there’s no corn here and I’d be grateful if you went about your business and left me to carry on with mine.’

  ‘Well now, it’s my experience that when there’s money to be made it’s greed and not the truth that comes first with farmers so, like I said, we’ll have a look around for ourselves.’

  ‘That won’t be necessary, Jacob Barlow.’

  The voice was Albert’s and it came from a corner of the milking-parlour, where he had arrived, unseen, and stood leaning heavily upon his stick.

  The leader of the party of miners was as surprised as Goran at his appearance, but it was apparent he knew the injured miner and he demanded, ‘Albert Bolitho! What are you doing here?’

  ‘I’m recovering from an injury that ended my mining days and would have put an end to me too had it not been for Goran here – and, if it hadn’t been for him, Cap’n Pyne and four of his miners would have been dead when water from an old workings broke through into Wheal Hope. So if you’re here to cause trouble, you’ll find yourself coming up against Cap’n Pyne, me, and every man at Wheal Hope.’

  ‘We’re not here to make trouble for anyone, Albert, but as you know well enough, times are hard down west and farmers are making them harder by pushing the price of wheat sky high. We’re going around buying up all the wheat we can – but at a fair price. Fair to us, and fair to the farmers. We’ve just bought some from a reluctant farmer who tried to put us off by saying there was a farm along this way which had harvested a brave wheat crop this year. We thought it must be this one.’

  ‘Well it isn’t. Goran’s only just taken over Elworthy Farm after working this and the next farm since he was a boy and neither has ever grown crops – am I right, Goran?’

  ‘Yes, and although I hope to have some arable land for next season the first crop has to be potatoes, so I’ll not have wheat for a couple of years yet. I think that farmer might have been talking about Colonel Sir John Spurre. The wheat I saw growing on his Home Farm fields, beyond the skew bridge on the other side of the estate was some of the finest I can ever remember, but you’ll need to be careful how you check on what they have stored at the farm. Sir John is both a magistrate and commanding officer of the local militia. He also has a gamekeeper named Marcus Grimble who’s fond of boasting about the number of poachers he’s peppered with small shot and who would as soon shoot a miner as a magpie if he found them on Spurre land.’

  ‘Is that so?’ The miners’ leader spoke above the angry murmuring of the men with him. ‘Perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to meet up with this gamekeeper. I don’t think we’ll need to search your buildings after all, young man
, but remember us when you start growing corn. We’re happy enough to pay a fair price for it. After all, you need to make a living, same as we, but there are enough folk getting rich at our expense. We’ll not have farmers added to the list.’

  Nodding to Albert, the miners’ leader turned and walked back the way he and his companions had come to the farm. Some of the miners following in his wake raised a hand in a farewell salute to Albert as they departed, but one of their number did not go with them. Only a year or two older than Goran he spoke to Albert whom he quite obviously knew well.

  ‘Hello, Albert, It’s a surprise meeting up with you.’

  ‘I could say the same about you, Alan Toms,’ Albert said, with little warmth in his voice. ‘Although I’m not surprised to find you in the company of Jacob Barlow, you were never one to choose your friends wisely, as I remember, even though you were a good enough miner. Barlow’s more interested in making a name for himself than helping miners, for all his talk of miners’ rights.’

  ‘I’m not with him because I want to be, Albert, but things got far worse down west after you left. Miners are leaving from Falmouth by the shipload, going to places they’ve only heard of, and them as stay are desperate for work. Those who follow Jacob Barlow can at least be certain of getting one meal a day.’

  Albert snorted scornfully. ‘I doubt if it’s Barlow who pays for it. With a mob behind him he scares someone else into providing the wherewithal. One day he’ll come up against a man powerful enough to refuse him, and Barlow and all those with him will end up in chains on their way to Botany Bay.’

  ‘I know that, Albert, and if I can find work I’ll have no more to do with him. Do you think Cap’n Pyne might have anything for me?’

  Goran was about to go back to the work he was carrying out in the milking-parlour when Albert’s next words brought him to a halt.

  ‘After the way you treated his daughter I doubt it very much – especially with what’s been happening at the mine….’ Albert told the other man of the flooding from the ancient mine, adding, ‘All the Wheal Hope men will be working hard to get the engine-house completed so they can bring out some ore and get a pump working. But you can go and see Cap’n Pyne if you want to. He might take you on just to cheer up Morwenna. His being trapped underground upset her so much she’s been in bed ever since.’

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’ Alan Toms sounded genuinely concerned and he confirmed this by adding, ‘To be honest, I’ve been hoping to meet up with her again. When we were seeing each other, down west, she talked about marriage so often it scared me. I didn’t wan’t to be married, but since she left with her family I’ve missed her so much I’ve come to realize it might not be such a bad idea after all.’

  ‘Well, that’s your business, son, and no one else can sort that out for you, but if you’re going to keep up with Jacob Barlow you’d better hurry, he’ll be out of sight soon.’

  Looking to where the departing miners had almost passed from view, Alan Toms said, ‘I won’t have any problem finding Jacob if I need to. How do I get to the Wheal Hope?’

  Goran directed the young miner by the shortest route, through Elworthy farmland. When he had gone on his way and Albert had returned to the cottage, Goran suggested Jenken should help him complete the work in the milking-parlour.

  Once inside, he asked, ‘Was that Morwenna’s sweetheart when you and the Pynes were living down west?’

  ‘He was the latest one, and the one she seemed really serious about. So serious that everyone thought she’d get him in the end and make him marry her.’

