The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1900-12-20
The Diamond Drill.
BY GEORGE

BY GEORGE BEARDSLEY.
copyrighted, 1900: Daily Story Pub. Coz
And it was coal?" 1 demanded
eagerly.
l was sorry to press the old man SO
closely for the exact truth, but l had
probably a more practical interest in
his narrative than anybody who had
ever listened to it. For / owned a
modest acreage of that prairie myself
and l had a romantic curiosity to
know what was under the surface. For
this reason l had hunted up Barden-
quaint and broken enthusiast-"Must-
Goal" they had called him in
'atteville for twenty years. The pros
pecIor had grown SO accustomed to
llgnt treatment of his hobby that l
was naturally received at first as just
one more heartless scoffer. But he
must have detected a note of sincerity
in my questions, for before many min
utes we sat cheek by jowl upon the
sidewalk, and he was only relating in
the dusk the progress of his boring of
ten years before, but was exploiting
his whole theory of river valley coal
beds. In better days and better
strength he had made pilgrimages to
most of the great coal mines lying
near Nebraska. Walked every foot
o. the way" said he, with quiet pride.
Was gone two years from home, lost
my eye in an accident in the Bloss
mine"
There was a story sequent of that,
too. 1t was said the woman he loved
refused to marry a disfigured man.
Then you came back to Platteville
satisfied"
Eyes, came back satisfied we was
on the right side O. the river for it,"
| soon noticed that he never said the
word coal" if he could avoid it.
But lately he had one other interest,
come to contend with the coal hope
for supremacy in his life. Besides the
notion of hearing Barden's account of
the drilling, I had a desire if possible
to see something of young Walt, who
lived with him. 1 had seen the youth
about town with a girl Of singular
beauty, and had partaken so far of
$AS FA1Ao6O SOoolP DIS " AuOW IudL LAC
young persons were engaged to be
married. How genuine was my inter
est in the prospector's account will
appear when I say that l very soon
forgot the lovers and all else not
closely pertaining to the sinking OF
the shaft and its result. Inch by
inch, through sand, water, gravel, clay,
moro uyo for-dnun farty Pao& T &011orv
ed in imagination the course of the
steel-felt alternately hope and dis
appointment as in Barden's subdued
voice these were echoed across ten
years. At length he told how the drill
threw up "a little piece of black stuff
bout as big as that,''-he held up a
SCARED hand, the thumb to the first
joint thrust out between the fingers.
WAS it coal?"
He hesitated, hunting, no doubt, for
language that would be conscientious
and at the same time favorable. Then
he answered slowly.
"Er-well. 1 wasn't quite sure-an'
them at was with me couldn't just
make out for certain, so we carried it
to Muzzy, the blacksmith. He worked
in the mines once, and Muzzy took 1t
and chewed it up, and-we' called it
COAL"
When one feels like signing and
laughing both at once the proper cue
is mum" Not until after a long
pause did I venture to ask, Have you
never followed it up?"
"Oh, it's no use without a diamond
drill. The drill I had that time I
made myself. 1t would take a good
point to reach the-to get down to 1t.
How much would a drill cost?' 1
was prepared for four figures.
well a good one would cost nigh
up to seventy-f1ve dollars, probly."
l ground my heel in the sand. This
was bankruptcy.
He must have felt the circuit of sym
pathy to be established between us,
for he said in a confiding half whis-
per:
Would you-like to come out-an'
see the hole?"
He led me into a narrow garden.
There, in the midst of tomato vine,
was the excavation, some four or five
feet across the top. Barden paused
on the edge of it as he might have
paused at a graves edge. There was
more light here, the place being open
to the stars, and I scrutiniZed his face