The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-12-07


same day, when Daddy had gone TO
make his entirely useless night round
of the mine property. As on most
evenings, Jeanne sat at her corner of
the hearth. knitting. and l was filling
bedtime pipe.
Jeanne" broke out, Il wish you'd
tell me why you and your father are
SO good to me. How do you know that
m not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be7 ] did steal
the car and get it smashed. you know
You are not a criminal and I am
sure you didn't mean TO get the car
smashed Besides, you had taken
shelter under our roof"
You are true Bedouins," / laughed
Is that the code in the Westr-your
code2-to defend anybody who has eat
en- salt with your"
i should think it would be any
body's CODE
-You and your father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for meY'
Daddy thought he might just hap
pen along We are only four miles
from Arropla, you know"
And was that the reason you mt
the old transit at the window $50
you might watch for himr'
"Of course"
BY Jove Another woman, any 9TH
er woman in the world, / thought.
would have let some little shred of
sentiment show; she couldn't have
helped it. But this one didn't.
boy couldn't have looked me in the
eyes any more frankly and squarely
than she did when she said @Of
course" Since had eaten their bread.
l was. for so long as I chose to STAY.
a member of the clan. =
1t was near the end of the fortnight.
and Daddy Hiram and / had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas-
sembled the engine and pumps. and
were finishing the cleaning of the boil
ers. These We're pretty badly rusted
and scaled, and to do the job properly,
we had taken the manhoIe heads out
of the holes left to give access to the
interior of the shells, and had had a
good-natured squabble as to which of
us should crawl inside to do the scrap
ing; Daddy insisting upon doing it, be-
cause 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 a coin
One of those inch-wide copper pen
MES that Daddy carried for a pocket
piece-and / won the toss. The Job
wasn't exactly picnic, but got along
all right until we came to the last of
the battery. l found that the repair
ers had at some past time inserted a
couple of extra stay-rods. so that there
was little enough room left in the old
steel shell for a professional boiler
monkey to wriggle about in. to say
nothing of husky young chap who
i tipped the beam at around a hundred
and seventy pounds, stripped.
I Just the same, made shift to knock
the worst of the scale off and rattle
it down so that it could be washed
out from below, and was backing out
to make my escape, when found that
one of the extra stay-rods was loose.
At my asking. Daddy screwed up the
nut on the outside OF the boiler head
to tighten the rod. and then passed the
wrench in to me so that could screw
up the nut on the inside To this
good day don't know just what did
happen, but i guess the big S-wrench
must have slipped of the nut while
/ was pulling on it. Anyhow, some
thing hit me a stunning crack over
the eye. and / promptly faded out,
blink, like penny candle in a gust
of wind,
When / came to myself again it was
night, and / was lying undressed and
In real bed in room that was total
~ unfamiliar. In the looking-glasS
which hung on the opposite wall / got
; glimpse of myself with a regular
Turks turhan of white stuff wound
around my head and skew-angled tC
, cover one eye. When stirred. Jeanit
popped in from somewhere to ask what
she could do for me.
, What was itf" / asked IAN earth
quaker"
cl Daddy says you hit yourself will
= a wrench. Does it hurt much nowT
. .NGt more than having sound tool
: pulled no. But was inside the boil
I er, wasn't 1? How did you manag
to get me out?"
: She turned her face away and eve
4 with one eye could see that she wa
:. trying TO hide smile.
V "t was funny" she confessed
though we were both scared stiff a
n the time Daddy called me and l ra
= over. You were all doubled up insid
of the boiler. and there wasn't rOoI
= for Daddy TO crawl in and straighte
you out And unless you could
Strengthened out,-we couldn't pull 70
:, cut
u II see. What did you do?-send fc
u a boiler-monkeyT"
'e "What is a boiler-mOnkeyT
Is ut isn't what it's man; usVa
70 ly the littlest man in the shop"
y 81 was the monkey" she said.
/ tried to sit up, but the blindir
headache had somehow acquired sal
'e No.
you crawled into that rusty o.
coffinY''
U, She nodded,
st DADDY lent. me his overalls al
nj Jumper cit wasn't hard; but when