The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-03-10

hoNh lhiouSI tHdl li'iC hANS uo Z"
plenty. Suffccin' Methusaleh. what
all is the folks down yonder al 'Tro-
pia a-dreamin' about, 10 let all this
bangin' and whangin' go on up here
without comm up to find out what's
maxim it?"
The Atropia that | remembered was
so nearly mOribund that | didn't won
der it wasn't making any stir in our
behalf SO, when d few patterlng rifle
shots which seemed TO originate on
the great bench below began to sift
in among the bomb echoes, | took it
that Fullerton had divided his force
and was trying TO rattle us two ways
at once. AS for that, however, the
bigger bombardment kept us from
,p~eculating very curiOuSly upon any
thing else. Two more Of the giant
crackers had fallen TO the right of us,
n Of them into the wreck of the
blacksmith shop, to send up a spout
ing volcano Of scrap which fell a sec
Ond or SO later in q thunderOuS rain /;
n then. .
For q fitting instant it seemed as If
it must drop sQuarely in front of the
iron shield under which we were
j~ammed-in which case even the I'M
dertaker wouldn't have been needed
not any Whatsoever, as Daddy Hiram
would have said. But at the critical
point in its flight the HURTING thing
licked" the top OF the hoist frame
and its downward course was dctlect-
ed the needed hair's-breadth, causing
it 30 come down beyond the machin-
cry, and not on our side Of things.
Nevertheless, we were covering in an
tiCipation of Il blast which would most
likely heave the entire machinery ag-
gregation over bodily upon us when
the explosion anne.
We saw the belching column of
flame and gas going skyward beyond
the machinery barrier, taking n full
half of the roof with ii, as If the blast
had come from the mouth of a gigan-
tic cannon. We were daZed and deaf
| ened by the shock, and half chOked
by the fumes, but neither Of us was
| so far gone as not to hear distinctly a
prolonged and rumbling crash like the
thunder of a small Niagara, coming
after the smash.
"The shaft! :" shrilled Daddy Hiram,
in a thin, choked voice; sit went off
down in the Shaft! And, say!-
what-all's that we're a-liStenin' to
nOwi"
If there had been q dozen Of the
bombs raining down | don't believe
the threat of them would have kept
us from bursting out Of our dOdge-hOle
to go and see what had happened in
the mine shaft. But before we could
determine anything more than that
the mouth Of the shaft was complete
ly hidden under q mass of wreCkage,
and that the mysterious Niagara roar,
dwindled somewhat, but yet holloway
audible, was still going or under the
cOncealing mass Of broken timbers
and Sheet-iron, there was Il masterful
interruption. Shots, yells, shoutings
and hot curses told us that q fierce
battle of some kind vas staging itself
Just outside of our wrecked fortress
whereupOn Daddy Hiram began paw
ing his way to the door, yelling like a
man suddenly gone dOtty.
"That there's old Ike Beasley-
dad-blame his old hide !" he chittered.
There amt nary mother man in the
TimanyOnis at can cuss Ike that.
He's come with a posse, and they're
layin' out Charley BullertOn's crowd ~
There was q fine little tableau
| spreading itself out for us when we
had clambered over the wreckagc and
MNNNMwvV,