Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-05-19

"That'll do, Irish"
| They cached the tools, caught up the
water bucket and swung rapidly down
| the trail. Bob was ahead, slouching
along with the mountaineer's peculiar
gait, which seems so lazy, and yet which
gets over the ground SO fast. In very
| few moments he reached the gulch be-
low, plunging from the bare, rock
strewn hillside under the pines to the
lush grasses and cool saplings of the
canyon bed as from a desert to gar
| den. He looked around to say some
thing. Mccain was gone.
| 'Well, I'm d-d!' he CALCULATED, and
yelled loudly.
| After a moments pause, from far
down the opposite slope came faint
whoop. Bob sat down on fallen tree
and waited philosophically, shouting
at intervals. In little while the Irish
man came charging frantically up the
gulch, tearing along through the vines
and bushes at full speed, so terrified
| that he passed within ten feet of Bob
| without seeing him. The latter watched
him surge by with an odd little twinkle
in his eye. Then suddenly he shouted
again. Pat slowed up, looked about for
a moment vacantly and then his rugged
Hibernian face broke into a multitude
of jolly wrinkles.
'Arrah, it's yerself, darlin'," he said;
"Oi thought it's Pat Mccain as is goin'
t. Shape wild tn mountain lines this
night"
"You stick t. me-" was Bob's only
comment.
After a short climb the men reached
the camp on a knoll overlooking two
continent gulches. There was the SUI
perintendent's Office, the coOkhouse. the
clubhouse, the blacksmith's shop, the
stables and the corral-all of logs. Sup
per was served at shutdown. The men
filed in, took off their coats and sat
down without a word. AS each one
finished eating he arose, put on his
coat again and sauntered outside, filling
his pipe as he went. Finally the whole
gang was gathered at the clubhouse,
smoking, telling laconic stories or play
ing cribbage-the great American game
in the mountains.
As the last conner, Pat was told to
water the horses. He went boldly into
the corral with a rope and was kicked
fiat. The boys Strengthened him out,
and, after he had regained his breath,
hands. Except in the main canyons
of the Black Hills there is no surface
water, the creeks all running down
along the bedrock. AS consequence,
wells are necessary even in the upper
hills. Pat first let a horse get loose
then he lost the bucket down the well,
then he fell in himself in trying to fish
it out. The boys fished him out with
! G. l..
quate an individual it had not been their
fortune to meet before, and they looked
on him as curiosity. On the spot they
adopted Pat Mccain much as they
would have adopted stray kitten OF
puppy, and doubtless in somewhat the
same amused, tolerant state of mind.
The next morning Bob and Pat
cleared away the debris of the three
blasts, wrenching off the broken, adj
herring bits with pick and shoveling
them out. King came up with an ak
gang and built a rough, square breast
work of logs down the hill, to catch the
quartz as in bin. They also squared
a number of timbers and tongued the
ends. These were to timber the shaft.
All this interested the little Irishman
He recovered his spirits, and his ole
i blarney came back to him. The clear
fresh air of the hills, the abundant food
the hard work, the sound sleep, the re
action against the taciturnity of the
: men, and the calm grandeur of the
mountains, filled him with ANNA
spirits. He imagined he had found hi:
; vocation at last. He wanted to dc
everything. In time he learned t.
strike with the sledge, although it wa.
only after long practice on stake tha
he could induce anyone to hold fol
him; he sharpened drills-after fash
ion; he even helped in the timbering
up. The only thing lacking was the
+ shooting of the charges. He had al
, ambition to touch the thing off. Thi.
, King roughly forbade.
THAT fy-away fool to risk his necl
that way?" he said; ST guess not! HI
don't know enough now to make hi!
: head ache. When I want a wild Irish
man too dead to skin, I'll let you know
: don't want that man to have the frs
thing to do with the powder. Under
I stand thati"
What King said went in that camp
. | Besides, the men knew him to be il
$ the right. Pat was the unluckiest mai
f | alive, and the most awkward. He wa
e sure to be in any trouble there wa
4 about-in fact, as Jack Williams said
: he was a sort of hghtning-rod for tn
/ whole camp in the way of trouble
everyone else was sure of exemption, i
there was only one mans share of diff
;. ficulty dealt out. So Mccain pleade,
q in vain.
: This went to his heart. He woul,
have given his blackthorn shillalal
o from Dublin to have been looked upo]
d as full-f1edged miner. He used to pu
e on all the airs of one in Sweetwate
n when he went down there once a week