The Iron Boys in the Mines Part 22

"What do I propose to do to you? I'll tell you what I am going to do to you. I'm going to drive you out of this mine. I'll never stop till I've driven you off the range and out of the mine country. You'll never be able to get a day's work in a mine on this range after I get through with you, if nothing worse happens to you in the meantime. I'll----"

"It strikes me that you are pretty much in the same box yourself----"

"Oh, I wish you were a man! I wish you weren't a weak, baby-faced kid!

I'd beat you to a pulp right----"

"Don't let that worry you, Spooner. Sail in, if you feel you have got to take it out of me. Perhaps you will feel better after you have vented your ugly temper on someone, even if it is a boy. Now get off from this platform!" commanded Rush, with a sudden change of tone, as he rose quickly to his feet. "You've got no business here, anyway. Get out!"

Steve grabbed up the iron bar with which he dumped the cars and started for the contractor. He had no intention of using it on the man, but he did not wish to engage in a fight with the fellow, being pretty sure that he would get the worst of it, for Spooner was a large and powerful man. Therefore the Iron Boy chose what he considered to be the most effective way of ridding himself of the contractor's presence.

Spooner hesitated a moment, then began backing up, his face pale with rage, his fists clenched.

"You had better turn about and face the other way, unless you want to fall through the chutes," warned Steve.

Spooner turned with an exclamation. A second more and he would have fallen in and shot down to the level below. As it was, he was obliged to jump over the opening to save himself, landing on the other side of the track. There he paused and renewed his abuse of young Rush.

"I've had enough of your nonsense! Get out!" commanded the st.u.r.dy lad.

He, too, leaped the chutes and made for the contractor, brandis.h.i.+ng his iron bar. Spooner turned and ran down the level until he reached the ladder, up which he climbed to his own drift.

"There, I guess I shall not be troubled by that fellow any more," said Steve, returning slowly to his interrupted lunch.

But he had not heard the last of Spooner.

The contractor, fuming with rage, was already plotting the downfall of the lad who had been the cause of his undoing.

CHAPTER XIV

LAYING THE TRAP

Steve Rush and his companion had held a long consultation over the events of the past few days. They had decided that it would be well to watch both Spooner and Marvin. Bob had overheard a conversation, or rather a few words, between the two men that warned him they were plotting mischief.

"What can they do?" asked Steve.

"If we knew, we should have no cause to worry," answered Bob.

"It is my opinion that they will put up some sort of job to waylay us outside one of these nights. Well, we shall be ready for them.

Forewarned is forearmed, you know. If they try any such trick they'll find we are pretty well able to take care of ourselves, even if we are 'weak kids,'" said Rush, with a smile.

A number of weeks pa.s.sed without incident. During that time Spooner and Marvin made good their stealings. They were then called to the office and both men were discharged. This occurred at the noon hour. They were told to go back to the mine, get their tools and clear out. When the men did return Steve and Bob Jarvis were eating their lunch up in the Spooner drift.

"There are the cubs now," whispered Marvin, pointing to the end of the drift. "It's our chance."

"Is it safe?"

"As safe as it ever will be. If you haven't got the nerve to do it, I'll do it myself."

"I've got the nerve, all right, but I don't propose to put my neck in a halter. I'd rather come back at some other time and carry the thing through."

"Getting cold feet already?" jeered Marvin.

"Don't you talk to me like that, or I'll pound you right here and now.

n.o.body ever accused Bob Spooner of having cold feet without getting hurt."

"You talk like it. But never mind; I'll do it. I owe him one and I owe the mine more than one. They'll have something to settle and it'll cost them a pretty penny, I reckon. It's now or never, for you and me. We'll never get a better opportunity. How do you suppose we are going to get in here after we leave to-day? Why, they wouldn't let us inside the cage after the orders the big boss will give them at the top of the shaft."

"Stop it! I'll do the trick. Where are the tools, though? I haven't a saw in my kit."

"I know where there is one. I sneaked it from the boss timber-man yesterday after we had our talk. I hid it behind the lagging about half way down the drift there. Come with me; I'll get it for you."

"Be careful," warned Spooner, peering around a bend in the drift at the two boys in the far end. From that distance he could see only their bobbing candles. "All clear. Hurry!"

Marvin reached to the top of the lagging at a certain point, and when his hand came away it held a saw.

"Here it is. Hurry, now!"

Spooner tucked the saw under his coat. This done, he moved along the drift away from the place where the boys were sitting, until he came to a slanting part.i.tion.

"There is a ladder inside. You know how to climb down it," whispered Marvin, as he cautiously opened a door in the part.i.tion. The interior was so dark that the men could see nothing. There was a sudden rush and some unseen object tore by them in the blackness. It was an ore skip, with its load of iron ore thundering to the surface. Its force was so great as to extinguish the candles of the two miners. Marvin quickly relighted them.

"Now get in and be lively. You will have to get away before the afternoon s.h.i.+ft starts in, or you may get something down on your head."

"You go down and stay on guard. If there is any danger, if anything turns up, stamp three times on the floor when there is no skip going by.

Otherwise I shall not hear it."

"I'm wise. Good luck! We can't lose this time and we'll be even with the whole bunch for all time."

Spooner stepped inside the dark chamber, pulling the door cautiously shut after him. His long service in iron mines had given him an excellent knowledge of every foot of the mine he was then working in, and though in deep darkness, he was not at all uncertain in his movements.

The contractor was now in the large shaft through which the ore skips ran with their cargoes to the top of the shaft, where they emptied the ore into waiting trams which ran out over a trestle and dumped it on the pile where Steve Rush had begun his work when he first came to the Cousin Jack Mine. It was a dangerous place for one who was not wholly sure of himself, but Spooner descended the ladder confidently, making his way to the bottom, then down a short ladder to a platform that was directly beneath that on which the tally-man and the dumper in level seventeen stood when at their work.

Reaching this platform, the contractor removed his candle from his hat, making a careful examination of his surroundings. His attention finally centred on a section of the flooring above. That particular part was held up by a post some three feet in length, the latter being supported by a two-inch plank laid across two other posts that protruded up through the floor of the lower platform.

"I wish those skips would get busy," muttered Spooner. "They'll hear the saw above there if I am not careful." Then it occurred to him that, it being the noon hour, the skips were not running regularly. With an exclamation of disappointment, the man stepped up to the main post and ran his hands over the plank that supported it.

"I guess this will be about the right spot," he decided, placing his saw about midway on the right-hand side of the post. Spooner took off his blouse, throwing this over the saw to deaden the sound. Then, holding a corner of the coat up by one hand that he might see what he was doing, he began drawing the saw rapidly across the plank. The latter being hard wood, his efforts were not productive of immediate results. But the saw slowly ate its way into the tough timber until at last the man withdrew it, and, holding his candle low, examined the cut he had made.

"I think that will be enough for this side. I'll open up the other side a little," he muttered.

Spooner had just begun to saw when a sound somewhere above him caused the man quickly to extinguish his candle. He stood still and listened.

"What's this door doing unlatched?" demanded a voice, which the fellow recognized as belonging to the mine captain.

Spooner did not catch the reply.