The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-04-28
CHAPTER XVI
Burnt Matches.

: SnIfnngS under the door and his low
growl warned US that something was
afoot, either on the dump head or il
the partly wrecked cabin beyond
While we were still peeping and peer
ing each at his auger-hole and each
: ready 10 take an offhand shot at any.
: thing that seemed suspicious, the 81
lence of the mountain night was ripped
and torn by the most hideous clamor
imaginable, arising. apparently, In the
cabin or perhaps from the growing OF
trees just behind it. The racket was
deafening; comparable to nothing that
I'd ever heard; 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-making
implements.
What IN the name o Joab - slut
tered Daddy Hiram. Reckon them
gosh-dummed pirateers We gone plum
loony?"
Wait" I qualified. and 1 had 10
shout TO make myself heard. "ThereH
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 at the ready, prepared
TO repel the assault which we natural
ly supposed would be made under
cover of the distractfng racket But
there was no assault, though the mean
ingless clamor kept up without abate-
ment.
BY the time we were beginning to
grow trife hardened to it the clamor
/ stopped as abruptly as it had begun
and the silence which succeeded was
even more deafening than the noise
had been. While I fancied I could see
/ dim figures stealing down the road
that led to the bench below, I heard
/ Daddy say: Now, what in the name
o Jehoiachim-"
| He had turned away from his peep
hole and I could sense, rather than see,
that he was rubbing his eyes. Then I
realized that upon me, also, a sudden
blindness had fallen; the interior of
the shafthouse had become as dark
as the inside of a pocket. The effect
was so Supplying that it took both
of US a minute or so to understand
that some change as yet undefinabIe
had been wrought either in us or in
our surroundings during the noisy in
terlude
Great Jehu - 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, Stanniel Il can't
see nothin' a-tall -
Don't worry" 1 FASTENED to say i;
I'm in the same boat. We've been
looking too long and steadily through
those suger-holes. It'u pass in a min
ute"
But 1t 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. Il can't |
see no stars through them windows"
AT this 1 looked toward the window |
openings, but the interior blackness
had blotted them out completely. AL I
most instinctively I turned back to the +
door and put an eye to a loOphole F
One glance was enough. The trouble, /
whatever 1t might be, was with us and .
not with the sky. The stars were
shining as brightly as ever.
Don't move, Daddy" 1 cautioned. I
and then CROPPED my way along the
wall and climbed TO the top Of our
earth-sack breastwork at point which
| guessed to be under the nearest of
the two windows.
When I drew myself up and tried to
thrust a hand through the opening Il
the mysterious darkness was ex-
planned. The window embrasures were
cfo hot NJ
side by something that felt like
heavy canvas curtain, though how the
curtain Yves held in place l could not
determine But it was firmly braced
in some way. With all the purchase
L could get-which wasn't much-T
couldn't dislodge it or push it aside.
Making my way back to the door
I told Daddy what I had found
Huh - he said; that old tarpaulin
that was out yonder in the ore shed.
How dye reckon they got 1t there,
Stannie?"
Its hoisted on a framework of
some kind, and they did it while we !
we're rubbering and trying to find out
what all that noise was about" (
We were not kept very long in doubt
IS to what the next enemy move was {
% be. With the cessation of the tom {
ON clatter the collie had grown curl {
)usly restless. We couldn't see him, |
)ut we could hear him running from | {
post to pillar, shifting at the cracks {
md occasionally giving a whining I
yrowl. Presently he began TO cough
md sneeze; then he came racing back S
o US, iattening himself to hold his s
lose to the crack under the door and /
aking long breaths as if he were half S
itifled. 1 stopped to pat him and i'm
nediately imagined I was smelling Q
BURNING sulphur matches. I
'Ger down here, Daddy, and smell c
his dogI" I whispered us it old a
ashioned matches, or what?' e
One sniff was all that the old man
eeded. [
ee-whiZ-brimstone :" he b
hoked; them devils are smokin' US
ut That's why they stopped up them e
window holes; so We couldn't get any t
iri"