Licking Valley courier., 1922-02-23
'Hooray!" He Yelled. "charIey Bull
erton's Dreened Your Mine for Vel"
"where the blazes is all that water


erton's Dreened Your Mine for Vel"
"Where the blazes is all that water
comm from" he exploded.
"That's Just what we're going to
find outl" / barked. "Can you and
Daddy handle my weight in a rope
slihgf"
They both protested that they could
handle two Of me If necessary, and a
sling was quickly rlgged and l was
lowered into the pit. At the nearer
view thus obtained, some of the mys-
teries were instantly made clear. The
reason why the wooden boxing disap-
peared below certain point in the
shaft was that II had never extended
any farther down. 1t had been mere
ly a box with asbottom land all those
plpe-dream Impressions which had
tried to register themselves on the
day when had my struggle with the
spction-pipe octopus were instantly
translated into facts. l could have
sworn, then, that there was q bottom
In the box, and there was a bottom.
And that other lmpresslon-thatI had
encountered an inrushing stream Of
lce-cold water IN the chilling depths |
here was the 4Tsa4kr toot'thick,
neverfailing ealAract, pouring In
through perfectly good and substan.
tial conduit Of twelye-inch iron pipe |
In flash the whole criminal mys-
terry involving the ostensibly flooded
mine was illuminated for me. "Haul
awayp l. called to the two above |;
and when they had drawn me up to
the pits mouth and ! gould get upon
my feet. yipped at Daddy and the
marshal to come on, and led them in
an outdoor race along the mine ledge
to the eastward; hundred-yards
dash which brought US to the banks
nj the swift little mountain tarrent in
the right-hand gulch,
A, brief search revealed precisely
what / was expecting to find; what
anyone In possession Of the facts pre-
cedent would have expected to find.
In the middle Of q small pool slightly
upstream from the path leyel--a poek-
eted bit Of water neatly screened and
half hidden by q growth of low
branching sprpces-we saw q cone
shaped whirlpool swirl into which O
good third of the stream flow was
vanishing, Below this pool an appar'
emily accidental heaping of rocks
formed small dam which kept the
little reservoir full.
without word, Daddy Hiram and
the Angelic marshal plunged reckless
ly into the stream and with their bare
hands tore away the loose-rock dam
With the removal Of the slight barrier
and the consequent clearing of thu
course OF the stream, the pocket reser
volr Immediately sucked dry, the inlet
Of the cataractlng pipe was exposed
and the secret Of the flooded Cinnabai
was o secret no longer,
The scheme which had been elab
GRATED and set In motion to soak,
Grandfather Jasper was q premedl
tated "holdup." The Clnnabar, In op
Grafton and producing to Its capacity
was worth. so Beasley asserted, al
that my grandfather had paid for II
and more. But with the branch rail-
road built to It's very door, Its valu
would be doubled. Two alternative
had thus presented themselves to In
owners, who were Cripple Cree
mining spectators who had bought Il
the stock at low figure while tn
main vein was as yet unexplolted: the
could 90 on mining the ore and stor
Ing II against the time when the rail
road, with Its cost.reduclng advar
tages, should come Rlongi or the
could suspend operations for the sam
length OF time, setting the losses OF
shutdown over against the increase
profits when they should start u
again.
With our discoveries Of the mornln
the plan OF the robbery became pei
fectly plain. Some giant of fnanc
among the spectators had evolved
scheme by which the mine not onl
might be shut down during the intel
val Of waiting for the railroad to bull
over the bench, but at the same tim
be made to yield q bumper crop {
profits
Taking Its various steps In their o
der, the first move In the game was
sell the mine to Grandfather JaspC
while II was stlll going PROPOSITION
and this was done. But one Of Il
conditions OF the sale (Beasley told |
this) was tina; the selling corporate
should continue to operate the min
not as lessee, but under a contra
by which the operating compar
should receive u certain percentage
the output; an arrangement whlC
gave the holdup 0rtists ample oppo
tunity to prepare for ths coup de mai
, How thess preparations were mad
|. and the secret OF them kept from lenl
! ing out, stlll remained one of the III
j. solved mysteries, though Beasley SUI
= gested that probably imported worl
I men were employed, and that the woi
U had been done under jealous supe
D vision with all the needful precautloI
taken against publicity. The tigl
: wooden box-whlch would figure as
. part Of the shaft llnlng-had be-
hullt, and into the box the creek HI