Gunnison news-champion., 1922-01-20

Mary Iunatic.- said Daddy Hiram
calmly.
His breakfast eaten. Friend Isaac
showed no disposition to hurry away
much to my chaJria. He took time
70 smoke. lsIsureiy pipe with Daddy
Hiram and 10 ask lot Of Indifferent
questions about the drowned mine.
~Hain't heard no'hln' firm yer own
srs ylt. have y.. HiramT' be wanted
to know. after-as Il seemed to me-
the subject lad been pretty thoroughly
talked 20 death
heard Dadiy's reply. made as 10
one with whom the matter had been
canvnsssd before
"NoihIn' but that cl!pp!u' from some
newsPsp-r back Fast. teilIn' about Mr..
Dudley's passin' out
Kinda curious somebody dont tell
ye sonethin'. aln'r uT'- the marshal
put IN. Looks like the heirs a be
either hshin' r cuttin' halt on this
her. CinnHhar !ayout-nOt a. it'd do
'em any good II they did. DIan't any
letter come with the newspaper pieceT-
Nary Ten-scratch.-
"Nyher.ab0ui was the envelope
posiedTT
''Was.lln'ton.-
Aha 80 said ! 10 myself. 81 have Won.
Cousin Percy, For some reason best
known to yourself you didn't want
Daddy Hiram u Ee; bold % Grand
father Jasper's proper address,
prepared 10 take horse. Daddy went
with him 10 the far side of the dump
and the murDur of their voices came
10 me In diminishing cadsnses After
O bit Daddy came back and called up
70 me IN the sIn.-song of the miners
after the final blast has been fred:
"A-a-lI over. Stnnnie. reckon ye
can come down now and get You some
breakfast"
Jeanie served me in silence whar
took my place at table and the good
old man stood In the doorway keeping
watch rs I made no doubt. AgaIns,
a possible sccOnd-thoUEht rp'urn of
friend Isaac. the brls. rei.
Throughout the working n
follow sd be never made IL. 4
Inference 10 the episode Of Ih, orh-
Sg and. truly. ! think the whole Incl
dent would have been buried In obllv.
ion by those two simple-rnlnded souls
II hadn't FIRST spoken nf It myself.
This ! did In the evening Of the
same day, when Daddy had gone to
make his entirely Useless nigh, ROUND
OF the mine property. As on most
evenings, JeHnie sat al her corner of
the hearth. knitting. and ! was filling
bedtime pipe
'Jcanle" | broke out, Il wish you'd
tell me why you and your father ar.
5" good to me. How do you know tha,
I'm not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to b.P | did steal
the car and get II smashed. you know
You are not a criminal and am
sure you didn't mean to get the cal
smashed. Besides. you had taken
shelter under our roof"
You are true Bedoulns.- laughed.
is that the code in the westf-your
eode?--to defend anybody who has eat
Ell salt with your"
Il should think It would be any.
body's code"
You and your father were expecting
this man Beasiey to come here look.
ing for mel"
Daddy thought he might just hap
pen along. We ar. only four miles
from Atropia. you know"
And was that the reason yon nut
the old transit Mt the windoS $50
you might watch for hlm?"
"Of course
BY Ioye' Another woman. any 9th.
er woman in the world. ! thought.
would have let some little shred OF
sentiment show: she couldn't have
helped II. But this ope didn't.
boy couldn't have looked me In the
eyes any more frankly and squareIy
than she did when she said .Or
course" Since ! had eaten their bread
l was. for so long as chose to stay.
a member OF the clan.
Ii was near the end Of the fortnight.
and Daddy Hiram and had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas
semhied the engine and pumps, and
were nhishing the cleaning Of the boil
ers. These were pretty badly rusted
and scaled. and to do the job properly.
we had taken the manhole heads out
or the holes left to give access 10 the
Interior Of the shells. and had had n
good-natured squabble as to which Of
us should crawl inside to do the scrap
Ing: Daddy insisting upon doing IT. be-
cause as he pointed out, he was the
smaller man. and l arguing that |
should because / was the younger and
stronger.
To settle 1t finally we tipped a coin
one Of those inch-wide copper pen
nies that Daddy carried for pocket
piece-and ] won the toss. The job
wasn't exactly a picnic, but I got along
all right until we came to the last of
the battery. l found that the repair
ers had at some past time Inserted a