Graham guardian., 1922-02-10

Fullerton Sunnin' himself on the door.
step. Made me sort e perk up my
ears"
"But, see here, Daddy" thrust In,
IF he's got my deed, or has destroyed
II, why"
"Why, he has as good right to the
Cinnabar as the next one that comes
along, is what you're goin' to say. |
amt diSputin' you for a minute. But
0fore he can have 1t, he's got to take
1t, hain't he? And we've got two nigh.
y good liz pieces of artillery that says
he's goin' to have one joyful old time
a-takin' II; that Is, if you're of the
same mind that am"
by JOvei ! wanted to put my arms
around the old Spartan and hug him
As I've said, there were ten or q dozen
men In that bunch we'd seen in the
sulch, and he was calmly proposing to
stand up to them, as confidently as IL
II were all In the days work.
II get you now, Daddy" said, "and
If there's fight coming to us. your
mind is mine. Well give them the best
we've got"
thought the two old-fashioned guns
and Jeanie'S pistol promised Il poor
chance for an effective defense; but
Daddy Hiram proceeded to show me
that we had at least one other re-
source. In the mine stores left behind
by the former operating company were
two boxes of siXty-per-cent dynamite,
with fuse and caps, and Daddy pointed
out that there were good possibilities
wrapped up in the greasy brown-paper
cartridges If the enemy should come
close enough to let us use them.
~ believe you had this all doped out
In advance, Daddy" | said. when he
had neat little row of the cartridges
laid out on the floor. But surely you
didn't expect to hold out alone If those
sharks sent crowd of jumpers in to
run you OFF,"
"Me and Jeanie." lie said simply.
Wed IA done our level best and the
angels couldn't do no more than that"
Here, unless the old man was sadly
mistaken in his daughter. was another
and wholly unSusneCtcr side Of the blue
eyed maiden displayed for me. tried
To imagine LiSette helping her father.
or me. or any lone man, to defend II he.
leagucrcd miTe against an armed at
tack. II was so funny that shouted.
"Do you mean to say that Jeanie would
shut herself up in here and load the
guns for you against mob of mine
jumpcrs?"
He looked up with prideful sparkle
in his mild blue eyes, ....
you don't half know that little girl
q mine, yet, Stannie, son." he said
And then: "She's the only
boy ! ever had, you see; and she hain't
had any mother since she can remem-
Der. Maybe | hadn't ort to taught her
to ride hawsses and shoot, and them
things; but it seemed like had to-"
You haven't made her one iota less
lovable," l FASTENED to
say. Then blurted out the thing that
had been weighing on me ever since
we had found Fullerton loatinG on the
doorstep: "DO you suppose they could
lis there any way they could have
been married yesterday, Daddy?"
"Uh-huh; reckon there was. They
might "a gone on down to Angels.
There's Il justice o the peace down
there"
II still lacked full hour of noon
when we got our preparations made
and were ready to stand siege. Then
we waited. and waited some more; and
after while | began to grin. What
If we had stampeded ourselves need
Iessly? After all, the men we had seen
in the deep gulch might really have
been traDps, and not Bullerton army.
Would the mining engineer, unprinci'
pied as he doubtless was, 90 to the
length of trying to dispossess us by
force? The more thought of 1t, the
more unlikely Ii seemed.
IL guess maybe We were scared of
, shadow, after all, Daddy" said,
Fullerton has had time enough to
,ring up his army, If he has one"
II amt countin' much on his backin'
down." was the drawllng rejolnder.
'Ye see, know Charley Bullerton OF
Did; keen KNOWN him ever since he
first busted into the mlnin' game.
That was over In the Sagauche. He's
IN all-'rOund cuss, but he's slayer Be-
sides, you roughcd him up sort o hurt
'ul this mornin', and he's got that to
make him spitey. Wen he hcarln'
rom him as soon as he gets things
'anHed round into shape TO suit him."
Still, as time passed and nothing
II looked less and less like
y that we were going to have to fight
or our holding ground. ! don't know
o this good day what made Bullerton
70 slow In bringing up his army, but
was high noon, and Daddy and |
we're eating cold luncheon, with the
'haft-hOuse door-sill for a seat, when
We saw the army coming. II was
'traSgiing gang of perhaps dozen
men; we couldn't count them accurate
y because the road on the bench
wound In and out among the trees.
They came up within easy rifle shot
md pitched their camp. II YOU could
all II that, In little glade. At that
llstnnce We could see that they were
Irined, but, of course, we couldn't tell
What kind of guns they had. After
hey had taken possession Of the small |
'pon space, two of them set TO work
q build u cooking fire.
Al the halt IN the glade one OF the
'arty-Bullerton. we guessed II WIS
,roke branch from pine, stripped
he twigS from II, and made II IIag-
tan for his white handkerchief. Tn.