The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-05-05

abrupt cliff overlooking the mine
plant.
They'll get the range, after a
while" Daddy grunted. And when
they do. 1 reckon it'll be gooI-by. fair
world, for a couple of us and one
mighty good dog. I'm a-tellin' you,
Stannie. son, the shot that comes
| down through that hole fixes US a.
plenty. Sufferin' Methusaleh! what
all is the folks down yonder at 'Tro-
pia a-dreamin' about, to let all this
bangin' and whangin' go on up, here
without comm up to find out what's
maxim it %
The AtrOpia that remembered was
| so nearly moribund that 1 didn't Won
/ der it wasn't making any stir In our
| behalf; SO, when a few pattering rifle
| shots which seemed to originate on
the great bench below began to sift
in among the bomb echoes, 1 took it
that Fullerton had divided his force
and was trying to rattle US two ways
at once. AS for that, however, the
bigger bombardment kept us from
specializing very curiously upon any
thing else. Two more of the giant
crackers had fallen to the right of US,
one of them into the wreck of the
blacksmith shop, to send up a spout
ing volcano Of scrap which fell a sec
ond or so later in a tLanderous rain
and then.
For a fitting instant it seemed as If
it must drop squarely in front Of the
iron shield under which we were
jammed-in which case even the IN
dertaker wouldn't have been needed
not any whatsoever, as Daddy Hiram
would have said. But at the critical
point in its flight the hurtling thing
licked" the top of the hoist frame
and its downward course was defect
ed the needed hair's-breadth, causing
it to come down beyond the machin-
cry, and not on our side of things.
Nevertheless, we were covering in an
ticipation of blast which would most
likely heave the entire machinery ag-
gregatiOn over bodily upon us when
the explosion came.
We saw the belching column of
flame and gas going skyward beyond
the machinery barrier, taking q full
half Of the roof with it, as If the blast
had come from the mouth of a gigan-
tic cannon. We were dazed and deaf
ened by the shock, and half chOked
by the fumes, but neither of us was
so far gone as not to hear distinctly a
prolonged and rumbling crash like the
thunder of a small Niagara, coming
after the smash
THE shaftT shriIled Daddy Hiram,
in a thin, choked voice; at went off
down in the shaft And, say -
what-alTs that we're a-ustenin' to
nowi I"
If there had been a dozen of the |
bombs raining down 1 don't believe |
the threat of them would have kept |
US from bursting out Of our dodge-hOle |
to go and see what had happened in |
the mine shaft. But before we could |
determine anything more than that /
the mouth of the shaft was complete /
ly hidden under a mass of wreckage, /
and that the mysterious Niagara roar,
dwindled somewhat, but yet hollOwly |
audible, was still going on under the
mass of broken timberS
and sheet-iron, there was a masterful
Shots, yells, shoutings
and hot curses told US that a fierce
battle of some kind was staging itself
Just outside of our wrecked fortress;
Daddy Hiram began paw
ing his way to the door, yelling like
man suddenly gone dotty.
THAT there's old Ike Beasley-
his old hider' he chittered.
There amt nary mother man in the
at can cuss like that.
He's come with a posse, and they're
ayin' out Charley Bullertons crowd"
There was a fine little tableau
itself out for US when we
had clambered over the wreckage and
had withdrawn the wooden bar and
flung the door wide. Daddy Hiram
had called the turn and named the
trump. The large, desperadoish-look-