The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-12-09
BY
FRANCIS LYNDE
oopynghs By Charles seris..rs Sons


t Dudey's passln out"
: kinda curious somebody don't tel
! ye somethin'. aIn't III" the marsha
put In. Looks like the heirs d b,
! either fishin' r cuttln' bait on thil
here Cinnabar layout-not as it'd de-
'em any good II they did. Didn't any
letter come with the newspaper piece 2
Mary a pen-scratch."
"Whereabout was the envelope
posted?"
"Washin'ton."
"Aha !" said | to myself. 81 have you
Cousin PERCY For some reason best
known to yourself you didn't want
Daddy Hiram TO get hold of Grand
father Jasper's proper addressl"
His pipe smoked out. the marshal
prepared to take horse. Daddy went
with him to the far side of the dump
and the murmur of their voices came
to me in diminishing cadences. After
a bit Daddy came back and called up
to me In the sing-song of the miners
after the final blast has been fred !:
"A-a-l-l over. Stan1le. | reckon We
can come down now and get you some
breakfast"
1 jeanne served me In silence when
took my place at table and the good
old man stood in the doorway, keeping
watch, as | made no doubt, against
a possible second-thought return of
Friend Isaac. the bristle-bearded.
Throughout the working day which
followed he never made the slightest
reference to the episode of the morn
ing and, truly, | think the whole Incl
dent would have been buried in obliv-
ion by those two supplemented souls
if hadn't first spoken of it myself.
This | did in the evening of the
same day, when Daddy had gone TO
make his entirely useless night round
OF the mine property. AS on most
evenings, Jeanie sat at her corner of
the hearth, knitting, and was filling
bedtime pipe.
"Jeanie," | broke out, 81 wish you'd
tell me why you and your father are
so good to me. How do you know that
I'm not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be? | did steal
the car and get 1t smashed, you know"
You are not a criminal and L am
sure you didn't mean to get the car
smashed Besides, you had taken
shelter under our roof"
You are true Bedouins," | laughed.
rs that the code in the West?-your
code!-to defend anybody who has eat
EN- salt with your"
Il should think 1t would be any
body's code"
You and your father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for me?"
Daddy thought he might just hap |
pen along. We are only four miles |
from Atropia, you know"
And was that the reason you put |
the old transit at the window?-so |
you might watch for him?"
"Of course"
BY Jovel Another woman, any 9TH
er woman in the world, thought.
would have let some little shred of
sentiment show; she couldn't have
helped 1t. But this one didn't. A
boy couldn't have looked me in the
eyes any more frankly and squarely
than she did when she said "Of
Since had eaten their bread.
| was. for so long as | chose to stay.
r member of the clan.
Ii was near the end of the fortnight.
and Daddy Hiram and had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas-
sembied the engine and pumps. and
were finishing the cleaning of the boil
ers. These were pretty badly rusted
and scaled, and to do the job properly.
We had taken the manhole heads out
IF the holes left to give access to the
interior of the shells, and had had a
5ood-natured squabble as TO which of
Is should crawl inside to do the scrap
ng; Daddy insisting upon doing it. be-
'ause as he pointed out. he was the
smaller man, and | arguing that |
should because | was the younger and
stronger.
To settle it finally we Tipped coin
-one of those inch-wide copper pen
lies that Daddy carried for a pocket
,iece-and | won the toss. The Job
wasn't exactly picnic, but got along {
III right until we came to the last of |
he battery. | found that the repair {
RS had at some past time inserted
ouple of extra stay-rods, so that there
vas little enough room left In the old I
teel shell for professional boiler
monkey to wriggle about in. TO say I
othing of husky young chap who $
ipped the beam at around hundred (
nd seventy pounds, stripped.
Just the same. | made shift to knock a
he worst of the scale Off and rattle !
down so that it could be washed r
Ut from below. and was backing out o
0 make my escape. when found that I
re of the extra stay-rods was loose {
/ my asking, Daddy screwed up the f
ut on the outside of the boiler head II
D tighten the rod. and then passed the a
french IN to me so that | could screw
p the nut on the inside. To this h
God day | don't know just what did b
appen. but guess the big S-wrench c
lust have slipped off the nut while