The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-03-02
CHAPTER XVI
Burnt Matches

| CoiIoWiHS the uOs TO the door, W,
could neither see nor hear anythfn,
going on outside, though Barney
snifings under the door and his Iey
growl warned as that something wa,
afoot, either on the. dump head or Ii
the partly wrecked cabin beyond
While we We're still peeping and peer
ing. each at his auger-hole and eacf
ready to take an offhand shot at any
thing that seemed suspicious, the ST
lence, of the mountain night was rippeG
and torn by the most hideous clamol
imaginable, arising, apparently. in the
cabin or perhaps from the growing OF
trees just behind 1t. The racket was
d~eafening; comparable to nothing tina,
I'd ever heard; a magnified orchestra.
ton, so to speak, of the pandemonium
made by a crowd Of country boys
serenading a newly married pair with
tin pans and such-like noise-makine
implements. Is:
"What In the name o. Joab - slut.
tered Daddy Hiram. Reckon them
gosh-dummed pirateers we gone plum
loony?"
"Wait," I qualified. and I had TO
shout to make myself heard. "There1l
be more to follow. This Is only the
curtain-raiser."
But my guess appeared to be no
good. For quite some little time we
crouched, guns ut the ready. prepared
to repel the assault which We natural
~ supposed would be made under
cover of the distraeting racket. But
there was no assault, Though the mean
ingless clamor kept up without abate-
ment.
BY the time we were beginning to
grow a trifie hardened to tt the clamor
stopped as abruptly al 1t had begun
and the silence which succeeded was
even more d%eafening than the noise
had been. While I fancied l could see
dim figures stealing down the road
that led to the bench below, / heard
Daddy say: "Now, what In the name
O Jehoiaciim-"
He had turned away from his peep
hole and / could sense, rather than see.
tina: he was rubbing his eyes. Then !
realized that upon me, also, a sudden
blindness had fallen; the interior of
the s%hafthouse had become as dark
as the inside of a pocket. The effect
was so stupefyfng that 1T took both
of us a minute or so to understand
that some change as yet undefinable
had been wrought either in us or in
our surroundings during the noisy in
terlude.
"Great Jehut" exclaimed the old
man-though he was within arms
reach I could make him out only as a
dim shadow-"Great Jehu! II b1ieve
I'm goin' blind, Stannie! Il can't
see nothin' a-tall"
Don't worry" l FASTENED to say :
"Im in the same boat. We've been
looking too long and steadily through
those auger-holes. Itu pass in a min
ute."
But it didn't pass and presently the
voice of my old side partner came
again out of the darkness.
"P'raps it's cloudin' up some" he
suggested in a half-whisper. II can't
see NJ stars through them windows"
At this I looked toward the window
openings, but the interior blackness
had blotted them out completely. AL
most instinctively I turned back to the
door and put an eye to a loophole.
One glance was enough. The trouble,
whatever it might be, was with us and
not with the sky. The stars Were
shining as brightly as ever.
Don't move. Daddy" I cautioned
and then CROPPED my way along the
wall and climbed to the top Of our
earth-sack breastwork at a point which
I guessed to be under the nearest OF
the two windows.
When I drew myself up and tried to
thrust a hand through the opening
the mysterious darkness was ex.
planned. The window embrasures were
stopped up, both Of them, on the out.
side by something that felt like 6
heavy canvas curtain, though how the
curtain was held in place / could no,
determine. But it was firmly braced
in some way. With all the purchase
/ could get-which wasn't much
couldn't dislodge 1t or push 1t aside.
Making my way back to the doc,
/ told Daddy what / had found. 3.
Huh" he said that old tarpaulIn
that was out yonder In the ore shed
How dye reckon they got 1T there
| Stannie?" ."'
"It's hoisted on a framework OF
some kind, and they did It while we
were rubbering and trying to find out
what all that noise was about"
We were not kept very long in doubt
as to what the next enemy move was
to be. With the cessation Of the tom.
tom clatter the collie had grown curl,
ousIy restless. We couldn't see him,
but we could hear him running from
post to pillar, smiling at the cracks
and occasionally giving a whining
growI. Presently he began to cough
and sneeze !: then he came racing back
to us, ~fiattening himself to- hold his
nose to the crack under the door and
taking long breaths as II he were hall
stifled. I stopped to pat him and I'm.
mediateiy imagined / was smelling
burning sulphur matches.
"Ger down here. Daddy, and smell
this dogl' I whispered. rs .t old.
fashioned matches, or what? r. b
One snir was all that the old ma
needed. U
Observation-Disclosures r he
choked them devils are sInokIn, ua
out That's why they stopped IN them
window holes; so we couldn't ret any