  Grinning at Goran, Jenken said, ‘She might get him, even now, but it might spoil her chances if he learns about Grimble’s nephew. The more I think about it the more certain I am that it was him I saw with her up by the Spurre estate and I heard Ma talking to Pa about her, the other night. She said that Morwenna has been telling her ma she’s been spending a lot of time down here, but we all know that isn’t true, so I bet she was seeing Grimble’s nephew instead. Alan Toms said it was her talk of marriage that frightened him off, but there were lots of rumours about the type of girl she was – and had been. If he thought she was up to her old tricks again he might think twice about what being married to her would be like!’

  Chapter 29

  ‘WELL, LOOK WHAT we have here! I never expected to see you again, Alan Toms. What are you doing at the Wheal Hope?’

  Piran Pyne was standing with the engineer who had arrived with the giant cast-iron beam from the foundry which would be hoisted in due course to its place in the engine-house, being positioned half inside and half outside the tall building. Once connected to engine and pitwork it would become the beating heart of the mine complex.

  ‘I’ve come to ask if you have any work going on the Wheal Hope, Cap’n?’

  When the engineer had tactfully made his excuses and moved off to join the men from the foundry, Piran Pyne asked, ‘What’s brought about the change of heart, Alan? You weren’t interested when I offered to bring you here with my other miners.’

  ‘It wasn’t that I didn’t want to work for you, Cap’n, but, as you know, my ma is a widow, I was reluctant to leave her on her own and thought I had a steady job.’

  ‘So, what changed?’

  Alan shrugged unhappily. ‘The mine folded, like so many others down there and instead of bringing money into the house I was adding to her problems.’

  ‘Did you come here especially to find me?’

  Alan hesitated for a few moments, wondering whether he should lie. Deciding against it, he said, ‘No, I came this way with Jacob Barlow. We called in at the farm down by the river, looking for corn and I met Albert Bolitho there. He said you were here and I thought I might find work with you.’

  ‘Didn’t Albert tell you the mine has been flooded so badly we’ve had to stop working?’

  ‘Yes. I realize you won’t have work for a miner right away, but I was hoping you might need help ridding the mine of water and getting it working again.’

  Changing the subject, Piran Pyne asked, ‘What were you doing with Barlow? The man’s a dangerous troublemaker.’

  ‘I can’t argue with that, Cap’n, but he makes certain the men who go along with him get to eat and that meant my ma wasn’t trying to make what little she has stretch to feed the two of us. As I saw it I could either throw in my lot with Barlow, or leave the country like so many others, leaving her to fend for herself and I didn’t want to do that.’

  Piran Pyne was fully aware that similar problems were being faced by very many miners in West Cornwall and Barlow with one or two others were taking advantage of the situation to stir up trouble for their own ends. Barlow was a Cornish miner who had been working in the Durham coal mines until returning a year or so ago with the declared intention of promoting ‘Unionism’. The current problems had brought him the support of a few hotheads, but he had not won the support for which he had been hoping.

  While Piran Pyne was thinking about the would-be miners’ leader, Alan asked hesitantly, ‘How’s Morwenna?’

  Returning his attention to the young man standing in front of him, the mine captain said, ‘She was upset that you weren’t with us when we came here, but she’s moved on, so it really isn’t any business of yours any more.’

  The question had been a tentative attempt by Alan to improve his chances of being given work. Realizing it had failed, he said, lamely but honestly, ‘I know that, Cap’n. I also know I made a mistake by not coming with you for Morwenna’s sake. I’ve found myself thinking of her more and more since you all left to come here. I’m sorry … I just wondered how she is.’

  Piran Pyne thought rapidly of the possible ramifications of having Alan Toms back on the scene. He had never particularly liked him but Morwenna had been far less difficult to have around when she was seeing Alan….

  He felt he needed to have a discussion with Annie about Alan’s reappearance, but that would have to wait, there was a great deal going on at the Wheal Hope right n
ow.

  Drawing a coin from a pocket, Piran Pyne proffered it to the young miner. ‘Here’s a florin, it should get you a meal and a bed at the inn you’ll find in the village. Come back to the Wheal Hope in the morning and I’ll let you know whether I can offer you work – but stay clear of Jacob Barlow.’

  Piran Pyne’s warning to Alan was well founded. After leaving Elworthy Farm the grain-seeking miners paid a call on the Spurre Home Farm but news of their approach had been given by a stable-hand who had passed them on the road while exercising one of Sir John’s riding horses.

  Anticipating trouble, the landowner had promptly sent a messenger to Launceston to call out the local militia. Then, mounted on one of his hunters and flanked by a party on foot which included a number of estate workers and two armed gamekeepers, one of whom was Marcus Grimble, Sir John made his way to the entrance of Home Farm. He was aware of Barlow’s actions in forcing farmers to sell corn at greatly reduced prices and realized that with the known agitator in the area his Home Farm might become a target.

  The corn-seeking miners had as yet caused no serious trouble in the county, most farmers having already sold their stocks of grain, but those who still held some, anxious to avoid trouble, had reluctantly sold to the miners what little they held, at the price dictated by Barlow.

  Sir John’s farm still had a considerable amount of wheat in its granary, crops grown on the slopes of the moor being harvested later than lowland ones, but Sir John had already made arrangements to have the grain shipped out from a North Cornwall port to markets offering a price far in excess of that being dictated by Barlow.

  When the miners put in an appearance their numbers took Sir John by surprise. They were more numerous than he had been expecting, but he and his employees were inside the estate with a closed gate between them and the miners – and the two gamekeepers were armed.