St. Tammany farmer., 1921-12-24
,le-tnat OF commander In chief.

can find and tote it over to the shaft
house, I'll fetch the blankets and the
cookin' tins"
I obeyed blindly, and entirely with
out prejudice to lively curiosity as
to what this new move might mean
While I was emptying the kitchen and
pantry the old man unearthed another
rife from the closet under the loft lad
der, and with it box Of ammunition !;
and l observed that this second gun.
like the one he had carried on our
pilgrimage Of the night, looked as If
it had been freshly oiled and rubbed
up every day since 1t had left the fac
tory.
you'll have lot of talking to do
presently" I warned him. "You seem
to forget that you haven't yet told me
what's biting YOU"
Maybe there amt nothin' bitin' me !;
maybe Pm just gettin' sort O. old and
skeery. But it's this-away, Stannie,
son: Ever since your gran'paw gave
me this here watchin' job, and since
heard tell how them Cripple Creek
shOrt-card artists socked it to him on
this Cinnabar deal, l been lookin' for
trouble. l hain't been easy about them
Cripple Creek holdups nary day
since your gran'paw told me to stay
here and hold theefort for him"
"You thought perhaps the original
owners might try to grab the property
by force?"
Daddy looked up at me from under
his bushy eyebrows:~-
"'Pears to me like you've got a
mighty short memory, some way, Stan
ME. Have you done forgot that bunch
o huskies we saw campin' out in Ante
lope gulch as we come along by there
at daybreak this nornin'? l didn't like
the looks O. that camp much at the
time; and ] liked it d whole lot less
after we get here and found Charley
Bullerton sunnin' himself on the door
step. Made me sort O. perk up my
ears
'But, see here, Daddy" thrust in,
'if he's got my deed, or has destroyed
1t, why"
''Why, lie has as good right to the
Cinnahar as the next one that comes
along, is what you're goin' to say. I
amt disputin' you for minute But
afore he can have it, he's got to take
it, hain't he? And we've got two nigh
ty good li'l' pieces Of artillery that says
he's goin' to have one joyful old time
a-takin' It; that is, if you're of the
;. same mind that I am"
By Jove! l wanted to put my arms
around the old Spartan and hug him!
AS I've said,. there were ten or dozen
men in that bunch we'd seen In the
gulch, and he was calmly proposing to
stand up to them, as confidently as II
it were all in the days work.
II get you now, Daddy" I said, land
If there's fight coming to us, your
mind is mine Well give them the best
we've got"
thought the two old-fashioned guns
and Jeanie's pistol promised a poor
chance for an effective defense; but
Daddy Hiram proceeded to show me
that we had at least one other re-
source. In the mine stores left behind
by the former operating company were
two boxes of sixty-per-cent dynamite,
with fuse and caps, and Daddy pointed
out that there were good possibilities
wrapped up in the greasy brown-paper
cartridges if the enemy should come
close enough to let us use them.
Il believe you had this all doped out
in advance Daddy" | said, when he
had a neat little row Of the cartridges
laid out on the floor "But surely you
didn't expect to hold out alone if those
sharks sent a crowd Of jumpers in to
run you Off"
''Me and Jeanie," he said simply.
''We'd "a done our level best; and the
angels couldn't do no more than that"
Here, unless the old man was sadly
mistaken in his daughter, was another
and wholly unsuspecter side of the blue
eyed maiden displayed for me. tried
to imagine Lisette helping her father,
or me, or any lone man, to defend be-
leaguered mine against an armed at
'Do you mean to say that Jeanie would
shut herself up in here and load the
guns for you against a mob Of mine
jumpers?"
He looked up with prideful sparkle
in his mild blue eyes.
"You don't half know that little girl
O. mine, yet, Stannie, son." he said
earnestly. And then: "She's the only
boy ever had, you see; and he.hain't
had any mother since she can remem-
Der. Maybe hadn't ort to taught her
to ride haWsses and shoot, and them
things; but it seemed like l had to-"
"You haven't made her one iota less
womanly-or Iovable," l hastened to
say. Then / blurted out the thing that |
had been weighing on me ever since !
we had found Bullerton loafng on the
doorstep: "Do you suppose they could
lis there any way they could have
been married yesterday, Daddy?"
"Uh-huh I reckon there was. They
might "a gone on down to Angels.
There's justice O. the peace down
there
1t still lacked a full hour of noon
when we got our preparations made
and were ready to stand siege. Then
we waited, and waited some more; and |
after a while I began to grin. What
If we had stampeded ourselves need
lpssly? After all the men we had seen