The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-03-02
What difference does that maker

What difference does that maker
| asked. e ,s
at may make a heap o. difference.
Looks to me like somebody-Bcday
Fuller, r Jim Haggerty, the section
boss, r some of EN- down yonder d
begin a-wonderin', after a spell, what
in %tarnation all this here, blastin' and
rifie-poppin' up on old Cinnabar is a
pfntin' at and come and see"
do you think the racket will carry
that far?"
ut sure will. One night afore Trio
pia had gone as dead as she is now. a
bunch O c~owpunch's got into an argy-
ment at Blue-nose BilFs place and we
heard the crackin' and poppin' up
here-Jeanie and me-like 1t was just
over yonder in Greaser gulch."
"Well?" said I, IF your nephew or
any Of the others hear It. what then?'
AS asked the question one Of the
low-aimed shots tore through the side
of the building. struck the iron frame
OF the hoist, fastened itself and
dropped into the old mans lap. Pick
ing up the hot bit of lead to dandle
it 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 'Tropia say, BY COL
| wonder what all that shootin's for?'
and tho novf fhinr "a (-ro,- ~o~,o
bodyH be moggin' up here to find out"
Along about dusk some member of
the b%esieging party tried to make ii re-
commissioner. happened to be keeping
the lookout on TIE cabin side of our
fortress and saw a mar lodging among
the pines back of the house. When'I
reported to Daddy he took a snap shot
at the place | pointed II to him and
there was a wild yell and a stir in the
young pines as though a hog were gal
Looping through them.
"Just to let EN- know that we're
still alive and kickin'," said the old
man, with another of his quaver
chuckles. Il reckon maybe that's
what they was amin to find put"
Possibly it was. At all events, the
rifle fire stopped with the coming of
darkness, and as we faced our second
night of defense we Lad plenty of time
to sit around and think and speculate
upon what the outcome was going to
be.
Taking it all in all, it was the fam
tastic humor of the thing that hit me
hardest. Six short weeks earlier peo-
pie at home had been calling me all
the hard names that fall to the lot of
he idle ne'er-do-well a young chap
with enough Inheritance money to keep
him in ties and shoes and shirts and
to buy gas for his car-though that
last asked for a good bit on the rising
cost of gasoline-and not enough to
make life, or anything connected there
with, very much worth while.
Also these anne people were saying
behind my back, of course, but there
were always plenty of them to repeat
the saying to my face-that / was
good stock gone to seed, would never
amount to a hill of beans in anything
that asked for initiative or
~fulness, Or primitive rough stuff of any
sort that I was due to go on dolling
myself up and playing skittles to the
end of the chapter-which would prob
abby stage itself in an asylum for the
feeble-minded. Also, again, at that
same time, which was six weeks-or
six thousand yearS-agO, I was en-
| gagged to Lisette; with mighty little
prospect of marrying her, to be sure,
but with no thought Of marrying any
body else.
And now I looked around at
the shadowy walls Of the grim old Gin
nabar s~ilaft-house, looming darkly and
still dripping, tick, tack, from their
early-afternoon mud bath felt my sog-