John Meade Falkner

Young John Trenchard is looking for nothing more than an adventure when he stumbles into a smugglers' crypt beneath a coastal churchyard - and finds a legendary lost diamond instead. What follows is a chase across storms, secret tunnels, and the English Channel, as a boy who wanted excitement discovers exactly what it costs to actually get it. Moonfleet is smuggling fiction at its most atmospheric: fog, treachery, and a diamond that seems determined to ruin everyone who touches it.
A genuine adventure classic for readers who want their coastlines dangerous and their loyalties tested.