Part 24 (1/2)
”We'll watch her,” said Aldous quietly ”I'll be with her to-day, Mac, and to-night I'll come down to the camp in the coulee to compare notes with you They can't very well steal her out of Blackton's house while I'one”
For an hour after MacDonald left hialow s his pipe Not until he saw the contractor drive up in the buckboard did he return Joanne and Peggy werewere possible Joanne was ht before To Aldous she becamehe did not speak as in his heart when, for a moment, he held her hand, and looked into her eyes
Instead, he said:
”Good ray Have you used----”
”I have,” she smiled ”Only it's Potterdam's Tar Soap, and not the other
And you--have not shaved, John Aldous!”
”Great Scott, so I haven't!” he exclairay!”
”And you will again this afternoon, if you please,” she commanded ”I don't like bristles”
”But in the wilderness----”
”One can shave as well as another can make curls,” she reminded him, and there came an adorable little dimple at the corner of her lad that Paul and Peggy Blackton didThey spent half an hour where the explosion of the night before had blown out the side of the ht It was in the face of a sandstone cliff, and all they could see of it when they got out of the wagon was a dark hole in the wall of rock Not a soul was about, and Blackton rubbed his hands with satisfaction
”Everything is co, and all we are waiting for now is four o'clock this afternoon”
The hole in the mountain was perhaps four feet square Ten feet in front of it the engineer paused, and pointed to the ground Up out of the earth came tires, which led away froo down to the explosives,” he explained ”They're battery wires half aBut we don't attach the battery until the final ht be an accident”
He bent his tall body and entered thethat Joanne had seen this attention on the contractor's part, Aldous held out his own hand, and Joanne accepted it
For perhaps twenty feet they followed the Blacktons with lowered heads
They seehtly doard, and only faintly could they see Blackton when he straightened
His voice cae and sepulchral:
”You can stand up now We're in the cha There ought to be a lantern here”
He struck a match, and as hefor the lantern, he called back encouragingly through the glooht over ten tons of dynamite, and there's another five tons of black powder----”
A little shriek froy Blackton stopped him, and his match went out
”What in heaven's nay----”
”Why in heaven's na over all those tons of dynay ”Paul Blackton, you're----”
The engineer's laughter was like a giant's roar in the cavern, and Joanne gave a gasp, while Peggy shi+veringly caught Aldous by the arot the lantern!” exclaier, not a bit Wait a hted the lantern, and in the glow of it Joanne's and Peggy's faces hite and startled ”Why, bless hten you!” he cried ”I was just telling you facts See, we're standing on a solid floor--four feet of packed rock and cement The dynamite and black powder are under that