Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-06-01
A Double Shot
BY Stewart Edward White
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nAT MCANN came up from the
plains into the hills in a bad humor
with himself and the world. He had
tried to be cow-puncher and had been
promptly bucked off; he had tackled
the cooking problem and only escaped
mobbing by resigning his job; now he
had dragged his little, squad form,
with it's hanging arms, up into the
hills to try mining. He applied to the
first camp he came to. King, the fore
man, gave him job.
, Early the next morning he and an
other man walked down the gulch
through the sarvis bushes for half q
mile, turned abruptly to the right,
climbed the uneven length of a zigzag
trail and at last halted near the top of
ridge. The pine trees, slim and tall,
grew out of the unevenly carpeted
ground, through which cropped irreg-
alar slices of red-brown, crumbling
rock. At the very crestwas a dark gray
"dike" of quartzite, standing up steep
and castellated for height of 80 feet
Or more. This was the Hanging wall"
Of the prospective mine. Down through
the trees were glimpses of vast, breath
less descents to other ridges and other
pines far below. Over the dixie was
nothing but the blue sky.
The two men had stopped within q
hundred feet of the top. The old hand
went over to rough lean-to of small
trees covering rude forge, from be-
meath which he drew several steel drills
Of various lengths and sledgehammer,
which he carried to scar in the face of
huge outcropping rock. After lump
ing these he returned and got a can of
water and long T-shaped implement
of iron. The two men then set to work.
NcCann held firmly while the other
struck. After each blow he would half
turn the drill. When dozen strokes
had been given he poured a little water
in the hole and thrust the drill through
bit of sacking to keep it from splash
ing. The other man jammed his hat
down closely over his forehead and
struck fercely, alternately breathing
in and granting in rhythmical success
sion. When the hole became clogged
with fine, gray mud Mccain carefully
spooned it out with the T-shaped in
strument, wiping the latter each time
on his trousers. While he did this his
companion leaned on his sledge or
threw chunks of rock with wonderful
accuracy at the squirrels that ran con-
tinually back and forth on the ridge.
AS the hole grew deeper longer drills
were used, until at last the longest of
all left barely enough above the surface
of the rock to afford hand hold. With
that the miner expressed himself salts
fed. He then brought three cylindrical
packages wrapped in greasy paper.
whats them?" Mccain inquired.
The miner grunted contemptuously.
Hercules POWDER" he replied. He
pronounced. the proper name in two syl-
tables.
With a sharp knife he cut these into
lengths of about three inches each and
dropped them one by one into the hole
in the rock. Then he rammed them
home with hickory ramrod, just as all
old miners will insist on doing. Because
of this large percentage of old miners
have no fore and middle fingers on their
right hands. The last piece he split,
inserted in the crack a bit of fuse, on
the end of which was copper cap,
dropped it in and then carefully
chinked in with the wet grit which had
been spooned out of the hole.
'Mosey for cover, Irish" he said, and
touched it off. Eea
From behind his tree Mccain saw the
sputtering fuse disappear The next
instant the rock seemed to bulge. split
ting in radiation as it did so, and then
the smoke belched forth in canopy.
filed with fragments of quartz. Fol
lowing the miner, he found Jagged
opening in the rock. Then they sharp
ened their drills at the forge and went
at it again. By night they had fred
two more blasts and had made start
toward shaft. After the third Bob.
the miner said, glancing at the west:
"Thatll 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
lash grasses and cool saplings of the