The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-12-08
TheGirla
Horse and
a Dog
By
FRANCIS LYNDE
CHAPTER viii.
The Laberins Punps.


sented to my going back to work,
Jeanie renewing the bandage on my
broken head, and laying many injunc-
lions upon Daddy Hiram to send me
right back to the cabin IL ! didn't be-
have; behaving" in her use of the
word, meaning that 1 was to take 1t
easy on the job.
That sounded mighty good to me,
the way she said it. Most men, l fan
cy, are only overgrown children in the
sense that they like to be fused over
by their womankind. Don't mistake
me, please; l wasn't in love with her
then. Candidly, / don't think l knew
what a real love was. But it was
mighty pleasant to live in the same
house with her, and to eat her deli
cious cooking; to be with her every
day, and to have those undisturbed
evening half-hours with her in front
of the fire. If / had had to get out;
or If there had been another man
but / won't anticipate.
In due time and after we had COM
pletely overhauled the rusted and
happened upon a day when we were
ready to put fire under the boilers and
we did it. If l should live TO be
hundred years old, shall never forget
the tense, suppressed excitement that
gripped me as we brought the wood for
the furnaces that bright, hot, July
morning. BY eight o'clock we had
wnfr Of
the boilers, but we held off until Ii
had climbed to the regular working
pressure of one hundred and twenty.
Then / started the pumps; two big
centrifugal suctions, mounted on a
platform In the shaft mouth and so
arranged that they could be lowered
to follow the water level down-if it
should go down; pumps that each
threw a stream six inches in diameter.
After the pumps were started and
| the indicators showed, or seemed to
show, that they were working up to
| full capacity, / rugged up a measuring
gauge; a bit of wood for float, with
| a string tied to it, and the string pass
| ing over a pulley in the shafthouse
roof Ibeaming with a weight on the end
of it. If the water Level should go down,
the float would sink with it, pulling
| the weight up. smooth board, with
feet. inches and fractions penciled, on
! it, was stood up beside the weight to
| answer for a measuring scale.
/ At the end of the hour the float
| hadn't moved a hairs breadth; not q
hundredth part of an inch, so far as we
| could see.
81 don't believe the pumps are work
ing!" exploded. Surely they'd make
some little difference in the level I'M
less that shafts got all the under
ground water In the world to back II
i I'D. Those indicators must be out OF
whack In some way. Where does the
i discharge water empty itselfr
Il Daddy knew this, too.
i "Over in the left-hand gulch-intc
the creek"
"Show me-" I directed.
Il We found the discharge from the
pumps a little way below the end Of
the path; a ten-inch pipe which haC
been laid underground from the shaft
house, presumably to keep 1t from
freezing In winter The end Of the
pipe stuck out over the stream and i
was projecting pretty nearly a soliC
ten-inch Jet of water. The pumps wer,
working all right; there was no doub
about that. dug up enough of m!
college math to figure that two six
inch streams would just about fill ;
ten-inch pipe, and here 1t was, running
full and pouring like another torren
into the gulch. So back we went t
the mine buildings to pile more WOO,
into the furnaces and to resume on
watching of the indicator and its pen
cil-marked scale.
Noon caught up with us after
. while-with nothing doing save tina
we were rapidly diminishing our woot
pile. For q solid week we choppe
down trees and split them up, Dadd
and /, and kept the fires roaring unde
: the boilers and kept those monste
pumps whirring and grinding away q
the shaft mouth-night and day, min
J you; watch on and watch OF. AM
right straight through it all, that littl
1 indicator weight had rugged up stoc
! stock still; never moved the width {
one of the pencil marks had draw
on its gauge board.
BY this time my stubbornness wa
, yielding something to the still mol
4 stubborn fact If all this pumpiI
q hadn't even started the flood towaI
its diminution, truly all the waters u
der the earth must be backing the u
a failing well of that drowned shaft.
q Toward the last l think We kel
q on more from force of habit than an
q thing else, but at the end of the wee
gave in and consented to let Il
fires die down, though it was like pu
!, ing teeth TO do IT. Something, indee
! | brought out of the overtime wor
q disappointing as Ii had been in Il
major sense; / was muscled up
! hard az q keg of nails; as strong