The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-01-05

the possibilities of the drainage tunnel
Daddy and | had figured on. Going
over the ground this second time, and
with some better knowledge Of the diff
ficulties, ii appeared that we must have
~ridiculously underestimated he prob
able cost. Pacing the distances care
fully, and guessing at the differences
In altitude by the heights Of the trees,
] saw that it wouldn't be safe to count
upon less than a mile Of %tunneling,
and this, in the solid porphyry OF Old
Cinnabar, and In a situation remote
from the nearest base of supplies,
would run-no, 1t wouldn't u 1t
would fairly gallOp into money.
Was this what Fullerton meant to do
If he could GUST me? That he was ut
terly confident of his ability to drain
the Cinnabar was evident. But how
was 1t to be done? Would he, or his
hackers, be willing to spend a quar-
ter Of a million or more, and the better
part Of n years time, driving that
mile-long tunnel?
The longer l thought about 1t, the
u tiV SiS" That ho
such expensive ~expedient was to be
resorted to. Fullerton, or his hackers,
or both, knew some other and far
cheaper and more expeditions way Of
getting rid of the water. Sitting on a
big rock that had in some former earth
CONFUSION tumbled from the broken
cliffs above the mine, ! gave the me-
chanical fraction of my brain cit was
a small fraction and sadly under-de-
veloped) free rein.
Two possibilities suggested them
selves. A siphon, a big pipe, starting
at the bottom of the shaft and leading
out over the top and down the noun
tain to a point lower than the shaft
bottom, would, after 1t was once
started, automatically discharge a
stream of its own bigness, whatever
that should be. But the cost of over
a mile of such pipe was beyond my
means; and II two six-inch pumps
driven night and day had failed to
make any impression upon the food,
what could be expected Of a siphon
which, in the nature OF things, couldn't
be much bigger than an ordinary
street water mainf
The other possibility was even less
hopeful. 1t was the driving Of a 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
Its present level In the shaft. Its sue
entirely upon the location and volume
of the underground lake which was
supposed to be supplying the flood. II
this reservoir were shallow and high
In the mountain, the short tunnel
might drain 1t. If 1t were deep and
low, nothing would be accomplished.
The question was still hanging hope
lessly up in the air when l made my
way around to the mine buildings by
the left-hand gulch path, sneaked in
and began to shuck myself into Dad
dy's extra pair Of o~veralls; just for
"hiNty L lluuu luV CdSl luCu I, WHY i
needed to be doing something to keep
me from going completely dotty in the
guessing contest.
BY this time, as l knew, they would
be getting up from breakfast In the
cabin acros the dump head, which
would most likely be Bullerton's cue
70 come over and ride Inc some more.
When / looked out in our anticipa-
tion, here he came, smoking one Of his
hlgh-priced cigars and staggering a
bit, as he always did in walking.
"This is your NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
day, Broughton," he tossed at me as
soon as he stepped over the threshold
of the shaft house door; but I fancied
l could notice that, some way, he
didn't seem quite so clipper and care
less as he had the day before.
"See here" I ripped out; whats
the use? You can't buy this mine at
any price! It's not In the market and
1t isn't going to be. Not In a thousand
years.
"But see here; what's the use Of
butting your head against a stone walls
You're stuck. world without end, and
you know 1t. This flooded hole in the
ground Is Of no more use to you than
a pair of spectacles to a blind man I"
Perhaps not tits a poor thing, but
mine own l guess l can keep 1t as
a souvenir II I feel like 1t, can't II"
"Oh, HI" he gritted. and turning
on his heel went away.
After he had gone l patted myself
! on the back a bit for not losing my
temper and then, just to have an ex-
cuse for staying away from the cabin
and the Fullerton vicinity, I made fires
under the boilers and got up steam. In
the former pumping spasm Daddy and
had operated only the two big zen
t~rifugals. ignoring the deep-well pumps
designed to lift the water from the
lower levels of the mine.
Just to try something that we hadn't
tried before, ] got steam on the deep
weilers. and o o found that the
machinery. which We hadn't taken