The diamond drill., 1922-01-13

under cover Of the surrounding forest.
Daddy Hiram. grimly optimistic. ex-
ment out OF the persistent pot-shoot-
Ing.
Dunno as you've ever noticed II.
Stannie. but II you'll only let hog
alone long enough he'll shove himself
under the bob-wire fence far enough
to get caught" he said. "Charley Bull
lerton. now; he's plum forgot that
'Tropia's less n five miles away and
that sound carries mighty long dis
tances I'm these mountains In clear
weather"
"what difference does that maker
I asked.
'It may make heap o. difference.
Looks 20 me like somebody--Buddy
Fuller. r Jim Haggerty. the section
boss. r some Of 'em down yonder ID
begin a-wonderin', after a spell. what
In tarnation all this here blnstin' and
rifie-poppin' up on old Cinnabar Is a
p'intin' at and come and see"
do you think the racket will carry
that far?'
ut sure will. One night afore 'Tro-
pia had gone as dead as she Is now, n
bunch o. cowpunch's got into an argy-
ment at Blue-nose Bits place and we
heard the crackin' and poppin' up
here--Jeanie and me-like II was just
over yonder In Greaser gulch."
"well?p said I. III your nephew or
any Of the others hear II. what thenT'
AS I asked the question one Of the
low-aimed shots tore through the side
Of the building. struck the iron frame
of the hoist, fiattened itself and
dropped into the old mans lap. Pick
ing up the hot bit Of lead TO dandle
1t from hand to hand he went on much
as II picking up bullets that were fired
at him had been his daily recreation.
Curiosity killed the cat. Stanine,
son. You let some one o. the folks
down yonder In 'Tropia say. by gol--
I wonder what all that shootin's forY
and the next thing you know, some
bodyTl be moggin' up here TO find out"
Along about dusk some member Of
the besiegiDg party tried TO make a re-
connaissance. happened to be keeping
the lookout on the cabin side of our
fortress and saw a man lodging among
the pines back Of the house. When
reported to Daddy he took snap shot
at the place / pointed out to him and
there was wild yell and stir In the
young pines as though hog were gal
Looping through them.
"Just TO let 'em know that we're
stIll alive and kickin'," said the old
man, with another Of his quavery
chuckles. "I reckon maybe that's
what they was amin to find out"
Possibly 1t was. At all events. the
rifle fire stopped with the coming OF
darkness, and as we faced our second
night OF defense we had plenty of time
to sit around and think and speculate
upon what the outcome was going tC
| be.
/ Taking IL al in all. II was the fan
tastic hunor Of the thing that hit me
hardest. Six short weeks earlier peo
! pie at home had been calling me al
the hard names that fall 10 the lot OF
the idle ne'er-do-well; a young char
with enough Inheritance money 10 keeI
him In ties and shoes and shirts anC
to buy gas for his car-though tha
last asked for good BIT on the risins
cost OF gasoline-and not enough Il
make life, or anything connected there
with, very much worth while.
Also these same people were saying
behind my back, of course, but there
were always plenty OF them to repeal
the saying ts my face-that wa'
good stock gone to seed, would never
amount TO a hill CT beans In anything
that asked for initiative or resource
fulness, or primitive rough stun OF an!
sort; that was due TO go on dollinl
myself up and playing skittles TO th'
end OF the chapter-which would prob
abby stage itself In an asylum for th'
feeble-minded. Also, again. at tina
same time. which was six weeks--o
six thousand years-ago, was en-
gagged TO Lisette; with mighty little