The Irish standard., 1899-05-06
a Double Shot
By Stewart Edward Whit
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DAT M'CANN came up from the
plains into the hills in IL bad humor
with himself and the world. He had
tried to be cow-punchcr 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-
ular slices of a redbrowl crumbling
rock. At the very crest wasa dark gray
''dike" of quartzite, standing up steep
and castellated for a height of 80 feet
or more. This was the changing 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 a
hundred feet of the top. The old hand
went over to rough lcan-to of small
trees covering a rude forge, from be-
meath which he drew several steel drills
of various lengths and Il sledgehammer,
which he carried to scar in the face of
huge outcropping rock. After lump
ing these he returned and got can of
water and long T-shaped implement
of iron. The two men then set to work.
Mccain held firmly while the other
struck. After each blow he would half
turn the drill. When dozen strokes
had been given he poured little water
in the hole and thrust the drill through
a bit of sacking to keep it from splash
ing. The other man jammed his hat
down closely over his forehead and
struck fiercely, alternately breathing
in and granting in rllythmical success
sion. When the hole bccame cloggcd
with fine, gray mud Met ann 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 Il hand hold. With
that the miner expressed himself salts
fed. He then brought three cylindrical
packages wrapped in greasy paper.
whats them?" McCann inquired.
The miner grunted contemptuously.
"Hcrcules 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 ore into the hole
in the rock. Then he rammcd them
home with a hickory ranrod, 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 Il bit of fuse, m
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, lrish!" he said, and
touched it off.
From behind his tree Mccain saw the
suffering 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,
filled with fragments of quartz. Fol-
lowing the miner, he found a Jagged
opening in the rock. Then they sharp
ened their drills at the forge and went
at it again. BY night they had fired
two more blasts and had made start
toward shaft. After the third Bob,
the miner said, glancing at the west:
"That'll do, Irish"
They cached the tools, caught up the
water bucket and swung rapidly down
the trail. Bob was ahead, slouchinp
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
"Well," said the landlady, II have Just
finished paying the plumber for thaw-
ing the water pipes. 1t seems like IN
imposition"