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"We've struck water--a big flow--I can hear it--it'll break through any minute!"

"That's fine! Splendid!"

"You don't understand!" Rufus cried, desperately "I'm liable to be drowned before you can h'ist me out of here I can heard it roar--like a cloudburst!"

"Tell ested

"Let down the bucket!" Rufus chattered

"Couldn't think of it My eyeteeth are coh and I don't like to interrupt 'em"

"I'll make a clean breast of it"

"I don't want to pollute et out of there," Wallie told hirimly

"Canby's out to break you in one way and another He thought there was no water over here and he paid in' for it He seen me and my boys eat one day in the land to board us, so he wanted that clause in the contract, and after sixty-eight feet he paid us, besides a hundred and fifty dollars bonus I done wrong, Mr Macpherson, and I freely ad, Rufus? You like your food highly seasoned with plenty of soda in the pancakes and dough-goods?"

"Yes, Mr Macpherson," whined Rufus "I never coainst you personal, and I'll knock off soin' in water if you'll jest let down that----" A screech finished the sentence Then: "C-r-rr-ripes! She's busted through! She's comin' like a river!"

He jumped and clawed at the sides in his frenzy, and Wallie could see that Rufus well ht do so, for even as Wallie looked the water rushed in and rose to Rufus's ankles, and before he could get the bucket over the edge and started doard it ell to his knees, bubbling faster with every second as the opening widened

It was indeed time for action, and Wallie himself felt relief when the windlass spun and he heard the splash of the bucket in the bottoan to wind laboriously, and with reason, for Rufus was heavy and though Wallie put forth all his strength it was no easy task single-handed, and Rufus rose so slowly that the water gained rapidly

It became a race between Wallie and the subterranean strea and all but exhausted when Rufus rose to the surface As he stepped froe, and rushed down the "draw" to Skull Creek