The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-03-24


Jeanne served me in silence when
I took my place at table and the good
old man stood in the doorway, keeping
watch, as 1 made no doubt, against
a possible second-thought return of
Friend Isaac, the bristle-bearded.
Throughout the working day which
followed he never made the slightest
reference to the episode of the morn
ing and, truly, I think the whole Incl
dent would have been buried in obliv-
ion by those two supplemented souls
if I hadn't first spoken of it myself
This I did in the evening of the
same day, when Daddy had gone to
make his entirely useless night round
of the mine property AS on most
evenings, Jeanne sat at her corner of
the hearth, knitting, and / was filing
bedtime pipe
Jeanne" 1 broke out, Il wish you'd
tell me why you and your father are
so good TO me. How do you know that
I'm not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be? ] did steal
the car and get it smashed, you know
You are not a criminal and I am
sure you didn't mean to get the car
smashed. Besides. you had taken
shelter under our roof"
You are true Bedouins." I laughed.
rs that the code in the West?-your
TO defend anybody who has eat
en- salt with you?'
Il should think it would be any
bOdy's code"
You and your father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for me?"
Daddy thought he might just hap
pen along. We are only four miles
from Atropia. you know"
And was that the reason you put
the old transit at the window? $50
you might watch for him?'
"Of course"
BY JOve, Another woman. anv 9th
er woman in the world. I thought.
would have let some little shred of
sentiment show; she couldn't have
helped it. But this one didn't a
boy couldn't have looked me in the
eyes any more frankly and squarely
than she did when she said "Of
course" Since / had eaten their bread.
1 was. for so long as l chose to stay.
a member of the clan.
1t was near the end of the fortnight.
and Daddy Hiram and I had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas-
sembled the engine and pumps. and
were finishing the cleaning of the boil
ers. These were pretty badly rusted
and scaled, and to do the job properly,
we had taken the manhOle heads out
of the holes left to give access to the
interior of the shells, and had had a
goOd-natured SQuabble as TO which of
us should crawl inside to do the scrap
ing; Daddy insisting upon doing it. be-
cause as he pointed out. he was the
smaller man, and I arguing that I
should because l was the younger and
stronger.
To settle it finally we tipped a coin
one of those inch-wide copper pen
MES that Daddy carried for a pocket
piece-and l won the toss. The job
wasn't exactly a picnic, but got along
all right until we came to the last of
the battery. I found that the repair
ers had at some past time inserted a
couple of extra stay-rods, so that there
was little enough room left in the old
steel shell for a professional boiler
monkey to wriggle about in, to say
nothing OF a husky young chap who
tipped the beam at around a hundred
and seventy pounds, stripped.
Just the same, | made shift to knock
the worst of the scale off and rattle
it down so that it could be washed
out from below, and was backing out
to make my escape when I found that
one of the extra stay-rods was loose.
At my asking, Daddy screwed up the
nut on the outside of the boiler head
TO tighten the rod. and then passed the
wrench in to me so that I could screw
up the nut on the inside. To this
good day l don't know just what did
happen. but l guess the big S-wrench
must have slipped off the nut while
l was pulling on it. Anyhow, some
thing hit me a stunning crack over
the eye. and / promptly faded out,
blink, like a penny candle in a gust
of wind
When / came TO myself again it was
night and | was lying undressed and
in real bed in room that was total
ly unfamiliar. In the looking-glass
glimpse of myself with regular
Turks turban of white stuff wound
around my head and skew-angled to
cover one eye. When / stirred, Jeanne
popped in from somewhere to ask what
she could do for me.
what was it?" / asked; IAN earth
quaker"
Daddy says you hit yourself with
a wrench. Does it hurt much nOw?"
Not more than having a sound tooth
pulled; no. But 1 was inside the boil
er, wasn't i? How did you manage
to get me out?''
She turned her face away and even
with one eye / could see that she was
trying to hide a smile.
1T was funny" she confessed,
though we were both scared stiff at
the time. Daddy called me and / ran
over You were all doubled up inside
of the boiler, and there wasn't room
for Daddy to crawl in and straighten
you out. And unless you could be
Strengthened out, we couldn't pull you
out"
Il see. What did you do?-send for
a boiler-monkey?"