The Bottineau courant., 1922-02-02


light. old man, or shall be Obliged Il
put the CAD to You; the railroad gad
you know. !" EBsa us 5s
II made me 80 boiling hot TO have
him admit, thus badly. that he had
been spying upon JeanIe and me the
previous evening that could scarcely
see straight. 81 &. n 3s
That will be about enough i" i
Parked. Il told you the other day
that there were limits, and you've
walked wal up and looked over the edge
two or three times. /, You may think
YOU have as many lives as cat but
/ doubt It r 1.-.s= 81. %. 5sTT 7s
He laughed and threw back the la
pei OF his coat to show me d regula-
t'on six-gun slung by shoulder strap
under his left arm. Z. ,zsg ssss.5 ..s
You pulled hammer on me yester-
day." he said, letting the laugh lapse
into grin that showed his fine mouth
full OF teeth, "and you probably didn't
know that you would have been dead
man before you could swing 1t. Oh.
yes; / could do 1t, and any coroner's
jury In the Red desert would acauit
me; dangerous lunatic--self-defens
you know. That's word to the wise
and It ought to be sufficient. But I
have better lffe-insurance policy than
any that the six-gun could write me:
you're In love with Jeanie Twombly--
In spite of that girl back East ; and be-
cause you are, you are not going 10
make her widow before the fact.
You're not selling your mine for forty
thousand-cold cash-this morning?"
Not this morning or any other
morning." = ux> , BE- =
Good. can afford to stick around
here a. few days longer, / guess-at
the rate of ten thousand dollars a day.
So long" And he picked his way ont
Of the clutter Of the shop and went
across to the cabin-and Jeanfe.
Later, along I'm this same day, while
I was standing ut the shaft mouth and
staring down at the water that was
keeping me out Of my heritage. Dad
dy Hiram came up. l5s 5.%.. .s< z%
"Still a-puzzlin' over 1t, Stannie?"
he asked, in the sympathetic tone that
he always used when he spoke OF the
Great Disappointment. @ss$.ys 81 g. ::.l.1
."There's nothing to 1t, Daddy I
gloomed. Fullerton has me by the
neck, and he knows IT. ..5@$.e
He tipteed to the door and peeped
out. ..-. -l a. ~ szszss ~.
You've heard 'eme say at curiosity
killed cat," he said, out of the cor.
ner of his mouth; well, the cats a.
comm. Skip out o. that other door,
Stannie, and hit for the timber. III
ketch up with you In q little spell"
didn't know exactly wffzt he was
driving at until after got clear OF
the mine buildings and was climbing
the slope of the mountain above. Then
I looked back and saw Bullerten sa,ln-
tering across the dump head. He was
evidently bent on another little job.
of spying: either that, or else he didn't
want Daddy and rae to get together
by ourselves. a>r.@ s~.-4 .s;
Under cover Of the forest sat down
and waited; and I'm q short time Daddy
Joined me, making an excuse for the
dodge-away that didn't mean anything
at ALL ;sei@ss5s .~..-.
II got a claim over yontler I'm the
right-hand guleh--the one at was
workin' when your gran'paw came
along,"s he said. Thought maybe
you'd like to mog over with me and
take a look at her."
OF course / said I'd be delighted; !;
so we made detour around the Gin
nabar, keeping out Of sight from the
cabin and shnft-house, and pushing on
around the western slope for maybe
half a mile until we came to the gulch
In which the abandoned claim lay.
Working entirely alone, Daddy had
driven tunnel possibly hundred feet
deep straight into the solid rock of the
mountain side, following the thin vein
and hoping that 1t would widen into
"pay-streak." After he had led me
few yards into the tunnel, he waved
me to q seat on pile Of broken rock,
and took one himself with his back
against the opposite wall.
h "Tm gettin' jast naturally so hate
gosh-dummed crowd" he remarked,
switching suddenly from his talk Of the
abandoned claira. Feel sometimes as