The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-03-10

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.
fect'y plain. Some giant of finance
among the spectators had evolved q
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
sell the mine 10 Grandfather Jasper
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 II certain percentage Of
liz bhAIuAf oh ttlf6tliItll 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 un.
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 needful precautions
taken against publicity. The tight
wooden box-which would figure as a
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 it's 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 c%onjec.
ture, but the differences were all plausi.
BILE 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
pumping machinery and to install it
which they did.
In this barefaced imposture the plot.
ters had conceivably builded some.
thing upon Grandfather Jasper's adj
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 encourage
ing l:m-in the actual purchase Of the
property-to take expert advice, and
by craftily 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 it a
bad days work.
The later developments were not
hard TO figure out. Beasley was able
10 tell us hat the proposed railroad
branch to run to the new copper prop
critics in Little Cinnabar gulch was
now a certainty for the very near fu-
ture. Hence the time was fully ripe
for the recovery Of the Cinnabar by
the plotters. No doubt they had con.
fidently assumed that q repurchase of
the property-nOt directly by them.
selves, Of course, but by an agent who
would figure as Il disinterested third
party-wOuld be easy. Beasley said
that there had been some talk Of an
undermining drainage tunnel, such as
Daddy and / had figured upon-this at
the time Of the springing of the flood
trap-and that the cost had been esti.
mated ut half n million. Unquestion.
ably the robbers had assumed that al
old man who had already charged his
venture up to profit and loss would
sell for n song rather than to venture
again; and in this they were probably
well within the truth.
But Mt the moment when they wers
ready 70 complete the circle Of Inn
7 posture, death-the death OF Grand.
father Jasper-had stepped in to com.
plicate matters. Somebody-possibly
Cousin Percy-had correspondent with
whoever was representing the robber
syndicate, and by this means the plot
ters had learned that they would now
have TO reckon with an heir. How
Fullerton came to be employed by
them almost at the instant Of his re-
turn from South America we did not
know; but we could easily understand
that with the new complication which
had risen by reason OF Grandfather
Jasper's death, 1t was highly neces-
sary for some emissary of the syndi.
cate to get on the ground quickly, pre-
pared to fOrestall by purchase, guile,
or, in the last resort by force, any at.
tempt Of the Dudley heirs TO pry into
things they were not to be permitted
TO Iy,,ayp