The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-12-30

that had set me thinking.
A spinning twirl of the engine
throttle valve set our machinery IL
motion, and when 1 had thrown thu
pump clutch In, we crouched again IL
the least-wet corner to watch the indie,
of the tell-tale steamgauge connected
into the supply pipe.
We knew that the c~entrifugals were
voracious steam-eaters; we had proved
that when we were running them In
the week-long test. I had a notion
that maybe Fullerton had fired only
n of the battery of three boilers to
run his shower-bath machine, and the
result speedily confirmed this assump-
ton. In a few minutes the steam
pressure had dropped to a point at
which it would no longer drive any of
the pumps, either ours or the one out
side, and the window cataract stopped.
This will be only a breathing
space" 1 prophesled, getting up to
squeeze some of the superfluous water
out Of my clothes. "Bullerton will do
one of two things: fire the other two
boilers, or ~disconnect this steam pipe
of ours"
Reckon so?" said Daddy.
you'll see in a minute or So"
The attack began even while we
were speaking, sundry hammerings
and twistings that shook the pipe over
head proving that the besiegers were
going to stop the leak by cutting us
off from the boilers.
Take your whirl at the inventions,
this time. Daddyw 1 urged. 'When
they get this supply pipe cut out, we'll
be III for another ducking-and n
that we can't stop"
Daddy was shaking his head and
wringing the moisture-and mud-out
of his beard.
"Jerusalem-to-gosh, Stannie, we got
to take a chancei" he muttered. "Any-
ways, I'd about as lief die as be
drowned to death. Wen have to muss
that blacksmith shop up and get 1t out
o. the way, somehow. Gimme a match
out o. that tin box O. your'n-if they
amt all soaked to a 1iz-whizzlin' sop"
/ found the matches, which, luckily,
were still dry, and handed him one.
Before 1 fairly realized what he was
going to do, he had taken one of the
dynamite cartridges out of its bucket
hiding place and was splitting the fuse
with his pocketknife.
"Open that there door into the shop"
he commanded; and when / obeyed
mechanically, out went the bomb, f1z-
zing and sputtering, to land in a heap
of scrap iron piled on the farther side
of the stone-built forge. The sight of
it smoking and splitting sparks in the
heap of scrap half hypnotized me, 1
guess, for I stood gaping at 1t, with
the door held open, until Daddy Hiram
me away, slammed the door and
yelled to me to help him bar 1t.
We had barely time to get the door
and fastened with the heavy
wooden bar and to throw ourselves
fiat on the floor behind the hoisting
machinery before the crash came. AS
have previously said, the blacksmith
shop was a rather flimsy, shed-like
affair, rooted with corrugated iron,
md 1t seemed to US as If broken tim
Ders and pieces of sheet metal were
down for a full minute after
he blast went Off.
The shock to everything In the vicin-
ty was, of course, tremendous and
the stout old shaft-house itself rocked
md swayed like a tree In a hurricane.
But the walls still stood intact, and
when we got up and peeped through
| hole which a piece of the flying
scrap had torn In the door, we could
zee what we had done. 1t was a-plen-
v. The blacksmith shop had disap-
Feared, leaving nothing but a scatter
ng of wreckage. The heavy anvil had
thrown from It's block and the
iorge looked as if a giant had kicked
Out by the boiler-shed a rack of
,ordwood had been toppled over and
1t a man was struggling to free
limself. When he saw the imprisoned
nemy that mild-mannered, soft-spoken
Id soldier that I was shut up with
would have opened the door and shot
he struggler If l hadn't stopped him.
This blowing up of the shop settled
shower-bath business for us def
.itely. With the impeachment out of
he way we had a clear view on this
bird side; could command the row
f miners cabins, as well as the boil
rs In their open shed. When I got
trough persuading Daddy Hiram that
re couldn't afford to murder the
rounded, the fellow who had been
with the woodpile had made 1,
is exit and there was nobody In I
Ight. Shortly afterward a bullet, |
from somewhere In the forest
background, whanged upon u roof,
nd there were several to follow; but I
side from punching a few more holes I
the iron they did no harm. s
Looks like the Hercules Is the one {
ling they're most skeered Of" said Z
addy, with his queer little suffering /
luckle. Now maybe they'll leave us h
ave time to get ourselves dried out h
mite" &
Totting up the results Of the shower G
18th we'd had, a bread famine prom Il