The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-12-13

decided tie Cinnabar TO me. alIa At me
time Of his death il was no longer
among his assets Moreover. his law
yers had told BnilerIon (accDrding 10
Bullerton's story told me In the Pull
man smokerooml that there was no
record of any mining transaction
whatever In his papers. Therefore, in
the absence OF the memorandum which
my grandfather had given Cousin
Percy-and which Percy had doubt
less carried with him to China-there
was nothing but the deed 10 show for
my ownership; absolutely nothing
At that. the loss of the deed wouldn't
have been fatal If the document had
been properly recorded. 1t hadn't
been. And now. with the unrecorded
deed gone, there was nothing TO prove
that i had ever owned the CinHabar.
The loss was tOtal-with no insur-
ance.
Daddy Hiram was shaking his head
sorrowfully after we had run this last
bunch of straw through the threshing
machine
With things looking as blue as the
bluest milestone that ever clicked
upon scythe. we tried TO settle upon
some line of action. Copah was the
county seat, and the obvious first step
for a search in the county records for
evidence of the sale of the mine TO my
grandfather But the minute / should
show myself on the railroad. I'd be
nabbed for the theft Of that internal
inspection car. Daddy offered to go
in my place, but that alternative didn't
appeal to me at all. knew perfectly
well how helpless he'd be in any such
lawyerlike search as would have TO be
made in the county recorders office.
Being stopped off short in every
other direction, we finally gravitated
over to the shaft-hOuse and went TO
work in an aimless sort of fashion
gathering up the wreckage of the
smashed gear train and putting things
shipshape again With 4steam up. we
turned the machinery over a few
times, just to see that everything was
In working order again, and ! threw in
the clutch of the centrifugals. merely
for the satisfaction OF hearing the
flood rushing through the outlet When
the pumps were going at full speed
went to look down the shaft As be-
fore,.when we had run the pumps for
q week on end, there was a slight dis
turbance of the water, but nothing
more. My makeshift float-and-pulley
gauge showed no change in the level.
Suddenly a freak notion seized me
that I'd like to know just what was
going Oh down in those black depths
into which the suction pipes of the
big pumps led.
Daddy. I'm going TO try to find out
something" / declared and forthwith
began to strip my clothes off. We've
seen the water coming out at the 9TH
er end of things, and now, by George,
mean to make sure that it's going in
at this end"
He didn't try very hard to dissuade
me, and minute or so later / was
crawling down the shaft ladder in the
habiliments that old Mother Nature
of the shaft, and i was surprised to
find it so well and tightly timbered ;
boxed" is the better word, since the
timbering was really a substantial
wooden box built within the square
outlinings of the pit. Common sense
told me that this must have been done
to prevent the caving in of the sides
- Il .Iny.o H..
ing, at the time, that the shaft should
have been sunk in caving material
when the remainder Of the bench upon
which the buildings stood appeared TO
be little else than solid rock.
BY feeling with a free foot l could
determine that the pump suction pipes
went on still farther. and then the
real adventure began. The ladder
suddenly gave out, quit ended. There
were no more rounds below the one
upon which / was standing That be-
ing the case, there was nothing for it
but to dive, feet foremost, and taking
deep breath, / let go of the ladder
and began to swim downward Almost
DcAoiS Icdl1cu II was hShthS UCS-
perately for dear life. One of the big
suction pipes had taken hold of a foot
and leg. like a tentacle of an enor-
nous octopus. and was unable to get
loose.
After all, it was Daddy Hiram who
saved my life. Suddenly the thunder
Of the pumps. magnified a thousand
fold for me in that icy pit of death,
stopped short and Che mechanical
Squid let go of my leg. With lungs
bursting shot TO the surface and
weakly clutched the ladder Framed
In the square of daylight dozen feet
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