The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-12-12


10 an intersection with the mine shaft.
This. estimated. might tap the water
at a point possibly twenty feet below
It's present level in the shaft. Its sue
cess, as i saw at once, would depend
entirely upon the location and volume
of the underground lake which was
supposed to be supplying the flood. IL
this reservoir were shallow and high
In the mountain, the short tunnel
might drain It II it were deep and
low, nothing would be accomplished.
The question was stu hanging hope
lessly mp In the air when made my
way around to the mine buildings by
the left-hand gulch path, sneaked in
and began TO shuck myself into Dad
dy's extra pair of oyeralls; just for
what, I hadn't the least idea; only !
needed to be doing something to keep
me, from going completely dotty in the
guessing contest
BY this time. as / knew, they would
be getting up from breakfast in the
cabin across the dump head, which
would most likely be Bullerton's cue
to come over and ride me some more
When looked out in sour anticipa-
ton. here he came. smoking one of his
high-pnced cigars and staggering a
bit, as he always did in walking.
This IL your thirty thousand-dollar
day. Broughton," he tossed at me as
soon as he stepped over the threshold
Of the shaft house door; but / fancied
/ could notice that, some way, he
didn't seem quite so clipper and care
less as he had the day before
See here" ! ripped out; whats
the use? You can't buy this mine at
any price! It's not In the market and
1t isn't going TO be. Not in thousand
years !"
But see here; what's the use of
butting your head against stone wall?
You're stuck. world without end. and
You know It, This flooded hole in the
ground In Of no more use to you than
a pair OF spectacles to a blind man 7"
Perhaps not; It's poor thing. but
mine own / guess I can keep it as
a souvenir If feel like 1t, can't II"
"Oh, h-lr' he gritted, and turning
on his heel went away.
After he had gone / patted myself
on the back a bit for not losing my
temper and. then, just to have an ex-
cuse for staying away from the cabin
and the Fullerton vicinity, made fires
under the boilers and got up steam. In
the former pumping spasm Daddy and
had operated only the two big CEN
trifugals, ignoring the deep-well pumps
designed to lift the water from the
lower levels of the mine.
Just to try something that we hadn't
tried before. got steam on the deep
wellers, and soon found that the
machinery, which we hadn't taken
down In the general overhauIing,
needed tinkering before IL would be
safe to rum it. Banking the boiler
fires. went at the job single-handed
and managed to wear out the livelong
day at IL.
1t took me all the afternoon and
then some to get the machinery cleaned
and hnkered up and reassembled In
paving over the supplies in the mine
storeroom--stuff left by the former op-
erators-we had found an acetylene
fare torch and a can of carbide and /
rugged the torch so that I could go on
working after dark.
1t was along about nine o'clock when
] got the deep-wells ready to run and
freshened up the fires and turned the
steam on. In curious contrast to the
care which had been taken to provide
a discharge outlet for the centrifugals,
the Cornish pumps had merely an iron
trough which ran to a ditch leading
down to the bench below the mine
buildings. After few minutes OF the
clanking and banging. the water began
to come. 1t was horribly smelling
stuff, thick and discolored; evidences
sufficient that it was coming from the
bottom Of the mine. The two pumps
together were lifting about an eight
inch stream, and ii occurred to me at
once that IL could set the centrifu-
/ gals going at the same time, the mass
attack might accomplish what the
piece-meal assault couldn't
Throwing In the clutch that drove
the big rotaries, ! ran up against what
Daddy would have called a "circum-
stance" There wasn't power enough
to drive both sets of pumps coupled
in together; at least, not with the
steam pressure the boilers were car,
rying. Thinking to get more power by
pushing the fires bit harder, / went
to the detached boiler room TO stoke
up, leaving the deep wells changing
away In the shafthouse / had fired
two Of the furnaces and was at work
on the third when a series of grind
ing crashes I'm the machinery sent me
flying to find out what was going
wrong.
What was happening-what had al
ready happened-was a plenty. As
have said, the great Cornish water
lifters were driven through a train
Of gearing. When reached the scene
the steam engine was still running
smoothly, but the pumps had stopped
The reason didn't have to be looked