The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-02-16

time for any defensive move. The as.
phyxiating gas was coming stronger
every moment, and any search for its
| source seemed utterly hopeless. Yet
we went at 1t, coughing and choking,
and stumbling over everything In the
darkness. as a matter Of course.
After all II was Barney who q honor
him with the human pronoun because
he certainly deserved I'D 1t was Bar
ney who showed us the devils door,
way. The red glow was now sending
enough light through cracks and crew
ices and the bullet rlppings overhead
10 make our inner darkness a degree
or so less than Stygian. Missing the
dog for a moment at our common
breathing hole, we saw him c~ircling q
particular spot in the floor and snarl-
ing at 1t as if it were something alive.
AT that we both remembered that
the ShafthOuSe floor IA raised a foot
or 50 from the rocky ledge on the
down-mountain side, and hat the
space underneath was partly open.
Daddy pointed to the circling dog.
"Barney's got itr' he painted.
"They've run their chimney up under
the floor" Then: where in Sam
Hill did YOU leave that AK"
The AK was near at hand and / ran
chop madly at the floor p%lanking. BY
this time the AR was so bad that II
was impossible to breathe it, and after
a few blows | had to drop the aX and
run to the breathing gap. Daddy took
his cue instantly, snatching up the ak
as | flung it down and hacking away
as long as he could hold his breath.
When he was forced to make a bolt
for the ~life-Saving hole in the door, l
ran in again thus got a couple Of the
floor planks loose and pried them out.
In the space beneath the open
cracked floor we found BullertOn's
chimney end; an old discarded boiler
fue, ii seemed to be, leading up from
the bench below. From unearthing
the deadly thing to muzzling 1t with
one of our wet blankets was the
breathless work of only a minute OF
two; and with the gas-main thus shut
off, the air In the ~shafthOuSe soon be-
came bearable again, the hole we had
chopped through the floor serving as
a ventilator through which the cool,
crisp night air came rushing in a re-
vivifying blast.
Our first care, after q prolonged
silence led us to believe that the raid
ers had withdrawn to study up some
fresh scheme for getting rid of us, was
to get a bar and pry our two doors
open so that the breeze might blow
through and air the place out a bit.
Closing and barring the doors after
the sulphur stencil had been reduced
to a mere matchbox odOr, we estab-
lished our night-watch, Daddy Hiram
taxing the first trick under a solemn
couple of hours. This time he behaved
better, rousing me a little before mid
night. He reported everything quiet,
and pointed to the sleeping dog as evil
dence that there were no intruders
within smelling distance.
been hathaway eve since you
turned in," he said, meaning, as l took
1t, that the dog had been resting easy.
you can just keep an eye on Barney.
If anything goes to stirrin', he'll know
1t afore you WILL"
Nothing did stir; and after Daddy
had gone to wrap himself in his damp
blankets, I had my work cut u for
mi keeping awake; In fact, l shouldn't
want TO swear that l was fully awake
during all of the one hundred and
twenty minutes that my sentry-go last
ed. No matter about that. Fullerton
didn't spring any more surprises on us
during my watch; and when turned
the fortress over to Daddy at two
O'Clock l was able to pass the "all
quiet" report back to him and go to
the blankets with an easy conscience.
l had just dropped asleep, as 1t
seemed to m~e-though in reality l had
slept like a log for more than two
hours-when Daddy Hiram m to
shake me awake.
"Somethin' DOM" he announced
quietly, and when ! sat up l saw that
the collie was moving ~uneasily from
one door to the other, stopping now
and then to stand m~ote.nless with his
ears cooked and his head on one side (:
Barney hears something" l ven-
tured and a moment later Daddy
broke in:
Huh! it's plain enough for my old
ears. now; it's a wagon comm across
the bench"
Now the presence Of a wagon on our
bench at this early hour in the morn
ing might mean either one of two
Numerically opposite things: Our
deliverance; or the upcoming of re.
Inducements for the raiders. We were
not left long in doubt. Shortly after
the rack-rack of the wagon wheels
stopped we heard footsteps, and the
hair stiffened on Barney's back. Next
we heard Bullerton's voice, just out
side and apparently under our window
openings.