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

I'm telling you right now, Broughton,
it's no use. I filed on the little Blue
eyes claim over yonder in TWombly,s
cabin long. long time before you ever
saw or heard Of it."
That remark Of his carried things
over the edge for me. "#S .~
"see here, Fullerton" I said, and
suppose I stuck out my jaw at him as
people say l do when I'm beginning
to feel ugly, there are limits, and
I'll pay you the compliment of assum-
ing that you are not quite born fool.
We are going to leave Miss TWombly
out of it; completely and absolutely
out of it."
"You may but shan't," he grinned
back at me. "In point Of fact, my
dear fellow, now that | come to think
of it, you'll have to leave her out.
"Not for anything you may say or
do, or leave unsaid or undone."
"Yes, you will; and for something
that may say. And I guess this Is
as good time as any to mention 1t.
Have you forgotten that you have ad-
vertised yourself in this out-of-the-Way
corner of the world rather successful
ly as one of two things: pretty
dangerous sort of lunatic, ora GRIM
inal? AS matter Of fact, the rail-
road detectives have been looking high,
low and level for you ever since you
stole that inspection motor at the An
gels platform and got it smashed"
"Twombly knows about that; and
so does Miss Twombly," / cut in.
"They wouldn't give you away, of
course; in certain sense you are
Twombly's guest, and in another you're
his employer But you'll notice that
neither of these restrictions apply to
me. Now, perhaps, you can understand
just why you are obliged, in ordinary
prudence, to leave the girl out of it
and why I am not so obliged"
Miss Twombly, herself, has the
casting vote on that" is what I flung
at him.
"She has already voted" he said
coolly. Then: you're not in the
game, Broughton; you don't hold any
thing higher than a seyen-spot, and
you are bucking a straight flush. Do
you take fifty thousand and vanish!
That is the one live question Of the
moment"
mo"
"very we'll; I'll give you another
| day to think it over; but I'm warning
you here and now that the price will
shrink. 1t is fifty thousand today, say
up to sunset: tomorrow it will be for
ty thousand" ..~:#. ....."".
I slid from the anvil and half I'M
consciously picked up the blacksmith
hand-hammer.
"You go straight to HI" I said
and at that he left me.
sat down to try once more to think
things out to some sort of an action
| focus. Should l take Bullerton's ff-
ty thousand and quit? Common sense
said Yes, spelling it with a capital and
| understanding it for emphasis. What
| was the use in hanging on? Hadn't
| we proved that the mine was undrain-
| able, save, perhaps, at the enormous
cost of driving an undermining tunnel
| from a lower slope of the mountain?
Then there was Jeanie. Then, again
there was Lisette. Fifty thousand
dollars at six per cent would buy her
hats-but it wouldn't buy much else
I could picture the calm and collected
| way in which she would say, "1es
Stannie; you've succeeded nicely Ii
financing the hats. But you know as
we'll as I do that we couldn't buy hats
and keep a car on three thousand 8
| year." sa-.~
had just climbed down to this bot
| tom round of the ladder Of detection
| when heard a bit of noise and looked
up to see a small, trim figure darken