White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1924-09-12


+, side dusk was swimming in the dip.
well, they won't go back Of their
own accord tonight, l guess, not on
that tree" said Blunt, "but just in case
they want to, and try to, I'll drive two
or three high stakes into the bank
this side and make a gate to our
bridge. There's whole day gone!
Well, we'll! Keep temper; keep tenn
per! The only thing about this keep
ing of ones temper is that it is to
burst up awful sudden, like a boiler
saw once burst on lake steamer be-
cause they'd tied down the safety
valve to help make freshet current"
There was indeed a sense Of being
banked in sitting down to eat that
night only across the creek from their
camping place of the night before. In
the morning the horses were all in
sight on the little wedge of grass
promontory or elbow Of bank, and
how the trail looked up through the
overhanging woods. He came back
with sullen face.
We're only a couple of miles, l
guess, by an air line from where the
timber thins out up above, remember
ing how it looked from the other side,
and man could walk most anywhere
over the rocks up above" he said,
'but you just can't go ahaid without
an ak. This side is sure fierce. But
never mind. It's great life if you
don't weaken!" He looked up at the
circle of peaks peeping over the tree
tops. what was 1t the Wolfer called
that far end of valley? l can't re-
member Cool something"
"Cul-de-sac?" inquired Jack
chats it, Well we got to keep cool
right here
A sudden rumble that seemed not
of thunder came to their ears.
They both, instinctively, craned
their heads and listened.
whats that?" asked Jack
"Rock-slide," said Bunt in casual
tone. I'VE got that to figure on, too.
There may be a rock-slide up above
here to negotiate. Morning sun melts
some snow, you see. 1t falls. 1t loos-
ems stone. Stone rolls. Another!
Then the whole blame slide gets on
the jump. That was sure some slide
| N, ali 3o
timber Well, We'll get to work. Pity
we've only one ak. We can take
spells, and you can help with the
shovel and pick a bit maybe, grading
a trail up for the horses. 1t is sure
dense in the bottom here
They worked till noon and came
back to their camp, torn by the spikes
Of DEVILS club-foot, grimy, to get the
J spikes out before they caused tester.
ing sores, and then, hungry, to eat
They worked again till it was toe
dark to continue swinging an ak, and
still they had not got above the tangle
Of scrub on that slope.
1.-TWO days lost" growled Bunt
We'll, we got to keep temper! Keep
temper! Keep temper!" He produced
is sack of tobacco and sheaf of wheat
papers and rolled a cigarette.
; "Why, the Wolfer will be at Mac
Intyre's Bluff by now!" broke out
Jack, thinking of those two days.
"Sure He will be there, that's to
say, If he amt started back already
They'd travel swift so as to get clear
of that bunch Of hootch- peddlers, shir
EN- out on the auto. When does she
get there?"
about five o'clock"
well, they're shipped to Eagle
Bend by now, and Walt is hitting the
trail after us! Wonder if James
aughter Is immersed in this here love
with him now! He's liable to get i'm
mersed himself some day and marry
marry and settle! A settler!"
: Jack raised his head and glanced
, at Bunt whose tone was jeering.
: 20 he doesn't try it! It's because
> he amt got much use for the average
maid that they 60 batty on him. HI
j sees through them, too"
: rs he cynical?" asked Jack.
y "He says no. He says he's only one
the few that amt fooled. Col darn
What was that?"
They sat with heads up as if Elk
pecting the sound, that had made
them both start, to be repeated, lis
) tening to the retreating echoes of i.
: "a clap of thunder?" asked John
: ut to himself, even as he suggested
hat, he thought: NO"
1T wasn't rock-slide then, surely!'
aid Bunt. yet 1t sounded like rock
slide too at the end of it, in among
the echoes of the beginning Look a
the horses"
They were all alert. but only for {
moment. They dismissed their aston
ishment and went on grazing.
But what was it?' asked John.
Sounded like a charge of dynamite
it first. You heard the kind of crack
But the rumble was like rock-slide."
Maybe just thunder and reverber
alton among the peaks" said John
Il suppose thunder might acho like
that up here"