The Double Bitted Axe

Shortly after your mother and I were married, I took a job in the Gold Dollar mine near Atlantic City. Although Atlantic City is a ghost town now, back in those days there were still a lot of people living and working in the mines there. We rented a small log cabin that is still standing on the south side of the main street.

Harry Willis was the town drunk in Atlantic City, although when he wasn't soused he was considered a respectable citizen. Harry would drink anything that would get him drunk. When he couldn't get whiskey he would drink lemon or vanilla extract. It was mostly alcohol, so it did the job for him. Harry took a shine to your mother the first time he saw her. She was nineteen at the time, and he thought she was so beautiful that she must have been a dream. He heard her sing once and said her voice was that of an angel. He made every effort to be friendly, but she was afraid of him and did everything to avoid him. Sometimes he would knock on the cabin door just to get a look at her when she opened it.

I worked the night shift at the mine, so I had to leave your mother alone in the cabin when I went to work. Even though the door could be barred from the inside, she felt Harry was a threat. She wanted some kind of protection, a weapon of some kind. I had left my rifle in sheep camp, so the only thing I had that could be used as a weapon was a double bitted axe that I had brought for chopping fire wood. Each afternoon before I left for work, I'd get the axe from the wood pile and place it inside the cabin by the door. Your mother felt safe after that, because she figured that if Harry or anyone else tried to break in while I was gone, she could give them a whack with the axe.