Graham guardian., 1922-03-03

1 php otth lidu .tilc
two big centrifugals. the platform
upon which they had stood, and their
pipe connections. Gone. likewise, was
the, greater part of the heavy wooden
shaft-lining. A little Of this remained
In the upper part of the shaft, but
from a point possibly twenty-five feet
down. there was nothing but the bare
rock sides Of the square pit swept by
the receding flood.
AS for the hollow roaring noise
which had followed the crash of the
explosion, and which still continued,
there was good and sufficient reason
| plainly visible from the pits mouth
| Some twenty feet down, and on the
eastern side Of the shaft, stream of
water big enough to run good-sized
hydro-electric plant was pouring into
| the perpendicular cavern, and Il was
its plunging descent into the bowels
Of the earth which was making the
mimic thunder.
Beasley was the first to find speech.
Where the bazes is all that water
comm fromf" he exploded.
That's just what we're going to
find out" barked. "Can you and
Daddy handle my weight in a rope
slIng?" /,
They both protested that they could
handle two of me If necessary, and a
sling was quickly rigged and | was
lowered into the pit. At the nearer
view thus obtained. some of the mys-
teries were instantly made clear. The
reason why the wooden boxing dlsap-
Beared below q certain point in the
shaft was that ii had never extended
any farther down. II had been mere
iy a box with bottom land all those
pipe-dream impressions which had
tried to register themselves on the
day when had my struggle with the
suction-pipe octopus were instantly
translated into facts. could have
sworn, then, that there was a bottom
in the box, and there was a bottom.
And that other impression-thatI had.
encountered an, inrushlng stream of
ice-co'd water in tile chilling depths;
here was the stream; a foot-thicll,
never-failing cataract, pouring in
through perfectly good and substan-
tial conduit of twelve-inch iron pipe!
In a fash the whole crimifials mys-
terry involving the ostensibly Hooded
mine was Illuminated for me- ''IIaul
awayw | called to the two above;
x,.hn H., a,
the pits mouth and | could get upon
my feet, l yipped at Daddy and the
marshal to come on, and led them in
an outdoor race along the mine ledge
to the eastward; huDdred-yards
dash which brought us to the banks
Sf the swift little mountain torrent in
the right-hand gulch.
A brief search revealed precisely
what was expecting to find; what
anyone In possession of the facts pre-
cedent would have expected to find.
In the middle of a small pool slightly
upstream from the path level--a pock-
eted bit of water neatly screened and
half hidden by growth of low
utCS--Nc saw NOAtC'
shaped whirlpool swirl into which
good third of the stream flow was
vanishing. Below, this pool an appar-
emily accidental heaping of rocks
formed small dam which kept the
little reservoir fun.
Without a word, Daddy Hiram and
the Angelic marshal plunged reckless
ly into the stream and with their bare
hands tore away the loose-rock dam.
With the removal Of the slight barrier
and the consequent clearing of the
Course of the stream, the pocket reser-
yOif Immediately snelsed dry, the inlet
af~are cataracting pipe was exposed,
and the secret Of the flooded Clnnabar
was secret no longer.
The scheme which had been elab-
Orated and set In motion to soak"
Grandfather Jasper was a premedi-
tated "holdup." The Cinuubar, in OPP
Grafton and producing to Its capacity,
was worth, SO Beasley asserted, all
that my grandfather had paid for II,
and more. But with the branch rail-
road built to its very door, It's 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 ut. n low figure while the !
main vein was as yet unexploited: they |
could 90 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 CT
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 a
scheme by which the mine not only
might he 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 bumper crop of
profits. NFr
Taking Its various steps in their or
der, the first move In the game was to
sell tile mine to Grandfather Jasper
while It was stu going proposition;
and this was done. But one of the
Of the sale (Beasley told us
thls) was that the selling corporation
should continue to operate the mine,
not as lessee, but under a contract