The Adair County news., 1922-01-10
PYRTGHT By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ~
SYNOPSIS.

OOP1R b1 CIlANk
SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER I.-Under his grandfather's
y1l Stanford Broughton, society idler,
Ands his share of the estate, valued at
eomething like $4,000, lies in a safe re-
pository," latitude and longitude de-
scribed, and that is all. 1t may be identi-
ned by the presence nearby of brown
haired blue-eyed girl, a piebald horse,
ana dog with a split face, half black
aod half white. Stanford at first regards
the bequest as joke, but after considera-
uon sets out to find his legacy.
CHAPTER lion his way to Denver,
the city nearest the meridian described
IN HIS grandfather's will, Stanford hears
nom fellow traveller a story having to
DO with flooded mine.
CHAPTER II.-ThinkinR things over,
~ begins to imagine there may be some
thing in his grandfather's bequest worth
while, his idea finally centering on the
possibility Of a mine, as a safe reposi-
tory" Recalling the narrative on the
train, he ascertains that his fellow tray-
eier was q mining engineer Charles Bull
ierton: Fullerton refuses him informa-
ton, but from other sources Broughton
learns enough to make him proceed to
Piacerville, IN the Red desert.
CHAPTER IV.-On the station platform
Stanford sees what appear to be the iden-
tical horse and dog described In his
gr1ndfather's will. Impressed, he leaves
ths train at the next stop. Angels. There
be finds that Atropia was originally
Placerville, his destination. Unable to
secure conveyance at once to take him
20 Placerville. Broughton seizes con-
struction car and escapes, leaving the I'M
preston on the town marshal, Beasley,
that he is slightly demented.
(rJ r,1xx1n " n,,u..a - .ho.aon.
the car, which is wrecked, and escapes on
foot In the darkness, he is overtaken
by q girl on horseback, and THE dog.
After he explains his presence, she In
hsr mine. to meet her father.
CHAPTER VI-Broughton's hosts are
Hiram Twombly. caretaker of the mine,
and HIS daughter jeanne Seeing the girl,
Stanford is satisfied he has located his
property, but does not reveal his identity.
CHAPTER VII.-Next morning, with
Hiram, he visits the mine. Hiram asks
+ him to look over the machinery, and he
does so, glad of an excuse to be near
Jeanne, in whom he has become inter-
ested, and he engages in the first real
work he has ever done.
CHAPTER VIII.-Broughton and Hiram
get the pumps started, but are unable to
make an impression on the water. Bull
Twomblys visits the mine. He offers
to drain it in consideration of Brough-
toms giving Inn flfty-one per cent of the
property. Stanford refuses. Then Butler
ton offers to buy the mine outright for
$4,000 1t had cost Broughton's grand
father more than half a million. Stan
ford again refuses.
CHAPTER IX.-Jeanie cautions Brough-
ton against selling the mine, under any
circumstances, and, apparently in spirit
a conversation with Daddy Hiram,
Broughton decides he will stick to the
property.
ford's temporary absence from the mine,
an enemy, without doubt Fullerton,
wrecks the pumping machinery. Brough-
ton decides to have it out with him next
day.
CHAPTER Kiln the morning he finds
Bullerton and Jeanne have disappeared,
apparently eloped. He also discovers that
his deed to the mine has been stolen, and
as it has not been recorded he has no
proof of ownership. Mysterious actions
of the dog cause Hiram and Broughton
to take the trail in search of Jeanne.
Being stopped off short in every
other direction. we finally gravitated
over to the shaft-hOuse and went to
gathering up the wreckage of the
smashed gear train and putting things
shipshape again. With steam 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
food 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
a week on end, there was 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 on down in those, black depths
into which the suction pipes of the
big pumyS led.
Daddy, I'm going to try to find out
sometime" | 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 1 was
crawling down the shaft ladder in the
habiliments that old Mother Nature
gave me. 1t was my first exploration
of the shaft, and l 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 eaving in of the sides;
and afterward / remembered wonder
ing, at the time, that the shaft should
have been sunk in caring 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 could
determine that the pump suction pipes
went on still farther, and then the
real adventure began. The ladder
gave out, quit, ended. There
were no more rounds below the one