Licking Valley courier., 1922-01-12

and tinkered up and reassembled. In |
paving over the supplies in the mine
toreroom-stuff left by the former op-
erat0rs--we had found an acetylene
tiare torch and can Of carbide and II
rugged the torch so that could go on
after dark.
II was along about nine o'clock when
| got the deep-wells ready to run and
freshened up the fires and turned the
steam ON. In curious contrast to the
care which had been taken to provide
a discharge outlet for the centrifugals,
the Cornish pumps had merely an iron
trough which ran to a ditch leading
down to the bench below the mine
buildings. After few minutes of the
clanking and banging, the water began
to come. II was horribly smelling
stun, thick and discolored; evidences
sufficient that 1t was coming from tht
bottom Of the mine. The two pumps
together were lifting about an eight
inch stream, and 1t occurred to me al
once that " could set the centrifu.
gsss going at the same time, the mass
attack might accomplish what the
piece-meal assault couldn't.
Throwing in. the clutch that drove
the big rotaries, / ran up against what
Daddy would have called "circum-
stance" There wasn't power enough
to drive both sets of pumps coupled
In together; at least, not with the
steam pressure the boilers were car
ryfng. Thinking to get more power by
pushing the fires bit harder, went
to the detached boiler room to stoke
up, leaving the deep wells changing
away In tile shafthouse. / had fired
two OF the furnaces and was at work
on the third when series of grind.
ing crashes In the macalnerS sent me
flying to find out what was going
wrong.
What was happening-zwhat had al
ready happened-was a plenty As ]
have said. the great Cornish water
iifters were driven through train
of gearing. When I reached the scene,
the. steam engine was still running
smoothly, but the pumps had stopped.
The reason didn't have to be looked
for with q microscope. The gear-traln
was a wreck, with one OF the wheels
smashed into bits, and half of the
cogs stripped from It's mesh-mate, If
that's what you'd call II.
Z Mechanically l stopped the engine
and went to view the remains. The
deep-wells were done for-there was
no question about that; they'd never
run again until a new SET of gears
should be Installed. That much deter,
mined, 1 began to look. for the cause
Of the calamity. Naturally, supposed
that q cracked cog in one OF the
wheels had given way. and with this
fer q starter, the general smash would
follow as q matter OF course. But
a careful and even painful scrutiny OF
the Wreckage failed to reveal the cog
with the ancient fracture. Each break
was new and fresh and clean; there
wasn't q sign of an old flaw, in any
one Of them.
think I must have knelt there
under the gear train for half-hour OF
more, handling the fragments of irur
and fitting them together. II was like
child's broken-block puzzle. and af.
ter . time was able. to lay all the
larger bits out upon the floor In theii
proper relation to one another. II was
I'm the ground-up debris remaining that
i found something which suddenly
made me see red. Battered into shape
lessness, but still clearly recognizable
were the crushed dlsjecta membra OF
our twelve-lnch monkey-wrenchl
tried not to 60 off the handle In Z
fit'of mad rage. With a sort of forced
calm l considered every beam and pro
jecting timber where ! might incau
tiously have left the wrench, and from
which II might have Jared or to fal
into the gears. There was no sucl
chance. l had used the, wrench In re
assembling the machinery, but nov
that I came to recall all the ciscum
stances, l distinctly remembered hay
Ing put II. together with the othe
tools, on the ll4le work. bench baci
OF the engine. The alternative con
cnsion was. therefore, fairly lnevit
able. While was firing the furnaces
somebody-and doubtless somebod.
who had been watching for the oppor
tunlty-had taken advantage of tn,
moment when my back was turned an'
had thrown the wrench into the gears
II was the final straw. There wa
only one person on the Clnnabar res
ervatlon who could have any motlv
fG wTecking my nnSninery; and Will
| was banking the fires and settInI
things in order for the night. charte'
my course, as the navigators say Th
dawn of another day told myself
would schedule the ultimate Emit. un
less he should prove to be good bi
quicker with his gun than was witt
my ists, Fullerton was due to sc
the man-handllng he seemed to he ach
ing for; and beyond that, he'd qul
the CInnabar, II l should have TO I'll
him on his horse and ilog the beae
halfway to Atropia-
II WIS with this most unchrlstlal
design SETTLING and boiling in m