The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-01-12
IYNDE

At first / could hardly believe my
own ears. 1t vas SO incredibly out of
keeping with Jeanne as / had been
idealizing her.
Are you going after them?" l de-
manded.
"What for?" was the respondent
query. ""Tain't a morsel o use, any
way you look at 1t. Jeanie's a wom-
an growed, and she don't have TO have
the old daddy say she can. r she
mustn't. Besides, they vas probably
pitchin' out to catch one O the early
trains-there's one each way, east and
west-and them trains We been gone
a couple o. hours
Daddy had done his best with the
breakfast, but | don't recall any meal
of my life that ever came so near
choking me. | told Daddy about the
smashing Of the machinery, and the
proof ! had that 1t had been a piece
of sabotage.
Reckon maybe he allowed you'd find
out he done it and try a dogfall r
somethln' with him to pay him back?'
Daddy queried.
81 don't know" l confessed.
l went on eating In silence, or rath-
er trying to eat, and turning over the
puzZllng and b~ad-tasting q~uestionings
In my mind. How could jeanne go off
with Fullerton, knowing him to be the
scamp he was? And why, If she had
been meaning all along to do this thing,
had she blocked his game by telling
me that / wasn't to sell him the Gin
nabar?
1t was In the midst Of these reflec-
lions that / CHANGED to feel In the coat
pocket where l had been carrying the
deed turned over to me by Daddy
Hiram and for the second time that
morning l nearly choked. The pocket
was empty!
"What's hit you now. son?' Daddy
inquired; seeing my jaw drop, l sup
pose.
THE last thing there was In the box
that could fall out and hit me-" l CUR
gled. "Bullerton has stolen my deed
10 the CluDdDdT
"The mischief he has! Plum sure
you hain't lost 1t out o your pocket?"
We made sure, without the loss of
a moment looking in my loft sleeping
place and In the mine buildings. The
deed was gone, safely enough, and we
both agreed that Fullerton had had
plenty of chances to steal 1t. Wearing
overclothes while l was working about
the machinery, l had often left my
coat hanging In the cabin. AS a mat
ter of fact, | hadn't worn it at all on
the previous day.
swell, Daddy" said l, after the pro-
longed search had proved futile,
where does this leave me?"
Threshing the facts out, we soon
found where 1t left me-. Grandfather
Jasper, as you may remember, had
made no mention of the mine, or, in
deed, of any legacy to me In his will
as 1t had been probated; there was no
need Of 1t because he had already
decided the Cinnabar to me-, and at the
time of his death 1t was no longer
among his assets. Moreover, his law
yers had told Fullerton according to
Bullerton's story told me In the Pull
man %smokeroom) that there was no
record Of any mining transaction
whatever In his papers. Therefore, in
the absence of the memorandum which
my grandfather had given Cousin
Percy-and which Percy had doubt
less carried with him to C~hina-there
was nothing but the deed to show for
my ownership; absolutely nothing.
At that, the loss of the deed wouldn't
have been fatal IL the document had
been properly recorded. 1t hadn't
been. And now, with the unrecorded
deed gone, there was nothing to prove
that i had ever owned the Cinnabar.
The loss was total-with no insur-
ance.
Daddy Hiram was shaking his head
sorrowfully after we had run this last
bunch of straw through the threshing
machine.
With things looking as blue as the
bluest milestone that ever clicked
upon scythe, we tried to settle upon
some line Of action. Copah was the
county seat, and the obvious first step
would have been for me to go there
for a search In the county records for
evidence of the sale of the mine to my
grandfather. But the minute l should
show myself on the railroad, I'd be
nabbed for the theft of that Internal
inspection ear. Daddy offered to go
In my place, but that alternative didn't
appeal to me at all. ! knew perfectly
well how helpless he'd be In any such
lawyerlike search as would have to be
made In the county recorders office.
Being stopped Off short in every
other direction, we finally ~gravitated
over to the shaft-house and went to
work In an aimless sort Of fashion
gathering up the wreckage Of the
smashed gear train and putting things
shipshape again. With steam up, we
tarned the machinery over a few
times, just to e that everything was
In working order again. and ! threw In
the clutch OF the centrifugals, merely
for the satisfaction of hearing the
flood rushing through the outlet. When