The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-04-28

ASSuAL Sp6euliy cOIUTmeQ InIS dSSuInp
ton. In a few minutes the steam
pressure had dropped to a point a
which 1t would no longer drive any o.
the pumps. either ours or the one out
side, and the window cataract stopped
This Will be only a breathing
space" I prophesied, getting up 4
squeeze some of the superiuous water
out Of my clothes. "Bullerton VIII dc
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 twisdngs 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 III for another ducking-and 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. Wen have to muss
| that blacksmith shop up and get 1t 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"
I found the matches, which. luckily
were still dry, and handed him one
Before l 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 I Obeyed
mechanically, out went the bomb, fiz-
zing and sputtering, to land in a 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, I
guess, for I 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 flimsy, shed-like
affair, rooted with corrugated iron,
and It seemed to US as if broken tim
20
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 a tree I'm a hurricane
But the walls still stood intact. and
when we got up and peeped through
a hole which a piece of the flying
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 a scatter
ing of wreckage. The heavy anvil had
been thrown from its block and the
forge looked as If a giant had kicked
it. Out by the boiler-shed q 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 l was shut up with |
would have opened the door and shot |
the struggler If 1 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 a clear view on this
third side: could command the row !
Of miners cabins, as well as the boil
ers in their open shed. When 1 got
through persuading Daddy Hiram that
we couldn't afford to murder the
the fellow who had been
wrestling with the woodpile had made
his exit and there was nobody in
sight Shortly afterward a bullet,
fred from somewhere in the forest
background, whanged upon our roof,
md there were several to follow; but
lside from punching a few more holes
n the iron they did no harm.
Looks like the Hercules is the one
hing they're most skeered Of" said
Daddy, with his queer little suffering
.huckle. "Now maybe they'll leave us
ldNG lAAAC " SCI OuAoCAfCS OAtCu Out | ,
mite"
Totting up the results of the shower
,ath we'd had, a bread famine prom
sed to be the worst of them. The few
ans Of beans, tomatoes and peaches
the campers standbys-were I'M
urt, of course, and the muddied bacon |
ould be washed with water drawn
rom the flooded shaft. But the flour !
q its sack was merely blob of paste
nd was beyond redemption and the
was the same. In view of '
he results I wondered if Fullerton
admit shrewdly calculated upon wash
lg our commissary out of existence
hen he planned his Overgrown lawn l
prinkler. But maybe that was giving
i'm credit for more ingenuity than he l
eally had.
Through what remained of the after {
Don the rifle firing continued, coming
Ometimes from one angle and some v
mes from another but always cam
lily from a safe distance and always c
nder cover of the surrounding forest y
daddy Hiram, grimly optimistic, ex- :
-aPfn6 a SxvQ1Icvxy or- CO IF |