The Aberdeen weekly., 1922-04-21
Copyright by Charles scribner's Sons

| AS the three or rneIn topped the rise
in the ore road / reached behind me
and got one of the Winchesters.
That's near enough !" 1 called out.
DO your talking from there, if you've
anything to say"
The delegation halted and Bullerton
took paper from his pocket.
I'm serving legal notice upon you,
Broughton," he said, waving the paper
at me, land 1 have two witnesses here,
as the law requires. 1 represent the
| Cinnabar Mining company of Cripple
| Greek. You are trespassing on our
property and 1 am making a formal
demand for possession"
$50 that's the new wrinkle, is it?"
laughed. Il was hoping you might
spring something a little more original.
How are you going to prove owner
ship?"
THE burden of proof isn't on US ;
it's on you" he ripped out. You
| haven't a shadow of claim to this
mine. I've got your sO-called deed
right here"-and he shook that at US.
| Its a forgery; a clumsy, childish
| forgery that wouldn't impose upon a
blind man! We can send you TO the
rock pile on the strength Of it if we
want to!'
| Since ne had stolen the deed out of
my pocket, I thought, of course, that
he was just bluffing about its being a
| forgery. He must have known per-
fectly well that it wasn't. But Daddy
was whispering in my ear as he sat
| behind me. Something like this /:
"GOsh-all-Friday, Stannie, he's got you
goin'l He's made a copy o. the deed
and throwed the 'riginal away-burnt
it up, r somethin'Y
"You have il all your own way, Bull
IertOn-or you think you have" 1 told
him; and if 1 didn't get all of the self
confidence into the words that 1 tried
to. am persuaded that he didn't know
the difference. Il might even cOncede
that you have everything but the mine
itself If you want that, you may
come and take it; but you'll permit me
to say that when you break into this
shaft-house there will be fewer people
alive on Cinnabar mountain than there
are at the present moment. l shall
quite possibly be one of the dead ones,
but before 1 90 out shall do my best
to make you another"
"An right" he snapped back;
you're speaking for yourself, and
that's your privilege. But how about
you, Twombly? This is no quarrel of
yours. Suppose you go over yonder to
your cabin and stay out of the fight.
Nobody wants to hurt you"
That put it pretty squarely up to
me- too, so l turned to the old man at
my side.
Its good advice, Daddy" I said;
"and this isn't your quarrel. You'd
better duck while you can"
Daddy Hiram made no reply at all
to me; didn't pay any attention to me.
Instead, he stood up on the dOOr-sill
and shook his fist at Bullerton.
81 been Iookin' for you and your
kind of a crowd for a year back,
Charley Bullerton, and drawin' pay
for doin' itp' he shrilled "Stannie,
here, says if you want this mine you
can come and take it, and, by gum
mics, 1 say them same identical
words 20
"All right" said Bullerton again.
But it's only fair to say that we out
number you six to one, and we've got
the law, and a few deputy sheriffs, on
our side. You two haven't as much
show as q cat in hell without claws,
and when the circus is over, you'll
both go to Jail, if there's enough left
of you to stand the trip" Then, as he
was turning TO go he tipped the deed
into the air so that it fell at our feet
hO
"We'd like nothing better than to have
you produce it in court"
1t didn't seem just fitting to let him
have the last word, so 1 pitched a
small ultimatum of my own after him
as he herded his two scoundrelly look
ing witnesses" into the downward
road.
zone thing more, Bullerton," called
out "Your flag of truce holds only
until you get back TO your army. If
you or any of your men are in sight of
Cinnabar property ten minutes after
you reach your camp, we open fire"
Since the truce was thus definitely
ended, we retired into our fortress and
put up the bars. As we were closing
the doors and making everything snug
/ asked DADDY WIdI KIM OF human
timber BullertOn was likely to have
in his army, and if there were any
chance that his boast about having
deputy sheriffs in the crowd was to be
taken at its face value.
There's nothin' to the deputy brag
Ike Beasley is the chief deputy for
this end O. the county, and he'd be
here himself If that was a posse COM
mytaters down yonder. AS for what he
has got, there's no tellin'. Most likely
he's picked up a fistful o. toughs and
out-o'-works down in Angels. There's
always plenty o. drift o. that kind
hangin' round a minin' camp
"Fighters?" l queried.
"Oh, yes; i reckon so-if fightin'
comes easier than workin'"
With the doors shut and barred
climbed up on our breastwork to bring
my eyes on a level with one of the high
window holes. The ten-minute ultima
tum interval had come TO an end, but
the raiders were making no move to
vacate the premises. On the contrary,
their cooking fire was now burning
briskly and they were apparently max