Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-08-25
FAIRY POT
By ETHEL LIMA WHITE

AND RECEIVES A DOUBLE
REWARD.
$50 this is a pothole," gasped
Iris. She was sunken below sun
level in vast cavern of rock, chill
with damp and earthly odors. Only
the dimmest light filtered through
a small hole in the roof-from
which trickled a shrunken water
fall. But although she was muddy,
breathless and soaked to the skin,
she felt the special thrill which
accompanies achievement.
"Pothole?' repeated her COM
panion scornfully. "What d'you
mean? We're only in the daylight
shaft: This is where the pothole be-
gins. I'll show you.'
The young engineer gripped her arm
and they stumbled together across the
slimed floor, following up the course
OF the streamlet from the fall, until it
disappeared down wide fissure in the
rocks.
AT the bottom of that fall is an
eternal pothole which is pitch dark"
Courage explained ut will lead you
down to another, and so on, down and
down, until the stream disappears down
crack too narrow to follow it-or
until the ropes give out-or until any
And you mean to tell me you go
down horrible holes like that for pleas
ure?" asked Iris incredulously. 1T
seems to me specially morbid and de-
based way of committing suicide"
SPothoiing IS a bug, like any other
phobia," he said. You have it-or you
haven't"
He knew that it was hopeless to try
to explain to her the magnetism in the
sound of that chuckling water which
was an elusive thread, leading down
to hidden treasure: Here, in Pothole
region of subterranean wonderland had
been already explored. Huge stalac-
tite caverns, lakes, streams and more
than two miles of connecting passages.
But there remained still the lure of
finding some new entry down some in
significant hole which might drop
down hundreds of feet in one sheer
sWoop. There was also the eternal hope
of the pioneer-to be first to stumble
on some new enchanted territory.
Even then, it might be lying under
his feet-waiting for him to discover
it. Voices called to him from the halls
of darkness.
Although he was keen Alpinist and
rarely missed holiday in Switzerland,
the joys of mountain climbing lacked
this thrill of exploration. AS he strained
his eyes to look at Iris through the
gloom, he longed to share his secret
for less than a fortnight, yet already
she seemed so vital to his happiness,
that his mind SHE'D at the prospect of
a future apart from her.
She had been tramping the Fells
without hat and her face was very
her fair hair. Essentially modern girl
with a mechanical mind, she was en-
ployed at an aircraft factory and had
the hard muscles and the unselfcon-
scious camaraderie of one accustomed
to work with men.
Lately Courage had wished that her
blue eyes were not SO friendly and
imperSonal.
Don't you ever climb?" he asked.
Definitely no. she replied I've
no head for heights. Something goes
funny i diffs1o me fly Of course bHt
ground and I feel safer there :. Let's
get out of this tomb
Although Courage remained below,
to steady the rope ladder, she found its
ascent both tricky and humiliating
performance. Whenever her shoe slip
ped on the narrow five-inch tread, she
upset the precariouS balance, and either
swayed under the fall, or bruised her
self against the rock.
1t was relief to get into the open
air which was cooled by the spray
from the Pharisee Fairy) Fall. The
great cascade foamed like pillar of
smoke down into the gorge, whose
sides emerald green with soaked ferns
wit, oil
trees, rowans, bird-cherries and birch.
After plunging into deep pool at its
bottom, it rushed down into the valley
in small river.
In spite of its present volume, it had
shrunk so far below its normal flow
that it sealed no longer the mouth of
the a6 poth nc &c Courage explained the sit
cts about eight years since it's been
possible to get near the pothole," he
said. "A chap called Riley discovered it,
but he had to give up for lack of
so The S SR sP , ns s g1pgs g Ssa sag S
conversation, as they toiled out of the
cool and Swallowed radius Of the spray.
When they reached the path again. the
sun beat down on them from a cloud
less sky. The turf was scorched and
the h hills ,o blurred BY a thick blue soupy
AeAASoFAASa GO oAA0h64A SAAS 4ASoU AAaA
become visible.
"Today's going to be a real scorcher,"
painted Iris as she caught her heel In
a crack in the baked earth. Don't you
.I should say not replied Courage.
I'm praying for this blessed drouth
to last: It's the chance of a lifetime
to explore the Pharisee Pot again.
There's still rather too much overflow
from the fall"
Are you really going down that aw-
full drop into the dark? You must be
crazy"
"Call it 'potty.' Yes, It's all fixed.
Riley-the chap who did 1t before,
young Collier and myself"
Young Collier? That precious youth?
don't believe it."
ooh, he's got CUTS all right, In spite
Of his pretty face. suppose as you're
a native, you've down on him because
his old man Is living in your Squire's
ancestral hall"
"I'm not that sort of moldy snob. No,
my crouch is this: When Granny rent