Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-06-22

slVc OdlIef SllQ luNO the CdbAHS d
a heavy shell slips into the breech
Of a cannon. As he further releas-
ed his pressure, the cable began to
pour serpentlke from the drum
BUDDY turned MS wet, grImy lace
and flashed a grin at Allie. She
/ smiled back at MIN family. Some
/ hgntnlnglike change IN her express
son, or perhaps some occult sense
of the untoward warned him that
all was not as it should be, and
he ierked his head back to atten-
ton.
During that moment of inatten-
ton the bailer had stuck. Perhaps
five hundred feet below, friction
had checked its plunge, and mean
while the velyet-running drum,
spinning at its maximum velocity
by reason of the whirling bull
wheel, was unreeling it scable
down upon the derrick platform.
Down it poured in giant loops, and
within these coils, either uncon-
scions of his danger or paralyzed
by it's suddenness, stood Calvin
Gray.
Instinct, rather than reason,
warned Buddy not to check the
binding revolutions Of the bull
wheel. Without thought he leaped
forward into the midst of those
swiftly forming loops, and as he
landed upon the slippery floor he
clenched his fist and struck with
all the power he could put behind
his massive arm. Gray's back was
to him, the blow was like that of a
walking beam, and it sent the elder
man flying as a tenpin is hurled
ahead of a bowling ball. BuSdy fell
too. He went sprawling. As he
slid across the muddy floo" he felt
the steel cable writhing under hin
like thing alive, and the touch OF
it as it streamed into the vel
burned his flesh. He kicked and
fought it as he would have fought
the closing folds Of a python, fol
the bailed was falling again anc
the wire loops were vanishing as
the coils in a whiplash vanish dur.
ing it's flight.
| Buddy's booted legs were
| thrown high, he was tossed aside
like a thing of paper, but blind
half stunned, he scrambled back tt
his post. BY this time the whole
, structure of the derrick was rock
ing to the mad gyrations of the
bull wheel; the giant spool was
spinning with a speed that threat
ened to send it flying like the
fragments of a bursting bomb, but
the youth understood dimly the
danger of stopping it too suddenly
Ito fetch up the plunging weigh
at the cable end might ssap tn,
| line, collapse the derrick, Jim
the well. BUDDY weaved dizzily il
| his tracks; nevertheless, his han
was steady, and he applied gra
| dually increasing pressure to tn
brake. Nor did he take his eye
fSom his task until the drum hat
A ceased revolving and the runawa,
/ bailer hung motionless- in the well
They carried Gray to the bum
house and his limbs hung loosely
his head lolled in a manner terri
flying to Buddy and his sister.
But Gray was dead. Buddy
blow had well-nigh broken hi
) meek, and he had suffered furth
: er injury to his head in falling
nevertheless, he responded to sue
medical aid as they could supply
= and in time he opened his eye!
When for a second time h
: lapsed into semiconsciousness,
was Allie Briskow who put his OF
i ders into execution. S'You amt dc
ing any good standing around stan
ing at him and whispering. Brin
in that well, as fast as ever yo
can, and bring it in big. Now, ge
out and leave him to me-"
1t was late that night when tn
well came in. 1t came with a rus
and g roar, drenching the derric
| with a geyser of muddy water an
| driving both crew and spectator
out into the gloom. Up, up the ca
umn rose, spraying itself into mis-
| and from its iron throat issued
sound unlike that of any othe
| phenomenon.
Gavin Gray had recovered hi
senses sufficiently to understand
the meaning of that uproar, an,
ne tried to get up, but Allie he'll
HIM down upon his bed. She wa
still struggling with him when he