The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-08-14

on a stretcher as a result of old No.
IS madness. At another time a China
man, working in the diggings, care
lessly stepped in the way of that hiss
ing shaft Of white. After a careful
search in the diggings the men report
ed to the foreman that they had found
a strip of overalls and a pig tail"
Tony did not hear these stories and
it was probably we'll enough that he
did not, for he undoubtedly would
have refused the pipeship Of No. 8.
To him, as to all pipers, the roaring,
singing monster that yielded to the de-
flector's slightest touch, was a living,
breathing thing. A giant is to him as
a tanned lion to its master-obedient,
harmless, powerful; yet when mad
dened is wild, merciless, unconquer-
able.
Without waiting to see how No. 8
would act with Tony by her side,
Watts turned, climbed out of the dig
gings and walked rapidly along the
trail to the mess-house.
The hungry foreman had just set
himself down to a steaming dinner
when there anne a noise as of thun-
der from the diggings below, inter-
mingled with yells and shouts. He
sprang for the door, where a clear view
that Dago!" he exclaimed, as he gave
a quick glance at the scene below, and
grabbing his hat, started on a run
down the trail.
The worst had happened. The ut
most confusion reigned in the dig
gings. Old No. 5 had gone Wild and
was having things all her own way.
A little block of wood had in some
way escaped the strainer at the head
Of the pipe that lay along the noun
tainside like a serpent stretched from
the reservoir to the diggings, and COM
ing down, was carried to No. 3. The
block was too big to pass through the
giants nozzle. The defiector was given
a sudden wrench and ere Tony knew
it, and circling round and round on its
pivot the monster was out of his
hands. Tony lodged down instantly
and lay flat on the bedrock to escape
the great nozzle as it swung over
him. He dared not run His minute
frame would have been caught in that
powerful stream and hurled a broken;
unrecognizable mass far out in the
diggings.
The great stream was being thrown
wildly first against the bank, then
round through the tops of the pines
that lowered above the ridge to the
right. The limbs of the trees were
stripped by the giant as though struck
by a tornado. Then a. the giant swung
round the stream was thrown across
the gulch GOO yards away, and whirl-
ing on dashed across the diggings
again. The men on the bedrock cur
ried for shelter. They crept behind
powders and lay flat to avoid the hiss
ing stream that came hurting over
them and dashed its avalanche of wa
ter against the mountainside with
every revolution of the giant nozzle.
The pipers at giants No. l and 2 brave
ly stood at their posts. To have run
would have set the remainder of the
battery wild.
Three times around and old No. 8
changed her tactics. She ducked her
nozzle downward and the white shaft
ceased its Kissing. The men in the
diggings were safe. But alas for poor
Tony! AS the giant scraped owe him
all held their breath. But Tony rolled
diminutive frame into a shallow
c%revice. The giant passed over him,
pressed against his back, mashed his
face against the hard, slate rock, but
never broke a bone. At this critical
juncture Watts reached the throttle on
the pipe line and shut the water of.
He then came storming down into the
diggings.
Tony, his face cut and bleeding, and
trembling in every limb, meekly met
The wrath of the foreman. After re-
lfeying himself of his anger and maxi
ing elaborate use of his entire stock of
profanity, in which he cursed the
whole line of Colorado ex-governors
from the time the state was annexed,
he put Tony to "bucking' powders in
the diggings. Tony wanted to explain,
but he dared not. He knew the cause
of it all, but the Cause had been
blown from the giants nozzle, so
Watts never knew the truth.
1t was most humiliating for Tony to
handle a sledge and wheelbarrow, but
it was ever more so to undergo the
sneering remarks and retorts of the
diggings gang. He was silent, sullep.
almost sulky, but always busy. He
seldom spoke a word, but worked like
a beaver from end to end of his shift.
Small a he was he could handle more
rock than any other man in the dig
gings. He kept himself aloof and as
ISOLATED with none of the men. 1t was
supposed that Tony was an Italian
though so far as his brogue was con
cerned he might have been taken fol
anything from a Mexican Greaser te
an Icelander. There were a number
Of Italians amongst the crew, and be.
lieying Tony to be a fellow country.
man they one by one addressed him il
their native tongue. Tony would onl,
look at them blankly and exclaim:
mo savyy! Yes, l can understand
you, MOI" This was sufficient to sat
II sER 80 80 aAv . EEI rn A