The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1938-10-13

I'll toll you in the mornin'. I'm
talkin' in my sleep now. -G'night."
It was a dull, gathering, earth
rocking, UNDERWRITING roar that
woke them.
Rosy raised up on his elbow.
Dave" he called softly.
II heard it," Dave said.
Another report came booming
through the rainy night
Dynamite" Dave guessed.
''There must be ton in each
shot"
Three more vast detonations in
quick succession seemed to shake
the house.
"Where'd it come FROM" Rosy
asked.
Cup in the mountain, Old Cart
ridge way" Dave replied I'm TAX
in a pasear. You comin'?"
They dressed in the dark and left
the house noiselessly A steady
drizzle was beating down and the
first faint lights in the east an
nounced approaching day.
They saddled their horses swift
ly and swung out through the mud
up to the trail to the notch. When
they reached the timber, gray day
light allowed them to see. Dave
rode ahead, urging his horse.
A half mile from the notch in
the rock rim, Dave left the trail
and started up the rock-strewn
sleeper grade that announced the
mountain. Rosy, puzzled, reined off
after him.
Suddenly it dawned on Rosy
where they were going and why
Dave had ridden so unerringly for
this point.
They mounted a hog's-back and
Dave refined up, staring. Before
them, a basin seemed to have been
scooped out of the very base OF
the tunneled mountainside. 1t was
roughly oval, quarter of mile in
length. It's bottom, slanting steeply
to the center from all sides, was a
thick, black, shining-wet slime OF
mud Steady trickles of water
seeped up thinly in some places.
Rosy's eyes followed the level rim
around and there, toward the east
edge nearest the rock rim, chunk
seemed to have been knocked out
of the rim, leaving in its place a
wedge of gray storm blanketed sky.
The forty yards from the edge OF
the rock rim to the edge of the lake
had been blasted out!
The lake was no more. Nothing
but this black pit of slime, small
pool at the very bottom mirroring
the sky, left to mark it.
Dawes face was paper white.
damn Hammond!" His voice
clogged with fury.
He wheeled his horse and rode
the hogs back up to the wedge,
then dismounted, Rosy at his side.
Close to it, the gap was terrific.
Springs blown underground too, )"
Dave muttered bleakly.
"Since grand-dad's time that lake
level hadn't varied three inches.
That creek out of it ran the whole
length of our range, watered all our
stock except some scattered water
holes Now the spread isn't worth
the paper that covers it," he finished
savagely.
''He knowed dynamite" Rosy said
tonelessly.
"He had this planned a long time"
Dave said slowly. "He didn't have
time to learn about that irrigatin'
scheme of ours, but he'd had it
planned. He had to single-jack holes
in that rock, drill them. It'd take
time. Plenty. Lots of night-work k"
Pausing, he looked at Rosy, pain in
his eyes. ''We was sleepin' two of
them, nights, Rosy. And I could have
killed him yesterday"
:''Well, let's go. The sooner I meet
him and kill him, the better I'll
feel'
Rosy took last look at the slime
covered rocks and cursed again,
long and passionately. He mount
ed, lseuirmed until his slicker was
settled and nosed his bay down the
hog's-back, paying no attention to
the reins.. The horse was spirited,
too, and wet. The bay edged off the
trail of Dawes tracks a way, then
Rosy not responding, he headed for
the shelter of tall jackpine. I'm
der it he stopped, and Rosy reused
from his reVerie. =
Suddenly his glance fell to the
carpet of pine needles There. he
saw cigarette, butt. 1t was tail
or-made. ~.
Rosy dismounted. AS he stopped
to pick up the cigarette, he saw
track, which brought low whistle
from him. It was fresh, made dur