Licking Valley courier., 1922-02-23

dam and the underground conduit.
With the water admitted, to rise In
the box to the level of its intake In
the creek reservoir, the trap was set
and was ready to be sprung.
Beyond this point there was gap
we were obliged to bridge by conjec-
turey 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 needfu
pumping machinery and to install it
which they did.
In this barefaced imposture the plot
ters had conceivably buuded some
thing upon Grandfather Jasper's ad-
vanced age as an insurance against
any too-searchlng investigation; but
beyond this they had carefully dis
armed any suspicion that he might
otherwise have harbored by encourag-
Ing him-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 1t a
bad days work.
The later developments were not
hard to figure out. Beasley was able
to tell us that the proposed railroad
branch to run to the new copper prop
critics In Little Cinnabar gulch was
now certainty for the very near fu.
ture. Hence the time was fully ripe
for the recovery Of the Clnnabar by
the plotters. No doubt they had con-
fidently assumed that repurchase Of
the property-not directly by them
selves, of course, but by an agent who
would figure as a dislnterested third
party-wOuld be easy. Beasley said
that there had been some talk Of an
undermining drainage tunnel, such as
Daddy and l had figured upop-thia at
the time Of the sprlnglng of the food
trap-and that the cost had been esti-
mated at half million. Unquestion.
ably the robbers had assumed that an
old man who had already charged his
venture up to profit and loss would
sell for song rather than to venture
again Rnd in this they we're probably
well within the truth.
But at the moment when they were
ready to complete the circle Of i'm.
posture, death-the death Of Grand.
father Jasper--had stepped In to com
plieate matters. Somebody-possibly
Cousin Percy-had corresponded with
whoever was representing the robbei
syndicate, and by this means the plot
ters had learned that they would now
have to reckon with an heir, How
Bullerton came to- be employed b.
them almost at the instant Of his re-
turn from South America we did moi
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 emlssary Of the sypdi
cate to get on the, ground quickly. pre-
pared to forestal by purchase, guile
or, In the last resort by force, any at
tempt Of the Dudley heirs to pry init
things they were not to be permitted
to know.
The pushing Of the fight for posses
sion to the final and property-destroy
Ing extremity was another matter tina
Beasley was able to explain.
"Ye see, It was q case O. fish r cut
bait, and do 1t quick" the marshal ex