Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-03-16

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me an appetite for real work that fair
ly made me ache when l thought of
stopping. We thrashed it out that eve
ming, the three of US before the living
room fire, after Daddy and l had fl
nally stopped the pumps and let the
steam run down.
II r]eckonJyou hain't no call to take
it so hard, Stannie," Daddy said, aft
or 1 had growled and g%rouched like
/ bear with a sore head over our fail
ure. After all, you must %ricollect
that it amt no skin off m you il the
old Cinnabar stays right where she is
and soaks till kingdom come"
mo skin off of me?' l yelpcd, with
a sort of wild laugh. 'Listen-both
of you," and then l told them the en-
tire heart-breaking story of Cousin
Percy's letter and my grandfather's
joke of my starting out on the fan
tastic search for the girl, a horse and
a dog-a search which would doubt
less have failed before it had fairly
a Pullman smoker with the man,
Charles Bullerton.
/ remembered afterward that I had
got just that far-to the naming or
Bullerton-when Barney, the pie
faced collie, got up from his corner
Of the hearth, stalked t. the door and
began to growl. The next minute we
heard a horses sh-r-r, and Daddy Hi
ram rose. pushed the dog aside and
opened the door. Then Jeanne and /,
still sitting before the fire, heard him
say Eruffly: We'll, hello, Charley
Fullerton! What in Sam Hill are you
doin' up in this neck o. woods?"
| turned to look at Jeanie-and
missed. In the moment when l had
glanced aside she had vanished.
When Fullerton came in, which was
after Daddy Hiram had lighted the
lantern and showed him where to put
his horse, he didn': seem half as much
surprised to find Inc sitting before the
TWombly house fire as l thought he
might have been.
We'll well!-look who's here!" he
bantered. How are you, Brouehton?
This old world isn't so Internally big
as 1t 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!
l hope you've been we'll and clipper,
all these weeks"
l said what 1 was obliged to-. and
wasn't any too confoundedly cordial
about it, either, l guess.
FULLERTON drew up a chair and be-
gan to talk, much as if we'd invited
MIN to, about his Woodworking year
IN South America; about the fabulous
~ rich mines in that far-away Utopia
OF the gold -diggers; about his voyage
up from the lsthmus; about the odd
ness Of his meeting me on the train,
combined with the more e~xcruciatine
oddness Of his meeting me again,
mere in the Eastern Timanyonis;
things like that.
lie was just comfortably sureine
along in the swing of it when a door
opened behind us and he jumped ur
with another We'll, well, look who's
mere and when I turned, he was
holding Jeanie's WI hands in his and
praying over like a wild ass of the
plains. And, il you'll believe me, tina,
girl had gone and changed her dress
That is what she went to do when shf
slipped out and left me to stare a.
her empty chair. after she had heard
e father say, well, hello, Charlie,
Bullerton!" 49,
1t WAS all Off with me from tina,
tIlhe on. For what was left of the
venln Fullerton played a solo.
got full-up on the performance abou
nine o'clock. Inc climbed nv ladde,
went to bed. muffling my head II
the 80 that 1 wouldn't hay,
70 lie there n listen to the bapnin
drone OF Bullerton's voice in the rnoTr
below. w."
/ hoped-without the least shade
OF reason for the hope, of course
thatrthe next morning would show m.
a mole IN n atmosphere in the spac,
that Fullerton had occupied. Bu,
there was no such luck. He was nres.
n at the breakfast table, as iarg.
as life and twice as talkative.
! maze my escape from the cabfr
to the mine. A glance int The s nv !,
showed the black pool in its denths =,
placid and untfoubled as If we hadn.
Just lifted a million or 20 cubic fec
OF water out OF It by hard labor
IN morose disbursement / recalled
the few things / had learned aho"
drowned mines while I was knoclin.
about in the Cripple Creek distric
trying to trace Fullerton. Particular
~ 1 remembered my talk with Hilton
the man who hap finally put me upo,
what had proved to be the right trsc1
in the. tracing job. He had talke'
quite freely. Sometimes the flood wa
only. the tapping Of an andereroun,
stream, as when one digs q well: !,
other. cases-and these were mos
common in the Cripple Creek rexio,
the source Of the flood q h
found in a buried lake or reservoi,
large or not so large, a. the iucl
might have 1t. II the source vere
lake---so Hilton had said-there va
little use in trying to pump the min,
dry. 500
Mulling Sover these d-iscouraxtnr b,t
OF Information, I was naturally ia,
back to the Pullman snokine.ronn
talk with Fullerton. 1 remembered
with a sharp little flick Of the mem
Dry whip. that he had given an er
pert opinion, which, as It seemed i
had backed up q year earlier with
thousand dollars OF real money-th
deposit in the Omaha bank made I,
cover my grandfather's bargain htnd
or. What ne had aid wa. pr,m rsa
ssnsbiy cessala that ! discovered