The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-02-09

to take a chance !" he muttered. "Any-
$ ways, I'd about as lief die as be
: drowned to death. Wen have to muss
! that blacksmith shop up and get Ii out
o the way, somehow. Gimme a match
4 amt all soaked to n jiz-whlzzlin' sop"
, / found the matches, which, luckily,
were still dry, and handed him one.
Before / fairly realized what he was
going to do, he had taken one Of the
dynamite cartridges out Of it's bucket
hiding place and was splitting the fuse
with his pocketknife.
"Open that there dOor into the shop"
he commanded; and when l obeyed
mechanically, out went the bomb, fZ-
Zing and sputterlng, to land In a heap
of scrap iron piled on the farther side
Of the stOne-built forge. The sight Of
1t smoking and splitting sparks in the
heap Of scrap half ~hypnotized me, l
guess, for l stood gaping at 1t, with
the door held open, until Daddy Hiram
jerked me away, slammed the door and
yelled to me to help him bar 1t.
We had barely time to get the door
closed and fastened with the heavy
wooden bar and to throw ourselves
fiat on the floor behind the hoisting
machinery before the crash came. AS
/ have previously said, the blacksmith
shop was a rather flimsy, ~shed-like
affair, rooted with corrugated iron,
and 1t seemed to us as If broken tim
bers and pieces Of sheet metal were
raining down for a full minute after
the blast went off.
The shock to everything In the vicin-
ity was, of course, tremendous and
the stout old shaft-house itself rocked
and swayed like q tree in a hurricane.
But the walls still stood intact, and
when we got up and peeped through
a hole which a piece Of the flying
scrap had torn In the door, we could
see what we had done. 1t was a-plen-
ty. The blacksmith shop had disap-
peared, leaving nothing but a scatter
ing Of wreckage. The heavy anvil had
been thrown from It's block and the
forge looked as If a giant had kicked
1t. Out by the boiler-shed a rack Of
cordwOod had been toppled over and
under 1t a man was struggling to free
himself. When he saw the imprisoned
enemy that ~mild-mannered, soft-spoken
old soldier that 1 was shut up with
would have opened the door and shot
the struggler If l hadn't stopped him.
This blowing up Of the shop settled
the shower-bath business for us def
lnitely. With the impeachment out Of
the way w had a clear view on this
third side; could command the row
Of miners cabins, as well as the boil
ers In their open shed. When / got
through persuading Daddy Hiram that
we couldn't afford to murder the
wounded, the fellow who had been
wrestling with the ~woodpile had made
his exit and there was nobody In
sight. Shortly afterward a bullet,
fired from somewhere in the forest
background, whanged upon our roof,
and there were several to follow but
aside from punching a few more holes
In the iron they did no harm.
"Looks like the Hercules is the one
thing they're most skeered Of" said
Daddy. with his queer little suffering
chuckle. Nov mavbe they'll leave us
have time to get ourselves dried out
a mite"
Totting up the results of the shower
bath we'd had, a bread famine prom
Used to be the worst of them. The few
ans of beans, tomatoes and peaches
the campers standbys--were I'M
hurt, of course, and the muddied bacon
could be washed with water drawn
in It's sack was merely a blob of paste
and was beyond redemption and the
cOrnmeal vas the same. In view Of
the results l wondered If Fullerton
hadn't shrewdly calculated upon wash
ing u commissary out of existence
when he planned his overgrown lawn
sprinkler. But maybe that was giving
him credit for more ingenuity than he
really had.
Through what remained of the after
loon the rifle firing continued, coming
sometimes from one angle and some
hhiN i'oih oiipNii'is u always Cuu
nily from q safe distance and always
under cover Of the surrounding forest.
Daddy Hiram, grimly optimistic. ex-
tracted a swallow or so of
, ment out of the persistent pot-shoot-
ing.
Dunno as you've ever noticed II,
Stannie, but II you'll only let a hog
alone long enough he'll shove himself
under the bob-wire fence far enough
to get caught" ne said. "Charley Bull.
ierton, now; he's plum forgot that
"Tropia's less n five miles ava and
that sound carries mighty long dis
tances In these mountains In clear
weather."
! "what difference does that maker
l asked.
IT may make a heap o. difference.
Looks to me like somebody-Buddy
Fuller. r Jim Haggerty, the section
boss. r some Of 'em down yonder d
begin a-wonderin', after q spell, what
In Pm Tim al All 49, Ar--xa-AA--a