The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-02-10

means; and if two six-lnch pumps
driven night and day had failed TO
make any impression upon the flood,
what could be expected of a siphon
which, in the nature Of things, couldn't
be much bigger than an ordinary
street water main?
The other possibility was even less
hopeful. 1t was the driving of n short
tunnel, which Daddy and l might I'M
dertake without additional help, from
the level Of the high bench straight in
TO an intersection with the mine shaft.
This, ! estimated, might tap the water
at "A point possibly twenty feet below
cess, as | saw at once, would depend
entirely upon the location and volume
of the underground lake which was
supposed to be supplying the flood. If
this reservoir were shallow and high
in the mountain, the short tunnel
might drain It.. If 1t were deep and
low, nothing would be accomplished.
The question was still hanging hope
lesSly up in the air when / made my
way around to the mine buildings by
the left-hand gulch path, sneaked in
md began to shuck myself into Dad
dy's extra pair Of overalls; just for
what, | hadn't tue least idea only |
needed TO be dong something TO keep
me from going completely dotty in he
guessing contest.
~. tht. tt,,, nc 4 ly,A,,. tlny Nrns111
be getting up from breakfast in the
cabin across the dump head, which
would most likely be Bullerton'S cue
To come Over and ride me some more.
When | looked out in sour anticipa-
ton, here he came, smoking one Of his
high-priccd cigars and staggering Il
bit, as he always did in walking.
This is your Neutrality-suspicious.
day. Bronghton," he tossed at me as
soon as he stepped owe the threshold
of the shaft house door; but | fancied
| could notice that, some way, he
didn't seem quite so clipper and care
less as he had the day before.
"See here" | ripped out; whats
the use? You can't buy this mine at
any price! It's not in the market and
it isn't going to be. Not in "a thousand
years."
But see here; what's the use of
butting your head against a stone wall?
You're stuck, world without end, and
YOU know it. This flooded hole in the
ground is Of no more use to YOU than
q pair OF spectacles to q blind man ~
Perhaps not sis a poor thing, but
mine own | guess | can keep it as
a souvenir if / feel like it, can't II"
ooh, h-l!" he gritted, and turning
on his heel went away.
After he had gone / patted myself
on the back n bit for not losing my
temper and then, just TO have an ex-
cuse for staying away from the cabin
and the Fullerton vicinity, / made fires
under the boilers and got up steam. In
the former pumping spasm Daddy and
I had operated only the two big cen
trifugals, ignoring the deep-well pumps
designed TO lift the water from the
lower levels Of the mine.
ouoN W ~ SVLI'AhiiS lhdl VIZ ildhI L
tried before, | got steam on the deep
wcllers, and soon found that the
machinery, which we hadn't taken
down in the general oyerhaullng,
needed tinkcring before it would be
safe to run 1t. Banking the boiler
fires. I went at the job singlellanded
and managed to wear out the livelong
day at II. :
1t took me all the afternoon and
then some TO get the machinery cleaned
and tinkered up and reassembled. In
paving over the supplies in the mine
stOrerOom-stuff left by the former OPP
cratOrs-we had found an acetylene
flare torch and Il can Of carbide and |
rugged the torch so that l could 90 on
working after dark.
IL was along about nine o'clock when
| got the deep-wells ready TO run and
freshcned up the fires and turned the
steam on. In curious contrast 10 the
care which Lad been taken TO provide
n discharge oLtlet for the Ce~ntrifugals
the Cornish Jumps had merely an iron
trough which ran TO n ditch leading
down 20 the bench below the mine
buildings. after a few minutes OF the
clankirs and banging. the water began
to corie. 1t was horribly smelling
stuff, thick and discolored evidences
sufficient that 1t was coming from the
bottorl os the mine. The two pumps
together we're lifting about an eight
inch s.rcr-n, and it occurred to me ut
once that If / could set the centrifu-
gals Goirg at the same time, the mass
attack might accomplish what the
piecc-m"8l assault couldn't.
Throwing In the clutch that drove
the big rotaries, ] ran up against what
Daddy would have called a "circum.
stance" There wasn't power enough
20 drive both sets Of pumps coupled
in together; at least. not with the
| steam pressure the boilers were car
rying. Thinking to set more power by
pushing the fires q DIT harder, | went
to the detached boiIer room to stoke
| IN leaving the deem wells Changing