Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1922-03-30

erton's Dreened Your Mine for Vel"
the mystery Of the continuous grum-
bling roar which was still ascending
out Of the wreck-covered mine shaft.
Beasley stayed with us, waiting, as
took 1t, to get his breakfast before
he ran me of to jail, and the three Of
US fell to work clearing away the
fallen timbers and roofing iron, Dad
dy Hiram leading the attack and be-
ing the first to stick his head through
what remained Of the tangle and hang
1t over the edge Of the shafts mouth.
"Hooray!" he yelled. his voice
sounding as If 1t came from the inside
of a barrel; and then again, "Hooray.
Stannie. son!-by the ghosts Of old
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
Charley Bullerton's done gone and
done eggs-zac'ly what he said he could
do-dreened your mine for ye! Climb
In here and take look at her. She's
empty-empty as a gourd-bue. AZ
that. she amt goin' to be, very long!"
A few more minutes Of the strenu.
GUS toll cleared the pit mouth so that
we could all see. The bomb which had
exploded in the shaft had wrought
complete transformation. The stand
Ing flood, which all Of our pumping
attacks had failed to lower by SO
much as fraction Of an inch, was
gone, and with 1t had vanished the
two big centrifusals, the platform
upon which they had stood. and their
pipe connections. Gone, likewise, was
the greater part Of the heavy wooden
shaft-Aning. A little Of this remained
In the upper part Of the shaft, but
from a point possibly twenty-five feet
down. there was nothing but the bare
rock sides of the square pit swept by
the receding flood.
AS for the hollow roaring noise
which had followed the crash of the
explosion, and which still continued,
there was a good and sufficient reason
plainly visible from the pits mouth.
Some twenty feet down, and on the
eastern side Of the shaft, q stream Of
water big enough to run a good-sized
hydro-electric plant was pouring into
the perpendicular cavern, and It was
its plunging descent into the bowels
Of the earth which was making the
mimic thunder.
Beasley was the first to find speech.
"Where the blazes Is all that water
comm from?" he exploded.
''That's Just what we're going to
find OUT" I barked. "Can you and
Daddy handle my weight in a rope
sling?"
They both protested that they could
handle two Of me IL necessary, and
sling was quickly rugged and I was
lowered into the pit. At the nearer.
view thus obtained, some of the mys-
teries were instantly made clear. The
reason why the wooden boxing disap-.
peared below certain point In the
shaft was that 1t had never extended
any farther down. It had been mere
~ a box with a bottom land all those
pipe-dream Impressions which had
tried to register themselves on the
day when l had my struggle with the
suction-pipe octopus were instantly,
translated into facts. could have.
sworn. then, that there was a bottom
In the box. and there was a bottom
And that other impressio n--that had.
encountered an inrushing stream Of
ice-cold water in the chilling depths; );
here was the stream "a foot-thick,
neyer:failing cataract, pouring in.
through perfectly good and substan-.
tial conduit Of twelye-inch; iron pipe!
3 In a flash the whole criminal mys-
I terry involving the ostensibiy flooded
mine was illuminate ted for me. "Haul
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