Thurston of Orchard Valley

An ambitious engineer risks his family's remaining property on a copper mine beneath the rugged northern English fells. Geoffrey Thurston has mortgaged field after field to keep the work going, only to meet a geological break that threatens his hopes. An expert offers a way out through a misleading sale to investors. Geoffrey refuses to help deceive the public, bringing his stubborn pride into conflict with commercial pressure. His confrontation with the expert also reveals his quick temper.

Harold Bindloss's novel combines engineering enterprise in the Canadian Northwest with a love story built around obligation and trust. Helen Savine asks Geoffrey to finish her ailing father's great undertaking and allow her father the credit. Geoffrey owes Julius Savine his prosperity, and his pledge places professional loyalty beside his feelings for Helen. Readers interested in practical work, business pressure and restrained romance will find those concerns closely connected in this story.