The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-05-05

course of the stream. the pocket reser-
voir Immediately sucked dry. the inlet
of the cataracting pipe was exposed,
and the secret Of the flooded Cinnabar
was a secret no longer.
The scheme which had been elab-
grated and set In motion TO soak
Grandfather Jasper was a premedi-
tated "holdup." The Cinnabar, in op-
Grafton and producing TO its capacity,
was worth. so Beasley asserted, all
that my grandfather had paid for il,
and more. But with the branch rail-
road built TO its very door, its value
would be doubled. Two alternatives
had thus presented themselves to the
owners, who were Cripple Creek
mining spectators who had bought in
the stock at low figure while the
main vein was as yet unexpected: they
could go on mining the ore and stor-
/ ing 1t against the time when The rail-
road. with its cost-reducing advan-
tages. should come along; or they
could suspend operations for the same
/ length of time, setting the losses OF a
/ shutdown over against the increased
profits when they should start up
again.
With our discoveries of the morning
| the plan of the robbery became per-
fectly plain. Some giant of finance
among the spectators had evolved
scheme by which the mine not only
might be shut down during the inter
val of waiting for the railroad to build
over the bench, but at the same time
be made to yield a bumper crop of
profits.
Taking its various steps In their or
der, the first move In the game was to
while it was still a going proposition;
and this was done. But one of the
conditions OF the sale (Beasley told Us
this) was that the selling corporation
should continue to operate the mine
not as a lessee, but under a contract
by which the operating company
should receive a certain percentage of
the output; an arrangement which
gave the hOldup artists ample oppor-
tunity to prepare for the coup de main
How these preparations were made,
and the secret OF them kept from leak
ing out, still remained one Of the I'M
solved mysteries, though Beasley sug-
gested that probably imported work
men were employed, and that the work
had been done under jealous super
vision with all the needf1 precautions
taken against publicity The tight
wooden bOx-which would figure as
part of the shaft lining-had been
built, and into the box the creek had
been diverted by means of the small
dam and the underground conduit
With the water admitted. TO rise IN
the box TO the level of its intake In
the creek reservoir, the trap was set
and was ready TO be sprung.
Beyond this point there was a gap
we were obliged TO bridge by conjec-
ture, but the differences were all plausl-
bic enough. Doubtless the plotters
had notified my grandfather that his
mine was flooded and was no longer
workable. Doubtless, again, he had
authorized them to buy the needful
machinery and to install it
which they did.
In this barefaced fmposture the plot
tiers had cOnceivably builded some
thing upon Grandfather Jasper's ad-
vanced age as an insurance against
any tOo-searching investigation but
beyond this they had carefully dis
armed any suspicion that he might
otherwise have harbOred by encOurag-
ing HMM the actual purchase Of the
take expert advice, and
by craftly printing him, by under
statements of the facts, to trust them.
Only rumOrs of what had occurred
at this visit reached Angels; but Beas-
ley could testify that my grandfather
had come and returned alone, and that
after the pumping demonstration had
been made he had seemed disposed to .
pocket his huge loss and to call 1t a
bad days work.
The later developments were not
hard to figure out. Beasley was able
20 tell US that the proposed railroad .
branch to run to the new copper prop F
critics in Little Cinnabar gulch was
low a certainty for the very near fu-
-ure. Hence the time was fully ripe
'Or the recovery of the Cinnabar by
he plotters. No doubt they had con
identity assumed that a repurchase OF
he property-nOt directly by them
selves, of course but by an agent who
,arty-would be easy. Beasley said
hat there had been some talk of an
drainage tunnel. such as
Daddy and I had figured upOn-this at
he time of the springing of the flood
rap-and that the cost had been esti-
mated at half a million. Unquestion-
IDLY the robbers had assumed that an
I'D man who had already charged his
-enture up to profit and loss would
ell for a song rather than to venture
gain; and in this they were probably
rell within the truth.
But at the moment when they were
eady 70 complete the circle of i'm
GESTURE. death-the death of Grand
ather Jasper-had stepped in TO COM
licate matters. SOmebody-possibly
'Ousin Percy-hRd correspondent with
rhoever was representing the robber
indicate. and by this means the plot
ers had learned that they would now
ave TO reckon with an heir. How
came to be employed by
hem almost al the instant of his re-
urn from South America we did not
now; but we could easily understand