The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-03-09

abrupt cliff overlooking the mine
plant. /
They'll get the range, after a
WHILE" Daddy grunted. "And when
they do, I reckon it'll be good-by, fair
world, for a couple of us and one
mighty good dog. I'm a-tellin' you,
Stannie. son, the shot that comes
down through that hole fixes us a
plenty. Sufferin' Methusaleh! what
all is the folks down yonder at Trio
pia a-dreamin' about, to let all this
bangln' and whangin' go on up here
without comm up to find out what's
maxim it?"
The Atropia that I remembered was
so nearly moribund that l didn't WON
der it wasn't making any stir in our
behalf SO, when a few pattering rf.s.
shots which seemed to originate On
the great bench below began to sift
in among the bomb echoes, l took it
that Fullerton had divided his force
and was trying to rattle us tive ways
at once. AS for that, however, the
bigger bo~mbardment kept US from
specializing 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 a t%hunderous rain !;
For n AiffSnr Instant - ccn~,oI nc ;f
it must drop squarely in front Of the
iron shield under which we were
jammed-in which case ever the un-
dertaker wouldn't have been needed
not any whatsoever, as Daddy Hiram
would have said. But at the critical
point in its flight the hurtling thing
"ticked' the top of the hoist frame
and its downward course was defect
ed the needed hair's-breadth, causing
it to come down beyond the machin-
cry, and not on our side of things.
Nevertheless, we were covering in an
ticipation of a blast which would most
likely heave the entire machinery ag-
gregation over bodily upon us when
the explosion came.
We saw the belching column of
flame and gas going skyward beyond
the machinery barrier, taking a full
half of the roof with it. as If the blast
had come from the mouth of a gigan-
tic mo 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!
1.-The shaft" shrilled Daddy Hiram,
In a thin, choked voice; lit went off
down in the shaft! And, say -
what-all's that we're a-listenin' to
now"
If there had been a 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
the mouth of the shaft vas complete
~ hidden under a Of w~reckage,
and that the mysterious Niagara roar,
dwindled somewhat, but yet holloway
audible, was still going on under the
%concealing mass of broken timbers
and sheet-iron, there was a masterful
interruption. Shots, yells. shoutings
and hot curses told us that a fierce
battle of some kind was 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 like that.
He's come with a posse, and they're
layin' out Charley Bullerton's crowd II
There was a fine little tableau
spreading itself out for US when VIZ
had clambered V e the wreckage and
had withdrawn the wooden bar and
flung the door wide. Daddy Hiram
had called the turn and named the
trump. The large, desperadoish-look'