Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-05-12


afternoon that an attempt could be
made to enter the mine, and then it was
Harvey Neil who came forward, the
first to go down. A solemn hush fell
upon the crowd as they watched him
step into the bucket, while the crude
Eoisting apparatus, hastily constructed,
creakingly passed him out of sight.
Everybody knew that if the air below
had turned foul, as many held must be
the case, another victim might be added
to swell the horror of that day; and
hardly a whisper broke the stiffness
Until the signal came to bid them draw
HIM back. Then, as he reappeared, 4
wild cheer broke from lips turned pale,
and women sobbed for joy when he told
| that the air seemed good, which prom
| ised well for the men below; but he had
| found, some forty feet down, fallen tim
hers so wedged across the shaft that
| there must be more hard work before
| the full descent could be made.
The sun was setting when finally the
way was clear. Again Neil laid his hand
on the side of the bucket, although now
| there were others who would have
| gone; but there was that in mis- manner
which gave him the place without dis
| Cussiop; and again the crowd, in awed
expectancy, watched him out Of
sight.
He was gone much longer this time;
and when at length he returned, the
| first look at his face told the staring
eyes what it was that covered by a
coat, lay huddled in the bucket at his
feet-the dreadful something that but
few short hours ago had been his
| enemy, Col. Randolph Meredith.
"Dead-every one" Neil whispered to
those nearest, as he stepped out upon
the ground, barring his head before he
turned back to help the other hands
| that were reverently oustretched to lift
to earth the burden he had brought.
Long before this Mrs. Morrison had
persuaded Dorothy to go home with
there with the dreadful truth until
teams had come to carry the dead down
to camp. Then, with a slow step,
tagging no less because of the pain
fulness of his errand than for the utter
physical exhaustion following the
frenzied toll and excitement of the day,
he betook himself over the hill to the
Mascot clearinghouse.
Recalling with sharp sense of dread
Dorothy's mood of the morning, he
thought il better to let her receive the
awful truth from Mrs. Morrison, who,
however uncouth in speech and man.
ner, had yet woman's heart to tell her
how to soften the blow for the unhappy
girl.
He sat down upon the steps outside
when he had sent her with the mes
sage, his heart aching for his love while
he waited to hear how she bore it;
meaning by and by to beg a word with
her, to learn if she would have him
ride to Orodelphia that night to tele-
graph her friends, or what her wishes
might be respecting her father.
A long time he patiently waited, after
Mrs. Morrison had reported that the
girl was crying fit to break her heart:"
refusing the good woman's urgency
that he should come in to supper, al
though to please her he accepted the
tea and toast she brought him at the
door, feeling the better for the refresh
ment which he had been too much
wrought up to think of needing.
1t seemed to him hours before Mrs
Morrison, listening at the door and
hearing no sound, finally decided that
Miss Meredith might now be calm
enough to hear that he waited to see
her; but it was with frightened aix
that, after considerable delay, she came
back.
NTor,ol;fh ho1 4ol-irrr
crazy-like, at the very idea of seeing Mr.
Neil, she reported, with evident reluc.
lance, plying the pain and mortified
ton she could not but see upon his
face. "She says as how you hated her
father N she mustn't never forget il.
OF course she don't rightly sense what
| she's sayin', n bein' you're a stranger
to her n ALL" the good woman sooth-
ingly and in all innocence argued,
''mebbe it's matched she should be preju-
| diced. Anyhow, she is; there's no
blinkin' that, Mr.. Neil; N she's SO sot,
don't believe there would be no man.
ner of use your SEEM her anyhow. I'll
take her back to camp n do for her
s much s / can. She don't seem 10
sense that belong to the Mascot; but
you-why, it's unreasonable, of course,
but what you goin' to do about it? l
s'pose her pas set her up to it, n it's
only jest matched, her feelin' so. You
can't blame her."
NO." said Neil, YEARLY, his face as
dulled and set as those which had been
brought up out of the mine that day,
81 can't blame her"
ITO BE Continued