St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-31

dynamite cartridges out of It's bucket
hiding place and was splitting the fuse
with his pocketknife.
"Open that there door into the shop"
he commanded; and when I obeyed
mechanically, out went the bomb, fz-
zing and suffering, to land In 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, l
guess, for stood gaping at it, with
the door held open, until Daddy Hiram
jerked me away, slammed the door and
yelled to me to help him bar it.
We had barely time to get the door
closed and fastened with the heavy
wooden bar and to throw ourselves
fiat on the floor behind the hosting
machinery before the crash came. AS
have previously said, the blacksmith
shop was rather f1imsy, shed-like
affair, rooted with corrugated iron,
and it seemed to us as If broken tim
bers and pieces of sheet metal were
raining down for a full minute after
the blast went off.
The shock to everything in the vicin-
ity was, of course, tremendous and
the stout old shaft-house itself rocked
and sWayed like tree in a hurricane.
But the walls still stood intact, and
when we got up and peeped through
a hole which a piece of the flying
scrap had torn in the door, we could
see what we had done. It was a-plen-
ty. The blacksmith shop had disap-
peared, leaving nothing but scatter
ing of wreckage. The heavy anvil had
been thrown from its block and the
forge looked as if giant had kicked
1t. Out by the boiler-shed rack of
cordwood had been toppled over and
under it a man was struggling to free
himself. When he saw the imprisoned
enemy that mild-mannered, soft-spoke1a
old soldier that I was shut up with
would have opened the door and shot
the struggler If hadn't stopped him.
This blowing up of the shop settled
the shower-bath business for us def
initely. With the impeachment out of
| the way we had a clear view on this
third side; could command the row
Of miners cabins, as we'll as the boil
| ers in their open shed. When I got
through persuading Daddy Hiram that
we couldn't afford to murder the
wounded, the fellow who had been
wrestling with the woodpile had made
his exit and there was nobody In
sight. Shortly afterward a bullet,
| fired from somewhere in the forest
background, whanged upon our roof,
and there were several to follow; but
aside from punching few more holes
In the iron they did no harm.
'Looks like the Hercules is the one
| thing they're most skeered Of" said
Daddy, with his queer little suffering
eehuckle. "Now maybe they'll leave us
have time to get ourselves dried out
mite"
Totting up the results cf the shower
| bath we'd had, bread famine prom
ised to be the worst of them. The few
cans of beans, tomatoes and peaches
| the campers standbys-were IN
hurt, of course, and the muddied bacon
could be washed with water drawn
from the flooded shaft But the flour
In It's sack was merely blob Of paste
and was beyond redemption and the
cornmeal was the same. In view OF
the results wondered If Fullerton
hadn't shrewdly calculated upon wash
| ing our commissary out OF existence
when he planned his overgrown lawn
sprinkler. But maybe that was giving
him credit for more ingenuity than he
really had.
Through what remained of the after
noon the rifle firing continued, coming
sometimes from one angle and some
| times from another, but always can
n!{y frcm safe distance and always
Under cover of the surrounding forest.
Daddy Hiram, grimly optimistic, ex-
| tracted a swallow or so Of encourage
ment out of the persistent pot-shoot-
ing.
Dunno as you've ever noticed 1t,
Stannie but If you'll only let a hog
| alone long enough he'll shove himself
under the bob-wire fence far enough
to get caught" he said. Charley Bull
lerton, now; he's plum forgot that
'Tropia's less n five miles away and
that sound carries mighty long dis
tances in these mountains In clear
weather.
"What difference does that maker
asked.
1T may make heap O. difference.
Looks to me like omebody-Buddy
Fuller, r Jim Haggerty, the section
boss, r some of 'em down yonder d
begin a-wonderin', after spell, what
In tarnation all this here blastin' and
rife-poppin' up on old Cinnabar Is a
pintin' at and come and see"
EDO you think the racket will carry
that far?'
''It sure will. One night afore Trio
pia had gone as dead as she is now, a
bunch O. cowpunch's got into an argy-
ment at Blue-nose Bills place and we
heard the crackin' and poppin' up
here-Jeanie and me-like 1t was just
over yonder in Greaser gulch.''
"Well?" said I, "f your nephew or
any Of the others hear it, what then?'
As l asked the question one Of the
low-aimed shots tore through the side
Of the building, struck the iron frame
of the hoist, fattened itself and
dropped into the old mans lap. Pick