St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-17

Q
| Consented to Let the Fires Die Down.
old Cinnabar stays right where she Is
and soaks till kingdom come"
mo skin off of me?" yelped, with
a/sort Of wild laugh. "Listen-both
of you,' and then I told them the en-
tire eart-breaking story Of Cousin
Percy's letter and my grandfather's
joke; of my starting out on the fan
tastic search for the girl, a horse and
dog-a search which would doubtless
have failed before it had fairly begun
If I hadn't happened to ride in Pull
man smoker with the man, Charles
Fullerton.
I remembered afterward that had
got Just that far-to the naming OF
Bullerton-when Barney, the pie-faced
collie, got up from his corner of the
hearth, stalked to the door and began
to groWl The next minute we heard
a horses sh-r-r-, and Daddy Hiram
rose, pushed the dog aside and opened
the door. Then Jeanie and I, still
sitting before the fire, heard him say
gruflly: "Well, hello, Charley Butler
ton! What in Sam Hill are you dom
up in this neck o. Woods?'
/ turned to look at Jeanie-and
missed. In the moment when I had
! glanced aside. she had vanished.
When Fullerton came in, which was
after Daddy Hiram had lighted the
lantern and shown him where to put
| his horse, he didn't seem half as much
surprised to find me sitting before the
TwombIy house fire as I thought he
| might have been.
"Well, well !-7look who's here!" he
! bantered "HoW are you, Broughton?
| This old world isn't so Internally big
as it might be, after all, is it? Who
| would have thought that our next
| meeting would be in such an out-of-
| the-Way corner of the universe as this
l hope you've been well and clipper,
! all these weeks"
I said what I was obliged to, and
wasn't any too confoundedly cordial
about it, either, I guess.
Fullerton drew up chair and began
to talk, much as If we'd invited him to-
about his Woodworking year in South
America about the fabulously rich
mines in that far-away Utopia of the
/ II; nj, hi 90 I'll
the Isthmus about the oddness of his
| meeting me on the train, combined
with the more excruciating oddness OF
his meeting me again, here In the East
ern Timanyonis; things like that.
| He was just comfortably surginf
along in the swing Of 1t when a doc
opened behind us and he jumped III
with another "Well, well, look Who'
here!' and when I turned, he wa
holding Jeanie's two hands in his AM
braying over her like wild ass Of tn
plains. And, if you'll believe me, tina
girl had gone and changed her dress
That is what she went to do when sh
slipped out and left me to stare at he
empty chair, after she had heard he
father say, "Well, hello, Charley Blu
lerton!"
It was all off with me from tha
time on. For what was left OF th
!, evening, Fullerton played solo.
got full-up ON the performance abor
, nine o'clock, and climbed my ladde
| and went to bed, muff1ing my head
hot r
: to lie there and listen to the bagpiL
drone of Bullerton's voice in the roo
! below.
t Ihoped-without the least shadow
: reason for the hope, of course-th'
! the next morning would show me
2 hole in the atmosphere In the spa
r that Fullerton had occupied. b
r there was no such luck. He was pre-
t ent at the breakfast table, as lars
d as life and twice as laxative.
|, made my escape from the cab
e as soon as I could and tramped oV
d TO the mine. A glance into the s1a
t showed the black pool in its depths
n nlacId and untroubled as If we hadI
inst lifted a million or so cubic re
IS of water out Of it by hard labor.
e In morose Encouragement ! recall'
% the few things / had learned abo
Il drowned mines while was Knockl1
J. ahoue in the Cripple Creek dlstr1
D. trying to trace Bullerton. Particuls
~ l remembered my talk with Hlltt
Ut the man who had finally put me up
y what had proved to be the right ira
* In the tracing job. He had talk
le quite freely. Sometimes the flood "
II only the tapping Of an taldergrou
d. stream, rs when one digs we'll;
K. other cases-ana these were most &C
le mon In the Cripple Creek regfol
nj the source Of tile flood would be fol
a. III i buried lake Or reservoir, large