Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-09-10

Meanwhile the Sheriff and the Judge,
ance which included commercial as
, well as legal supremacy, We're engaged
in enlarging and improving a combina-
ton livery stable and feed yard, in
which they We're equally interested.
The project under way was the sink
ing OF Il well, but the deep-rooted
dislike and suspicion in which they
were both held by the townsfolk made
| it necessary for them to do most of the
work themselves. They took turns be-
low digging at the clay or drilling into
the rocky strata, but were hard put to
find steady man who would man the
windlass which lifted the dirt and de-
bris and the diggers themselves from
the we'll On Monday morning, how.
ever, a stranger struck town in search
Of work. He was a red-faced, pussy
German, with bulging blue eyes, very
silent but very good-natured. So Ock.
erson hired him, and from in the
morning till in the evening, with
but an hour for rest at noon, he had
tugged and painted at the rough handle
Of the windlass. That hour he had
spent in most extraordinary manner,
for Doc Peterson had watched him
stroll down the main street to the edge
of town and then run like a cottontail
for the woods half a mile away. How
ever, he was back at his post at l
o'clock and the work went on in
silence. AT o'clock Ockerson came up
in the bucket.
81 got the drill in about five inches"
he said to Higgins, who was ready to
descend. 81 think the next blast will
fetch her. Better make q deep hole
this time and drop in two sticks O. dyn-
amte. 1t won't take morn half an
hour, Jedge."
"All right, Ock," said the Judge. get
ting into the bucket with an admoni-
tory Easy, easy, meinherrr'
AT $50 from the depths of the well
came the workers voice: Hi, up
there! Get ready to hist"
Put in n two-minute fuse, Jedgew
shouted the Sheriff, peering down into
the well. How deep's the drill:"
Twelve inches" was the answer.
There was silence for five minutes,
| Ockerson leaning over the brink of the
abyss, the German at the handle wait
ing for the word. A little man with an
| old-fashioned musket had come up un-
noticed and was sitting on heap of
stones just behind the German. He
windlass eyed him with vacant, watery
eyes.
Are you ready, mein herr?" came
the voice of Judge Higgins.
"All ready" cried the German.
Peering into the black abyss Sheriff
| Ockerson could see the flash of
match and then the red sputter of the
fuse. The windlass creaked as the
German bent to his task, but Ockerson,
leaning over, was saying: "I'll bet
she'll come in tonight, Jedge."
Hope So" answered the voice rising
swiftly toward the surface. II piled
all the loose rocks ever the dynamite
and packed it down with clay. Bet the
shot'll wreck the"
His head was almost level with the
surface, but lie did not finish the SEN
| tence. The sudden shot of a gun near
| the Germans ear caused him to drop
the handle. Down went man and
bucket with scream and crash.
Ockerson turned swiftly round and
| saw Henry Etling, the little sheep
man. just poising a ragged rock. Be
fore the Sheriff could dodge it struck
him full in the face. He never heard
the awful explosion that followed in
| the well, nor felt the final crash of an.
other stone which the wiry little Et.
ling dropped upon his head. In five
| minutes the whole town was running
into the corral, crowding round the
the well. They found the Dutchman
almost hysterical with fright; Ocker-
son quite dead, but from the smoke
vomiting oritice in the earth came
no sound but the rush and gurgle of
water as the well "came in." Nor did
anyone see the little sheep man in
Sandstone again, though his shack Is
rebuilt and his Dutch partner lives
with him in all the serenity of peace
full toll and an unruffled conscience.
AS for Doc Peterson, the Coroner, he
Ks very proud Of his first verdict, which
was death by premature explosion
on the part of Judge Chet Higgins, and
by a fragment of flying rock on the
part Of Sheriff Bill Ockerson, both be-
ing brought about by the accidental
discharge of a gun in the hands of
party or parties to us unknown."-John
Fl. Raftery, in the Chicago Record.
Herald