Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-10-13
CHAPTER XII
Continued from last week.

They started forward then, making
their way through the slime and silt
of the drift flooring, slippery and wet
from years of flooding. On-on-they
stopped.
Progress had become impossible. Be
fore them, twisted and torn and piled
about in muddy confusion, the tim
bers of the mine suddenly showed In
a perfect barricade, supplanted from
behind by piles of muck and rocky
refuse which left no opening to the
chamber of the stope beyond. Har-
rvs carbide went high In the air, and
he slid forward, tc stand a moment
in thought before the obstacle. AT
place after place he surveyed 1t, finally
to turn with shrug OF HIS shoulders.
Its going to mean more'n a month
of the 'ardest kind Of work, Boy" came
his final announcement. Cow 1t could
ave caved In like that is more than
I know. I'm sure we timbered it
good"
There was only one thing to do
turn back. Fifteen minutes more and
they were on the surface, making
their plans; projects which entailed
work from morning until night for
many a day to come. Harry reached
for new ak and Indicated another.
"Well cut ties first" he announced.
And thus began the weeks of effort,
weeks in which they worked with
crude appliances; weeks in which they
dragged the heavy stulls and other
timbers into the tunnel and then low
cred them down the shaft to the drift,
two hundred feet below, only to follow
them in their counterbalanced bucket
and laboriously pile them along the
sides of the drift, there to await use
later on. Weeks in which they worked
in mud and slime, as they shoveled
out the muck and with their CAD hooks
tore down loose portions of the hang
ing wall to form a roadbed for their
new tram.
It was a slow, CALLING progress, but
they kept at it. Gradually the tram
line began to take shape, pieced to-
gether from old portions of the track
which still lay in the drift and supple
mented by others bought eheaply at
that graveyard of miners hopes-the
junk yard in Ohadi. At last it was
finished; the work of moving the heavy
timbers became easier now as they
were shunted onto the small tram
truck from which the body had been
dismantled and trundled along the
rails to the cave-in, there to be piled
in readiness for their use. And final
ly-
A pick swung in the air, to give
forth chunky, smacking sound, as 1t
struck water-softened, spOngy wood.
The attack against the cave-in had be-
gun. A foot at time they tore away
the old. broken, spIlntered timbers and
the rocky refuse which lay piled be-
hind each shivered beam; only to STOP |
carry away the muck, and then rebuild. |
Cold and damp, in the moist air of the |
tunnel they labored but there was a |
ioy in it all. Down here they could |
forget Sauint Rodaine and his chalky- |
faced son; down here they could feel
that they were working toward goal
and lay aside the handicap which
humans might put in their path.
Day after day of labo. and the in
dentation upon the cavern grew from
a matter of feet to one of yards. A
week. Two. Then, as Harry swung /
his pick, he lurched forward and went
to his knees. 1--WE gone through !" he
announced in happy surprise. "Tve
gone through. We're at the end of itr'
Up went Fairchild's carbide. Where
the pick still hung In the rocky mass
a tiny hole showed, darker than the
refuse There was JOY
In Harry's voice as he made momen-
tary survey.
'Tt's fairly dry behind there" he an
nounced. "Otherwise we'd have been
around In water up to our
necks. We're lucky there, ANYHOW"
Again the attack and again the hole
widened. At last Harry Strengthened.
eve can go in now" came finally.
'Are you willing to go with meT
"YOu mean-W
But Harry stopped him.
Let's don't talk about it till we
ave to. Come on"
Silently they crawled through the
opening, the silt and fine rock rafting
about them as they did so, to come
upon fairly dry earth on the other
side, and to start forward. Suddenly,
rs they walked along, Harry took the
cad, holding his lantern far ahead OF
him, with one big hand behind 1t, as
-hough for a reflector. Then, just as
he turned.
Lets go out" came shortly.
"Why2"
ITS thereP In the light Of the
antern, Harry's face was white, his
Zig lips livid Lets GO
But Fairchild stopped him.
ssHarrv" he said. and there was de-