The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-04-07
CHAPTER IX.-Continued.

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'sNope: L reckon I can't. There's too
many darned things a-puZzlin' me.
one of 'em is where in Sam Hill did
Charley Fullerton get all the money
that he's fiashin around so peacocky?"
II don't know where he got it, but
he has it, all right; carries it with
him." I said sourly.
yes; but see here, Stannie, son,
III bet a fee dog worth a hundred dol
lars that it amt his money"
What makes you say thatT
"Well, for one thing, because I know
Charley Fullerton; been KNOWN him
since Adam was a little boy in knee
brooches. He can't keep any money
of his own; just naturally amt built
hathaway"
CANDLES it?" I suggested.
big CANDLES, yes; stocks and that
sort o. truck. No stree; these yeller-
backs he's a-fashin' around amt his'n,
not by a long chalk, and I'd bet on it.
Somebody else is settin' 'em up and
If that's so, Stannie, there's a reason
for IT,"
Sure" 1 conceded. Then: could
you make a long. high. running jump
and guess at the reason, Daddy?'
Not so s it'd hold together, 1
reckon" he replied obviously. But
there's a few little notions at I've
picked up from folks that's older in
this neck o. woods than 1 am-been
here longer. The old Cinnabar never
was what you'd call a bonanza Plen-
" of ore, TO be sure, but mostly low
grade 'cepting them rich little pockets
now and then"
Those rich pockets" I put in. "a
strike of one of them would be about
the right time to sell, wouldn't it?"
y He nodded.
You're shoutfn', now. 1 reckon
that's about how they caught your
lgran'paw But Buddy Fuller-he's the
'TrOpia telegraph operator and a sort
o. halfway nephew o. mine-says
there's more to it than that. Long
back couple o. years r so there was
a copper strike made in Little Cinnabar
gulch, about four mile west o. here,
and follerin' 1t there was a heap o.
talk about the railroad runnin' a
branch to 1t. That there branch, if it
was built-'r when it's built, for it's
goin' to be. some day, to open them
copper mines-that there branch IL go
right along our bench within a hun
dred yards of the old Cinnabar; so
close you could mighty near dump
from the ore sheds into the cars"
/ began TO see more crookings in
the sacrificial road over which Grand
father Jasper had been led; many
more and more devious ones.
oaSa ox-ay no low GRO ar,
Cinnabar would come a bit nearer be-
ing a bonanza. wouldn't it?' 1 asked.
"She sure would. Stannie. That
long, hard wagon haul to 'Tropia was
what was putin the cuss in the cost
O. handlin."
and with the railroad right at the
door, SO TO speak, it might even pay to
recapitalize at three-quarters of a mil
lion and drive that long drainage tun-
mel we have been figuring on?"
"Somethin' like that; yes Can you
see any furder into the milestone? I'll
say I've got about to the end of my
squintin'."
1 refilled my pipe and did a bit of
cogitating. Surprising / had been the
boss fgurer In the bunch that did
Grandfather Jasper the honor to blk
him; as constituencies as that pirate,
whoever he was, and in the secret of
the conditions as Daddy had just out
lined them, what would l have done?''
The answer came as pat as you
please. With a railroad in prospect
which would turn small profit into
a big one. I should quite probably
have shut the mine down to wait until
] could hear the whistle of the locomo-
tive.
This conclusion led promptly and
logically TO another. Surprising, at the
moment when I had decided upon the
shutdown, some doddering old gentle
man had come along and offered to
buy the mine? Add, as corollary.
the superstition that the water problem
was daily growing more insistent, with
Tie ultimate threat Of flood. As an or