Graham guardian., 1922-01-13
I Consented to lie. .h. Fires Die Down

l Consented to Let the Fires Die Down,
old Cinnabar stays right where she is
and SOakS till kingdom come"
NO skin off of me?' | yelped with
a sort of wild laugh. "Listen-both
of y"u," and then told them the en-
tire heart-breaking story of Cousin
lerCy'S letter and my grandfathcr'S
joke; Of my starting out on the fan
taStic search for the girl, horse and
a dog--a search which would doubtless
have failed before it had fairly begun
if hadn't happened to ride in Pull
man smoker with the man, Charles
Fullerton.
! | remembered nfterward that | had
got just that fnr--t0 the naming OF
BullertOn-when Barney. the pie-faced
collie, got up from his corner of the
hearth, Stalked to the door and began
TO growl. The next minute we heard
horses sh-r-r-, and Daddy Hiram
rose, pushed the dog aside and opened
the door. Then JPanie and l, stin
sitting before the fire, heard him say
GrufIly: "Well, hello, Charley Butler
ton What in Sam Hin are You doin'
up In this neck o. wOods?"
| turned to look Ht Jeanie-and
missed. In the moment when | had
glanced aside she had vanished.
When Fullerton came in, which WIS
after Daddy Hiram had lighted the
lantern and shown him where to put
his horse he didn't seem half as much
surprised to find me sitting before the
Twomhly house fire as ] thought he
might have been.
"Wcll, well look who's here" he
bantered. GLOW are you. BroughtOn?
| This old world isn't 50 Internally big
| as it might be, after all, is it? Who
would have thought that our next
meeting would be in such an Out-of-
| the-way corner of the universe as this!
I hope you've been well and clipper,
all these weeks"
said what ! was obliged to, and
wasn't any too confoundcdIy cordial
| about it, either, | guess.
Fullerton drew up chair and began
to talk. much us if we'd invited him TO,
about his Woodworking year in South
! America; about the fabulously rich
mines in that far-away Utopia of the
golddiggers; about his voyage up from
| the ISthmuS; about the oddness of his
meeting me on the train, combined
with the more eXcruCiatihg OddneSS Of
| his meeting me again, here in the East
ern TimanyoniS; things like that.
He was just comfortably surglng
along in the swing Of it when a door
opened behind us and he jumped up
with another "Well, well, look who's
here" and when I turned, he was
holding ,Ieunie's two hands In his and
braying over her like wild ass Of the
plains. And, If you'll believe me, that
girl had gone and changed her dress
That is what she went tO do when she
slipped out and left me To stare at her
empty chair, after she had heard her
father say, "WCll, hello, Charley Bul-
lertun"
1t vas all off with me from that
time on. For what was left of the
evening, Fullerton played a solo.
got full-up on the performance about
nine o'clock, and climbed my ladder
and went to bed, mutiiing my head in
the blankets SO that | wouldn't have
to lie there and listen to the bagpipe
drone of BulIerton's voice In the room
below.
hoped-without the least shadow of
reason for the hope, of COurse-that
the next morning would show me a
hole in the atmosphere in the space
that Fullerton had occupied. But
there was no such luck. lie was pres
ent at the breakfast table, as large
as life and twice as talkative.
| made my escape from the cabin
as soon as could and trRmped over
to the mine. A glance into the shaft
showed the black pool IN its depths as
plncid and untr0ubled as If we hadn't
lust lifted a million or so cubic feet
of water out of it by hard labor.
In morose Encouragement recalled
the few things ] had learned about
drowned mines white was knocking
about In the Cripple Greek district
trying to trace Fullerton. Particular
ly remembered my talk wljn
the man VIII" had finally put 49, ur
what had proved to be the ri@hI lrav!
In the tracing job. He hud miker
quite freely. Sometimes the flood wns
only the tapping of an underground
stream, MS when one digs we'll; II
other CaScS-und these We're most com
mon in the Cripple Creek region
The source of the food would hr foun,
In buried lake ar reservoir large oI
not so large, AZ the luck might hay,
II. If the source were a lake--sO I'LL
ton had SHid-thCre was little use il
trying tn pump the mine dry.
= Mulling over these dSC0uraging bit'
Of Information, was naturally lCt
= back t0 the Pullman smoking room tail
with Fullerton. | remembered. with d
' sharp little flick uf tho memory whip
; HAT he had given nm expert opinion
e which, rs il seemed. he had backed ~
q year earlier with thousand dol
lars Of real nrunCy--lhc deposit IN tn,
3 Omaha bank made lu cover my grand
7 | fathers harguin binder What he ha,