The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-12-23
CopyrIgh. b. charIes soribner's SONS

canVaSSeu De1ore.
"Nothin' but that clippin' from some
newspaper back East, tellin' about Mr..
Dudley's passln' OUT
kinda curious somebody don't tell
We. somethin', amt it?" the marshal
put Ia. Looks like the heirs d be
either fshin' r cuttin' bait on this
here Cinnabar layout--not as It'd do
em any good If they did. Didn't any
letter come with the newspaper piece?"
| Mary a pen-scratch."
"Whereabout was the envelope
! posted?"
"Washin'ton."
"Aha !" said I to myself, II have you,
Cousin Percy For some reason best
known to yourself you didn't want
Daddy Hiram TO get hold Of Grand
father Jasper's proper address,
His pipe smoked out, the marshal
| prepared to take horse. Daddy went
with him to the far side Of the dump
and the murmur Of their voices came
to me In diminishing cadences. After
q bit Daddy came back and called up
] to me in the sing-song OF the miners
after the final blast has been fred:
'sA-a-l-l over, Stanlie. l reckon We
can come down now and get you some
breakfast"
Jeanie served me in silence when
| took my place at table and the good
old man stood In the doorway, keeping
watch, as | made no doubt, against
q possible second-thought return of
Friend Isaac, the bristle-bearded
Throughout the working day which
followed he never made the slightest
reference to the episode Of the morn
ing and, truly, think the whole incl
/ dent would have been buried In obliy-
Ion by those two supplemented souls
II hadn't first spoken Of 1t myself.
This l did in the evening Of the
same day, when Daddy had gone to
make his entirely useless night round
OF the mine property. AS, on most
evenings, Jeanie sat at her corner of
the hearth, knitting, and was filling
a bedtime pipe.
"Jeanie," broke out, II wish you'd
tell me why you and your father are
so good to me. How do you know that
I'm not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be? / did steal
the car and get 1t smashed, you know"
You are not a criminal and am
sure You didn't mean to get the car
smashed. Besides, you had taken
shelter under our roof
You are true Bedouins," laughed
rs that the code In the West ?--your
code ITO defend anybody who has eat.
en- salt with youT"
Il should think 1t would be any,
body's CODE"
'You and your father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for met"
Daddy thought he might Just hap
pen along. We are only four mile:
from Atropia, you know"
"And was that the reason you put
the old transit at the window2--st
you might watch for him?'
"Of course"
BY Jovel Another woman. any 9th
er woman In the world, thought
would have let some little shred q
sentiment show she couldn't hay,
helped 1t, But this one didn't. 4
boy couldn't have looked me in tn,
eyes any more frankly and SQUARED,
than she did when she said 20
course" Since had eaten their bread
was. for SO long as chose to stay
a member of the clan.
VI 1t was near the end of the fortnight
and Daddy Hiram and / had secure,
and rubbed and scraped and reas
sembled the engine and pumps. an
We're finishing the cleaning of the boil
ers. These We're pretty badly ruste
and scaled, and to do the job properly
we had taken the manltole heads GU
of the holes left to give access to tn
Interior of the shells, and had had
good-natured squabhle as to which {
us should crawl inside to do the scraI
Ing: Daddy insisting upon doing it. b,
cause as he pointed out. he was tn
smaller man, and | arguing that
should because was the younger an
stronger.
I To settle II finally we Tipped col
--one of those inch-wide copper pei
MES that Daddy carried for poke
piece-and won the toss. The jc
wasn't exactly picnic. but got alor
all right until we came to the last
the battery. | found that the repai
k, ers had at some past time inserted
couple of extra stay-rods, so that the
WAS little enough room left In the O
r steel shell for professional boile
ia monkey to wriggle about in. to ST
ST nothing of a husky young chap wi
tipped the beam at around hundr,
rs and seventy pounds, stripped.
Just the same, made shift to knot
n the worst of the scale of and ratt
lp II down SO that II could be wash,
II out from below, and was hacking o
TO make my escape. when | found til
m one OF the extra stay-rods was loos
AT my asking, Daddy screwed up I