The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-12-16

| back 10 the CABIN across the uuinl
head and wouldn't stay another min
ute. though begged and pleaded with
, her.
"No. indeed, Bluebeard man." she
. said with that queer little gurgle of q
laugh. IL think l have found out
what / wanted to. Goodby." And
then, after l thought she was clean
gone, she turned back to say, airily :
"Oh, yes; had almost forgotten what
came over here to tell you. You
mustn't sell the Cinnabar, Stannie; not
for any price that anybody might offer
you. Goodby, again."
Can you beat 1t? When the good
Lord made women He doubtless had
many patterns; but l do believe the
mold was broken and thrown away
after this jeanne girl had been fash
toned. For solid hour or more l sat
on that slab bench at the shafthouse
door in a sort of bewildered daze, won
dering if had been asleep and dream
ing, or If the bedazzllng thing had
really happened.
| At breakfast the next morning every
thing passed off as usual and Cor any
thing that Jeanne said or looked there
needn't have been any bench beside
the shafthouse door and the dream
theory l had been playing with might
have been the sober fact. An hour
later after had gone across to the
mine, Fullerton came over to dig me
out, as before.
Forty thousand this morning." he
announced as clipper as an English
sparrow over an unexpected heap of
street sweepings. "Say, Broughton,
can you afford to let your capital
shrink at the rate Of ten thousand dol
lars dayf If you should ask me, /
should say not"
you never miss what you haven't
had" l shot back. There are no
takers on the floor this morning"
"Right-o; it'll be thirty thousand to-
morrow, you must remember At that |
rate you'll be owing me quite q chunk |
OF money by this time next week. |
That's about all l have to say-ex-
cepting one more little thing: No more
chinny little tete-a-tetes In the star
light, old man, or shall be obliged to
put the CAD to you; the railroad CAD,
you know"
1t made me so boiling hot to have
him admit, thus badly, that he had
been spying upon Jeanne and me the
previous evening that / could scarcely
see straight.
'That will be about enough~
harked. 81 told you the other day
that there were limits, and you've
walked up and looked over the edge
two or three times. You may think
you have as many lives as a cat, but
| doubt it,
He laughed and threw back the la
pei Of his coat to show me regula-
ton six-gun slung by a shoulder strap
under his left arm.
"You pulled hammer on me yester-
day" lie said, letting the laugh lapse
INTO grin that showed his fine mouth
ful of teeth, 'and you probably didn't
know that you would have been dead
nan before you could swing it. Oh,
yes; | could do 1t, and any coroner's
Jury in the Red desert would acquit
ne; dangerous NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
you know. That's word to the wise.
md 1t ought to be sufficient. But |
nave better life-insurance policy than
my that the six-gun could write me.
Iou're In love with jeanne Twombly-
n spite Of that girl back East; and be-
'ause you are, you are not going to
make her a widow before the fact
you're not selling your mine for forty
housand-cold cash-this morning?"
Not this morning or any other
morning."
Good. l can afford to stick around
Iere a few days longer, / guess-at
he rate of ten thousand dollars a day.
10 long, And he picked his way out
4 the clutter of the shop and went
cross TO the cabin-and jeanne.
Later, along in this same day. while k
was standing at the shaft mouth and II
taring down at the water that was a
eeping me out of my heritage, Dad v
y Hiram came up.
"Still a-puzzlin' over it, StannIeY,
e asked in the sympathetic tone that o
e always used when he spoke of the Fl
reat Disappointment. Ii
There's nothing to 1t, Daddy" I (,
loomed. FULLERTON has me by the Ii
eek, and he knows it,"
He tiptoed to the door and peeped Ia
IT. II
You've heard 'em say at curiosity p
He'd cat" he said, out of the cor II
sr Of his mouth well, the cats A. Ii
min. skip out o. that other door a
Lannie, and hit for the timber. I'll
Itch up with you in a little spell" In
didn't know exactly what he was II,
living at until after / got clear of
e mine buildings and was climbing nj
e slope of the mountain above. Then 81
looked back and saw Fullerton saun-
ring across the dump head He was lT
identity bent on another little lob II
spriig; either that. or else he didn't II
lri Daddy and me to get together IL
ourselves.
Under cover Of the forest | sat down
d waited; and In short time Daddy
med me, making an excuse for the on