Licking Valley courier., 1922-02-02

would have opened the door and shot
the struggler If | hadn't stopped him.
This blowing up of the shop settled
the shower-bath business for us def.
initely. With the impediment out OF
the way we had clear view on this
thirl side; could command the row
Of miners cabins, as well as the boil
ers In their open shed. When ! got
through persuadlng Daddy Hiram that
we couldn't afford to murder the
wounded, the fellow who had been
wrestling with the woodpile had made
his exit and there was nobody in
sight. Shortly afterward bullet,
fired from somewhere In the forest
background, whanged upon our. roof,
and there were several to follow; but
aside from punching a few more holes
in the iron they did no. harm.
"Looks like the Hercules is the one
thing they're most skeered of, said
Daddy, with his queer little suffering
chuckle. "Now maybe they'll leave us
have time to get ourselves dried out
a mite"
Totting up the results Of the shower
bath we'd had, bread famine prom
ised to be the worst of them The few
cans Of beans, tomatoes and peaches
the campers standbys-were un-
hurt, Of course, and the muddied bacon
could be washed with water drawn
from the flooded shaft. But the -four
In its sack was merely blob of paste
and was beyond redemption and the
cornmeal was the same. In view of
the results / wondered If Bulerton
hadn't shrewdly calculated upon wash
Ing our c0mmissary out Of existence
when he planned his Overgrown lawn
sprinkler. But maybe that was giving
him credit for more ingenuity than he
really had.
Through. what remained of the after
noon the rifle firing continued, coming
sometimes from one angle and some
times from another, but always can
nily from a safe distance and always
under cover Of the surrounding forest.
Daddy Hiram, grimly optimistic, ex-
tracted a swallow or so Of encourage
ment out Of the persistent pOt-shOOt-
ing.
Dunno as you've ever noticed 1t,
Stannie, but If you'll only let a hog
alone long enough he'll shove himself
under the bob-wire fence far enough
to get caught" he said. Charley Bull
lerton, now he's plum forgot that
Tropia's less n five miles away and
that sound carries mighty long dis
tances in these mountasls in clear
weather."
"What difference does that maker"
| asked.
ut may make heap O. difference
Looks to me like somebody-Buddy
Fuller, r Jim Haggerty, the section
boss, r some Of 'em down yonder d
begin a-wonderin', after a SPELL what
in tarnation all this here blastin' and
rifle-poppin' up on old Cinnabar is a
pintln' at and come and see."
"DO you think the racket will carry
that far?"
ut sure will. One night .pfore STgo-
pia had gone as dead as she is now, a
bunch o cowpunch's got into an argy-
ment at Blue-nose Bill's place ald we
heard the crackin' and poppih' up
here-Jeanie and me-llke 1t was just
over yonder In Greaser gulch."
"Well?" said l, "if your nephew or
any Of the others hear 1t, what then?"
AS l asked the question one of the
low-almed shots tore through the side
of the building, struck the iron frame
of the hoist, fiattened itself and
dropped into the old mans lap. Pick
Ing up the hot bit of lead to dandle
II from hand to hand he went on much
as If picking up bullets that were fired
at him had been his daily recreation.
Curiosity killed the cat, Stanine
son. You let some one O. the folks
down yonder In Tropla say, BY gol-
| wonder what all that shOotin's fOrf
and the next thing you know, some
body'll be moggin' up here to find out"
Along about dusk some member OF
ihe besieglng party tried to make a re-
connalssance. happened to be keeping
the lookout on the cabin side of our
fortress and saw a man dodging among
the pines back Of the house. When
reported to Daddy he took snap shot
at the place pointed out to him and
there was wild yell and stir In the
young pines as though hog were gal
Looping through them.
"Just to let 'em know that were
still aliveSand kickin'," said the ole
man, with another of his quavery
chuckles. 81 reckon maybe that's
what they was amin to find out"
Possibly 1t was. AT all events, tn,
rifle fire stopped with the coming o.
darkness, and as we faced our sec0nt
night of defense we had plenty of tint
to sit around and think and speculat,
upon what the outcome was going t
he.
Taking II all In all, II was the fan
tastic humor of the thing that hit IN,
hardest. Six short weeks earlier peO
Pile at home had been calling me al
the hard names that fall to the lot o
the idle ne'er-do-well Il young chal
with enough inheritance money to keel
him In ties and shoes and shirts AM
to buy gas for his car-though tina
last asked for Il good Bit On the rlslnl
cost of gasoline-and not enough t
make life, or anything connected there
with, very much worth while.
Also these same people were sayin
behind my back, of course, but ther
were always plenty of them TO repea
the saying to my face-that | wa
good stock gone to seed, would ncve
amount to hill of beans in anythin
that asked for initiative or resource
fulness, or primitive rough stun Of an
IL N .l..lIt,