Summary
Summary of The La Chance Mine Mystery
The La Chance Mine Mystery at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 4 h 40 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 66,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1920by Susan Morrow Jones
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A welcome carries a warning
Nick Stretton comes back to La Chance hungry and worn out after building a road to the mine. His shortcut across Lac Tremblant in a leaky canoe brings him through bitter cold and past hidden rocks. At the landing, a girl grips his shoulder and whispers a warning before disappearing.
When Nick reaches Dudley Wilbraham's shack, a girl sits beside the blazing fire. She seems to answer his wish for a home, but the strange encounter has already joined that hope to danger.
Key idea 2
Nick protects someone he cannot trust
The girl is Paulette Brown, who has come to marry Dudley.
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Key idea 3
The wolves reveal a planned trap
Paulette joins Nick on the wagon carrying the sealed gold to Caraquet.
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Key idea 4
A death leaves a hidden warning
Nick returns to the swamp road and finds a dead wolf with a knife wound, suggesting someone waited there during the attack.
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Key idea 5
A hidden name deepens the danger
Paulette signs a letter as Tatiana Paulina Valenka, the name of a dancer linked to an unsolved disappearance and an emerald necklace.
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Key idea 6
Trust is a deliberate risk
Nick trusts Paulette despite evidence that might turn him against her.
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Key idea 7
Home stands beside hidden crime
Names and appearances conceal the people at La Chance.
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Key idea 8
The wilderness becomes a clue
Nick looks back on events and speaks directly to the reader, admitting his blunders while hinting at trouble still ahead.
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Key idea 9
Belief matters amid greed and deception
Nick's return from the freezing lake leads him into a murderous plot shaped by gold, hidden identities and fear.
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Who it’s for
Readers who enjoy a mystery of wolves, winter and hidden gold, a narrator who laughs at his own mistakes, and a romance between two people who each keep a secret.
What this book is
What would you do if a stranger gripped your shoulder in the dark and whispered that you must leave, and then you found her sitting by your fire? That is how Nick Stretton comes home to La Chance, a remote gold mine in the Canadian bush.
The La Chance Mine Mystery was written by Susan Morrow Jones, who died in 1926. It is a wilderness thriller with a love story at its centre. Nick tells it himself in a rueful voice and admits every foolish mistake.
In this summary
- 1A welcome carries a warningFree
- 2Nick protects someone he cannot trust
- 3The wolves reveal a planned trap
- 4A death leaves a hidden warning
- 5A hidden name deepens the danger
- 6Trust is a deliberate risk
- 7Home stands beside hidden crime
- 8The wilderness becomes a clue
- 9Belief matters amid greed and deception
A freezing night crossing brings Nick home
Nick Stretton paddles a leaky borrowed canoe across Lac Tremblant on a bitter November evening. He is hungry and worn out, because nobody sent a horse to meet him. For three months he has built fifty miles of road to the La Chance mine. The lake offers a shortcut that saves him twenty-two miles on foot.
The lake cannot be trusted. Its depth changes overnight, and rocks hide beneath the surface. That is why Nick built a road around it. He also smells like carrion, because he spilled a foul brew over his clothes in Skunk's Misery, thinking it was liniment.
At the landing a girl wrapped in a shawl grips his shoulder in the dark. She whispers that he must leave her alone or she will tell, and she is gone. Nick walks up to Dudley Wilbraham's shack and finds a blazing fire, and by it sits the girl of his dreams. A tired man's wish for a home is answered, and the answer carries danger.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Nick's trust in Paulette matter?
Right. “Nick trusts Paulette against all the evidence.”Not quite. “Nick trusts Paulette against all the evidence.”
What does Nick realize about the wolves attacking the wagon?
Right. “Nick works out that the smell drew the wolves, and that someone planned a trap.”Not quite. “Nick works out that the smell drew the wolves, and that someone planned a trap.”
What does Nick find among Macartney's belongings after the killings?
Right. “The next day Nick finds among Macartney's belongings the old leather card case that Thompson carried.”Not quite. “The next day Nick finds among Macartney's belongings the old leather card case that Thompson carried.”
Go deeper: the whole of The La Chance Mine Mystery
About 4 h 50 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 66,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 40 min
Questions about The La Chance Mine Mystery
What is The La Chance Mine Mystery about?
It follows Nick Stretton, a young bush engineer, who returns to a remote Canadian gold mine and meets a girl with a secret. Strange accidents, wolves and a dead man's cards draw him into a plot to seize the gold.
Who is Paulette Brown in the book?
She is a graceful young woman living at La Chance, brought there by the mine owner Dudley Wilbraham. She keeps her past hidden, marks the gold with blue seals, and is fearful of someone at the mine.
What is Skunk's Misery?
It is a poor village of huts hidden among rocks and pines in the bush between Caraquet and Lac Tremblant. Nick spends a week there nursing a boy, and the place matters more than he first thinks.
Is Lac Tremblant a real lake?
The book presents it as an unreliable lake that rises and falls without warning, hides rocks and never freezes solid. It stands at the heart of the setting, and the story uses it for both danger and escape.
Is The La Chance Mine Mystery easy to follow?
Nick tells the story in a friendly, direct voice, and short chapters end on small surprises. He explains the country as he goes, so a reader can picture the lake, the road and the mine with ease.
Cite this edition
Jones, Susan Morrow. The La Chance Mine Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-la-chance-mine-mystery.
Jones, S. M. (2026). The La Chance mine mystery. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-la-chance-mine-mystery (Original work published 1920)
Jones, Susan Morrow. The La Chance Mine Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-la-chance-mine-mystery.
@book{jones2026la,
author = {Jones, Susan Morrow},
title = {The La Chance Mine Mystery},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-la-chance-mine-mystery},
note = {First published 1920}
}
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