Will of the Mill, by George Manville Fenn.
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A Huguenot settlement in the Derbyshire dales, in the middle of England,
in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Vicar's son, and the mill-owner's son are great friends. They
become friends with a visiting artist, who is lodging in the house of
one of the key-workers at the Mill, where they manufacture silk. The
artist falls down an old mine-shaft up in the hills, and the boys find
him. At home they are missed and a rescue party is sent out, and finds
them all.
One day the mill mysteriously goes on fire, and, equally mysteriously,
the fire pump has been disabled. Just in time it is repaired by the man
the artist is staying with. The man's name was originally Boileau, but
like so many Huguenots, he has anglicised it to Drinkwater.
Drinkwater goes mad, and has an obsessional hatred for the mill-owner.
It is thought possible that he actually set the fire having previously
disabled the fire-pump.
But far worse is to befall. One night, in the autumn rains, the dam
that feeds the mill bursts its banks, and the village is flooded, with
much being washed away. Did Drinkwater do this too? There is a
dramatic finish to the book.
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