Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-02-12

you know nothing about that. IL is
dangerous job, boy; you mustn't
attempt it, said he. Then Thomas
joined in the protest but that meant
nothing to Billy FOUR
"'Give me that fuse, old SPORT
Billy repeated. I'll go down and light
that bunch of junk for you. Don't
worry about me. 1 know more about
this mine that both you old dogs and
I was never in the shaft Give me
that lighter before 1 make you botn
jump down ahead of me- and just to
add to his torment, Billy pulled out
the old six and plucked bud from a
nearby bush and then passed the mes
cal, to show it was all in good humor.
Finally the boys yielded and al
most with tears in their eyes they
pleaded for Billy to be dolIbly careful
about lighting the fuses, again re-
peating to him how to proceed Then
with as much seriousness as a funeral
they lowered him into the shaft with
the eXhortation, Be very, very careful,
Billy That sure is bad place today.
Lots of powder down there, big, long,
deep holes. expect it will take us
week or two to shovel out the muck
when we get this blast off, And
Thomas added his fatherly appeal to
Billy saying that failing to light the
short one last might cause him to be
blown out of the. hole for there was
more than half g. box of powder ready
to blow out.
He Shouts Instead of Sings
"Well, Billy went down. He found
every one of the IL fuses just as they
had been described He lighted them
one at a time. Then he shook the
rope. Thomas and Campbell hoisted
him about three feet and let him fall
back into the shaft. Then Billy heard
a hoarse voice exclaim, My God,
Jack, the rope has gone into the
shaft, and Thomas added little fin
ished profanity for Billy's benefit
about that being the last of Billy al
spoken well over the mouth of the
shaft so Billy couldn't miss syllable
of it.
Meanwhile Billy he'd ceased to sing,
but he had begun to shout, limiting
something of colored mans revival
when the spirit overwhelms some en-
thuSiastic sister But his yellS and
appeals fell upon deaf ears and a
balmy atmosphere, producing not even
an echo. Billy evidently was begin
ming to get worried, very much Wor-
RED And then he heard this from
voices on top:
"My God, Jeck, what can we do?'
"Tll tell you, Bill, you Jump on
Billy's pony and ride to his mine and
get rope. Well have to get him
out anyhow
"'All right, jack and then the
voices died out for Billy turned to
other tactics, Seconds seemed like
hours and minutes bore down like
centuries on Billy Fourr. think that
was where he got his first streaks of
grey hair. Look at his finger nails.
Notice that one of his teeth seems to
have been filed off a bit. Well, that
all happened in the few minutes he
was in that mine. He started to try
to scale the walls and he made four
or five feet when, boom! boom! boom!
until there was half a dozen of them
and then Billy fell back to the bot
tom amidst the smoke of the powder
blasts.
And Then a Voice
wind that Had been knocked out by
the drop, Billy Strengthened up blind
with fright lest the greatest danger
was to come and wondering, too, how
far Bill had gotten on the cayuse on
the trip after the rope. Then he
heard a voice again 1t said merely,
Hello, Billy and soon another rope
slipped alongside of him as it came
down from the top. Everything was
fixed for him to ride back to the
surface and Billy started out, thankful
| that there had been some slight mis-
understanding on his part about the
size of the shots at the bottom OF
| the mine. All went well until he was
about 10 or IL feet of the top and
then-well, the windlass stopped and
so did Billy.
'Plead or pray or swear or do what
he would, no one seemed to hear him
and nothing caused the windlaSs to
move farther, so he scrambled on for
that distance, clinging to that rope as
| to life itself and he finally emerged
from the hole minus a finger nail or
| two and as I remarked earlier, there
| is some hint that he filed off part OF
tooth. What he thought during that
10 feet trip there is possibly no need
to try to relate as, SO far as I know,
Billy never told anyone about that.
But when he got to the top he found
it as deserted as the bottom of the
shaft so far as human beings were
concerned. Campbell and Thomas had
gotten out of sight, back in hiding
somewhere that they might enjoy the
laugh that they had finally evened it
up with Billy Fourr for stirring their
coffee with his six
Fake Loads in Mine
Campbell and Thomas later ex-
tplained that they made up their mind
they were going to make Billy hard
to catch and they studied out their
plan. They made the IL holes all
right, but they put no powder in
them. They made the holes not more
than three inches deep and put cap
on a short fuse SO the report sounded
like the real thing, but there was only
little dust to fly as a result. They
went on the theory that the bear
wouldn't know whether the gun wa:
loaded, just as it was told in the