St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-24

! Daddy and I had figured on. Going
| with some better knowledge Of the diff
| ficulties, it appeared that we must have
ridiculously underestimated the prob
| able cost. Pacing the distances care
fully, and guessing at the differences
! in altitude by the heights Of the trees,
upon less than mile of tunneling,
and this, in the solid porphyry Of Old
Cinnabar, and in a situation remote
from the nearest base of supplies,
would run-no, it wouldn't run; 1t
would fairly gallop into money
Was this what Fullerton meant to do
if he could GUST me? That he was ut
terly confident of his ability to drain
the Cinnabar was evident. But how
was it to be done? Would he, or his
hackers, be willing to spend a quar-
ter of million or more, and the better
part of years time, driving that
mile-long tunnel?
The longer l thought about it, the
larger the conviction grew that no
such expensive expedient was to be
resorted to. Fullerton, or his hackers,
or both, knew some other and far
cheaper and more expeditions way of
getting rid Of the water. Sitting on a
| big rock that had in some former earth
convulsion tumbled from the broken
cliffs above the mine, I gave the me-
,I,1 ri f,,o1 fio as 1t,i
small fraction and sadly under-de-
velopedD free rein.
Two possibilities suggested them
selves. A siphon, a big pipe, starting
at the bottom of the shaft and leading
out over the top and down the noun
tain to a point lower than the shaft
bottom, would, after it was once
started, automatically discharge a
stream of it's own bigness, whatever
that should be. But the cost of over
mile of such pipe was beyond my
means; and if two six-inch pumps
driven night and day had failed to
make any impression upon the flood,
what could be expected Of q siphcn
which. in the nature nj things. co3'Etiu''
ne much bigger than ar oG&ilsar
'ffeat Mater utni1l2
The other possibility was even less
hopeful. It was the driving of a short
tunnel, which Daddy and might I'M
dertake without additional help, from
the level Of the high bench straight in
to an intersection with the mine shaft.
This, / estimated, might tap the water
at q point possibly twenty feet below
it's present level in the shaft It's sue
cess, as saw at once, would depend
entirely upon the location and volume
of the underground lake which was
supposed to be supplying the flood. If
this reservoir were shallow and high
in the mountain, the short tunnel
might drain it. If it were deep and
low, nothing would be accomplished.
The question was still hanging hope
lessly up in the air when l made my
way around to the mine buildings by
the left-hand gulch path, sneaked in
and began to shuck myself into Dad
dys extra pair of overalls; just for
what, l hadn't the least idea; only l
needed to be doing something to keep
me from going completely dotty in the
guessing contest.
By this time, as | knew, they would
be getting up from breakfast in the
cabin across the dump head, which
would most likely be Bullerton's cue
RI MI
When / looked out in sour anticipa-
ton, here he came, smoking one Of his
high-priced cigars and staggering q
bit, as he always did in walking.
''This is your NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
day, Broughton," he tossed at me as
soon as he stepped over the threshold
of the shaft house door; but fancied
I could notice that, some way, he
didn't seem quite so clipper and care
less as he had the day before.
"See here" ripped out; whats
the use? You can't buy this mine at
any price! It's not in the market and
it isn't going to be. Not in a thousand
years!"
'But see. here; what's the use of
butting your head against stone wall
You're stuck, world without end, and
you know it. This flooded hole in the
ground is of no more use to you than
a pair Of spectacles to blind man !"
"Perhaps not ''tis poor thing, but
mine own I guess can keep it as
a souvenir If I feel like it, can't I?'
ooh, hi" he gritted, and turning
on his heel went away.
After he had gone patted myself
on the back bit for not losing my
temper and then, just to have an ex-
cuse for staying away from the cabin
and the Fullerton vicinity, made fires
under the boilers and got up steam. In
the former pumping spasm Daddy and
l had operated only the two big CEN
trifugals, ignoring the deep-well pumps
designed to lift the water from the
lower levels of the mine.
Just to try something that we hadn't
tried before, I got steam on the deep
wellers, and soon found that the
machinery, which we hadn't taken
down in the general overhauling,
needed tinkering before it would be
safe to run it. Banking the boiler
fires, / went at the job single-handed
and managed to wear out the livelong
day at it.
! 1t took me all the afternoon and
then some to get the machinery cleaned