Graham guardian., 1922-03-03

The Crash Came Almost Immediately
all Is the folks down yonder at Tro,
| pia a-dreamin' about, to let all this
bangin' and whangin' go on up here
without comm up to find out what's
maxim it?"
The Atropia that l remembered was
so'nearly moribund that didn't Won:
der It wasn't making any stir In ,ouf
behalf; so, when few pattering rifle
shots which seemed to originate on
the great bench below began te sift
In AMONG the bomb echoes. I took 1t
that Bullerton had divided his force
and was trying to rattle us two ways
at once. AS for that, however, the
bigger bombardment kept us from
.speculating very curiously upon any
thing else. Two more, of the giant
crackers had fallen to the right of us,
one of them into the wreck of the
blacksmith shop, to send up a spout
Ing volcano of scrap which fell Sec
ond or so later In thunderous rain !;
For fitting instant it seemed as If
it must drop squarely in front. of the
iron shield under which we were
jammed--in which case even the un-
dertaker wouldn't have been needed
not any whatsoever, as Daddy Hiram
would have said. But at the critical
point in Its flight the hurting thing
"tcked" the top of the hoist. frame
and its downward course was defect
ed the needed hair's-breadth, causing
1t to come down beyond the machin-
cry, and not on our side of things
Nevertheless, I'VE were covering In an
ticipation Of blast which would most
likely heave the entire machinery ag-
gregation over bodily upon us when
the, explosion. came. u
We saw the belching column Of
flame and gas going skyward beyond
&the machinery barrier, taking a full
half of the roof with it, as If the. blast
had come from the mouth of a gigan-
tic cannon. We were dazed and deaf
ened by the shock, and half choked
by the fumes, but neither of us was
so far gone as not to hear distinctly
prolonged and rumbling crash like the
thunder. of Il small Niagara, coming
after-fie' smash =
"The shaft" shrilled Daddy Hiram,
, lnsR thin, choked voice; "lt went off
down in the shaft And, sayl--
what-all's that we're a-listehin' to
now -
IL there had been q dozen of the
bombs raining down | don't believe
the threat of them would have kept
us from bursting ont of our dodge hole
TO go and see what had happened In
the mine shaft. But before we could
determine anything more than that
the mouth of the shaft was complete
~ hidden under mass of wreckage,
and that the mysterious Niagara roar,
dwindled somewhat, but yet hollowly
audible, was still going on under the
cOneeallng mass Of Broken tinlbers
sand sheet-iron, there was masterful
interruption. Shots, yells, shoutlngs
and hot curses told US that a fierce
battle of some kind was staging itself
just outside of our wrecked fortress;
whereupon Daddy Hiram began paw
Ing his way to the door, yelling like
man. suddenly gone dotty.
& THAT there's old Ike Beasley-
dad-blame his old hide!' he chittered.
There amt nary mother man iT the
Timanyonis at can cuss like that,
He's come with posse, and they're
layln' out Charley Bullerton's crowd ~
There was fine little tahleau
spreading itself out for us when we
had elambered over the wreckage and
had withdrawn the wooden bar and
flung the door wide. Daddy Hiram
had called the turn and named the
trump. The large, desperadoish-look
ing man who had once interviewed me
at Angels, and little later shad
paused In his combing of the noun
tnlns In search of me to usurp my
place at the TwOmblys' breakfast ta-
BILE. this bewhlskered giant. with a
goodish bunch OF followers-hard-
boiled to a man, they looked to be-
had surrounded fair half Of the
would'bes.sjuihierss and were hand-
cutting them with a celebrity that was
trpR, adDlirable, And Beasley. him
seEf' Squire -jawed and peremptory,
was showing Bullerton up against the
side of the shnft-house, swapping the
Irons upon his wrists and counseling
him, with choice epithets ntermin-