Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-03-25
The Girl, A Horse and A Dog
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.

AdI1uCuHS, else he might nave elapped
q pair Of them on melville he start
ed his posse down to Atropia with the
captured raiders and their leader.
When he game back we took time,
Daddy >and ! and the big marshal, to
size up the damage that had been
wrought, n beyond that, to dig into
the mystery of the continuous grum-
bling roar which was still ascending
Out of the WIeck-covered mine shaft.
Beasiey stayed with us waiting, as
took it. to get his breakfast before
ne ran me on to Jail, and the three of
us fell to work clearing away the
fallen timbers and roofing iron, Dad
dy Hiram leading the attack and be-
ing the first to stick his head through
what remained of the tansle and hang
1t over the edge of the shafts mouth.
"Hooray!" he yelled, his voice
sounding rs II 1t came from the In
! q OF a barrel; and then again.
"Fooray. Stannie, son!-by the ghosts
OF old Shadrach. .Meshach and Abed-
nego. Charley Bulleiten's done gone
and done e~egs-zac'ly what he said he
could do-reened your mine for We!
Climb in here and TAX a look at her.
Shes empty-empty as a gourd-but
at that. she amt goin' to be, very
, lon!"
A few more minutes of the strenu-
on toll cleared the pit mouth SO that
we could all see. The bomb which
had exploded in the shaft had wrought
a complete transformation. The stand
ing flood. which ali OF our PUMPING
attacks had failed to lower by so
much as a fraction Of an inch, was
gone. and with it had vanished the
two big centrifugals, the platform
upon which they had stood, and their
pipe connections. Gone, likewise, was
the greater par of the heavy wooden
shaft-lining. A little Of his 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, n which still continued
there was 4 good and sufficient raa-
son plainly visible from the pits
mouth. Some twenty feet down, and
on the eastern side Of the shaft, a
stream Of water big enough to run a
good sized hydro-eiectric plant was
pouring into this perpendicular cavern
and it was it's plunging descent INTO
the bowels Of the earth which was
making the mimic thunder.
Beasley was the first to find speech.
Where the btazes is all that water
comm from?" he exploded.
That's Just what we're going to
find out" l |barked. Can you and
Daddy handle my weight in a rope
slins?"
They both protested that they
could handle two of me II necessary
n 4 sling was quickly rigged and
was lowered into the pit. At the near
er view thus obtained. some Of the
mysteries were instantly made clear,
n reason why the wooden boxing
disappeared below a certain point in
the shaft was that It had never ex-
tended any farther down. It had
been merely a box with a bottona!-
and all those pipe-dream impressions
which had tried to register them
selves on the day when I had my
struggle with the suction pipe octo-
pus were instantly translated into
facts. l csld have sworn. then. that
there was 4 bottom In the box, and
there was > bottom. And that other
impresston--thst ! had encountered
an tnrushing stream Of ice-coId wa
ter in the chilling depths; here was
the streaHl;k a foOt-tbick, never-fail-
ing cataract, pouring in through a
perfectly good and substantiA con-
In q flash the whole criminal mys-
terry involving the 0stensib1y flooded
mine was Eliminates for me. Haul
away" called to the two above:
and when they had drawn me up to
the pits mouth and I could get upon
my feet, I Wiped 1T Daddy and the
marshal to come IN, ana led them ID
an outdoor rae along the mine
ledge to the eastyard; o hundred
YARDS dash which Dr0usht u to the
banks Of the swift little mountain
torrent In the right-hand euich.
a brief search revealed precisely
what was expecting to find; what
anyone in possession 81 the facts .pre.
ceAent would hsve expected To- find,
- the middle Of . small pool aliEhfiy
upstream from the psth Level pock.
eted pit Of water neatly screened and
Dali hidAep by 4 rowth of lows
branehtnE ~sprucee-.vs nv 4 con
shaped, whiFlpeoi svirl into which 5
geea third Of the STRAIN now va
vsntahtnf. Below this rool n appur!
eHtly occidental heepthg 81 y6eEs
isrsFed. 8 aFaallS aalA wh4sh kept ~
Attle 1TeSstv1ar fan.
Without 4 word, naddy Hiram ana
the Angsl!c marebaI plunged reek.
1essiy into the stream ana WITH thnir
bare HANDS tore aNay the iocSe-rock
yd2 ma = W{th4fhA aE0A 49, ~