The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1922-01-10

In Another Minute There Wasn't q
Single Dry Spot in the Shaft,
House.
steaming even on the outside Of Its
thick insulating jacket of asbestos un-
der the wetting from the water jet
that had set me thinking.
A spinning twirl of the engine
throttle valve set our machinery in
motion, and when 1 had thrown the
pump clutch in, we crouched again in
the least-wet corner to watch the index
Of the tell-tale steamgauge connected
into the supply pipe.
We knew that the centrifugals were
vOraciOus steam eaters; we had proved
that when we were running them in
the week-long test. 1 had a notion
that maybe Fullerton had fred only
one of the battery of three boilers to
run his shOwer-bath machine, and the
result speedily confirmed this assump-
ton. In a few minutes the steam
pressure had dropped to a point at
which it would no longer drive any of
AhC Ou4b VI l1lC OhC VuI-
side, and the window cataract stopped.
This will be only a breathing
space" 1 prophesied, getting up to
squeeze some Of the superfluous water
out Of my clothes. Fullerton will do
one of two things: fire the other two
boilers, or discOnnect this steam pipe
of ours"
Reckon SOP" said-Daddy.
You'll see in a minute or So"
The attack began even while we
were speaking, sundry hammerings
and tYistings that shook the pipe over
head proving that the besiegers were
going to stop the leak by cutting US
off from the boilers.
"Take your whirl at the inventions,
this time, Daddy" I urged. "When
they get this supply pipe cut out, We'll
be in for another ducking- one
that we can't STOP"
Daddy was shaking his head and
wringing the moisture-and mud-Out
of his beard.
"Jerusalem-to-gOsh, Stannie, we got
to take a chance!" he muttered. "Any-
ways, I'd about as lief die as be
drowned to death. Well have to muss
that blacksmith shop up and get it out
O. the way, somehow. Gimme a match
out o. that tin box o. your'n-if they
amt all soaked to a jiz-whizzlin' sop"
l found the matches, which, luckily
were still dry, and handed him one.
Before 1 fairly realized what he was
going to do, he had taken one of the
dynamite cartridges out of its bucket
hiding place and was splitting the fuse
with his pOcketknife.
"Open that there door into the shop"
he commanded; and when l Obeye6
mechanically, out went the bomb, fiz-
Zing and suffering, to land in heap
of scrap iron piled on the farther side
of the stOne-built forge. The sight of
it smoking and splitting sparks in the
heap of scrap half hypnOtized me, /
guess, for 1 stood gaping at it, with
the door held open, until Daddy Hiram
jerked me away, slammed the door and
yelled to me to help him bar it.
We had barely time to get the door
closed and fastened. with the heavy
wooden bar and to throw ourselves
, fiat on the floor behind the hosting
machinery before the crash came. AS
1 have previously said, the blacksmith
shop was a rather fiimsy, shed-like
affair, rooted with corrugated iron,
and 1t seemed to us as If broken tim
bers and pieces of sheet metal were
raining down for a full minute after
the blast went off,
The shock to everything in the vicin-
ity was, of course, tremendous and
the stout old shaft-hOuse itself rocked
and swayed like tree in a hurricane.
But the walls still stood intact, and
when we got up and peeped through
scrap had torn in the door, we could
see what we had done. 1t was a-plen-
ty. The blacksmith shop had disap-
peared, leaving nothing but scatter
ing of wreckage. The heavy anvil had
been thrown from its block and the
forge looked as If giant had kicked
it. Out by the boiler-shed a rack of
cOrdwood had been toppled over and
under it a man was struggling to free
himself. When he saw the imprisoned
enemy that mild-mannered soft-spoken
old soldier that I was shut up with
would have opened the door and shot
the struggler If hadn't stopped him,
This blowing up of the shop settled
the shower-bath. business for US def
initely. With the impeachment out of
the way we had clear view on this
third side; could command the row
Of miners cabins, as well as the boil
ers in their open shed. When I got
through persuading Daddy Hiram thai
we couldn't afford to murder the