Down the Slope Part 21

"Of course."

"Well, what's wanted?"

"You jest said as how you'd like to get square with the company."

"S'posen I did? Does that concern you?"

"P'raps I heard somethin' 'round to the store you'd want to know."

"Say, if you've got anything to tell, out with it, for I can't fool away my time with you."

"First I've got a trade to make."

"Talk quick."

"Do you know the new breaker boy? The one what's so thick with Wright an' Joe Brace?"

"Yes."

"I want to get square with him, an' if you'll help me do it I'll tell what I heard a lot of 'em saying."

"Was it anything I'd like to know?"

"It'll show jest how you can get the best of the whole crowd."

"Then I'll do what I can, an' be glad of the chance, 'cause I've got a little score to settle with him myself."

Skip no longer hesitated; but repeated in detail all he had heard while hiding in the store, Billings listening with closest attention.

"That's the best piece of news I've heard for a year, my boy," the latter said, "an' you sha'n't be the loser by tellin' me. If you've got the nerve to do a little work after everything is ready, both the breaker boss an' this new feller shall be where they can't help themselves."

The leader of the regulators felt exceedingly proud that the rioter should ask him to partic.i.p.ate in the plot, and promised, without the least show of hesitation, to do anything which might be required of him.

"How long before you'll be ready?" he asked.

"It may be a week; but you drop in here for a minute every evenin' so's I can talk about the thing if the plans don't work. There's no use to be in a hurry over sich a job as this."

"I'll show up reg'lar," Skip cried gleefully, and then, as Billings re-entered the groggery, he hurried away to tell the good news to some of his chums.

During this plotting Joe Brace and Bill Thomas were at Fred's home discussing the best means of following Mr. Wright's instructions. The plan of the works was studied carefully; but in it was found no solution to the problem, and when they retired that evening nothing definite had been decided upon.

The night s.h.i.+ft went to work as usual, and but for the evidences of wanton destruction a stranger would hardly have mistrusted that Farley's had lately been a scene of rioting.

On the following morning Fred pa.s.sed through the breaker to speak to Donovan before entering the slope, and Skip Miller displayed the greatest excitement on seeing him.

"I don't know how it could have happened," the breaker boss said, "for I haven't told even my own wife that you was to be Joe's b.u.t.ty; but these young villains know all about it. I've heard Skip tellin' his cronies, an' I'm sure they're up to some mischief. Be careful, an' don't go outside alone, leastways, not till the business of the riot has blown over."

"I'll look to it that they haven't a chance to do much harm," Fred replied, laughingly, as he pa.s.sed on to learn the first duties of a miner.

Joe, Bill, and Sam accompanied Fred to his new working place, and the former said as they were being let down the incline:

"I hear Billings swears he won't leave town."

"I pa.s.sed him on my way home last night," Bill added, "and he warned me agin keepin' Sam as my b.u.t.ty."

"Why?"

"He says he is a spy, hand in glove with you, an' that all who work with them as give information to the bosses will catch it rough."

Bill Thomas laughed as he said this; but Joe looked serious.

"I don't like this way of working. The lower level is bad enough without thinkin' all the time that somebody is tryin' to do a fellow up."

"Nonsense. Barkin' dogs don't often bite, an' so long as we know he means mischief there ain't much chance of trouble. The thing to be figgered out is, how're we goin' to fix this job?"

Again the two men discussed the situation, walking along the drift with the plans before them, while the boys were forced to be content with listening to the conversation.

It was finally decided that they should work here and there along the entire cut, trusting that it would be possible to hear if any one began to dig on the opposite side.

"It's a case of keepin' quiet an' listenin' for suspicious sounds," Bill said. "We won't try to get out coal to-day, an', perhaps, by night Mr.

Wright will have a better plan."

"By watchin' Billings we could get some kind of an idea as to when he was likely to begin operations."

"Donovan promised to see to that part of it."

"Then we'll kinder lay 'round till we get the hang of the place. You boys go on to the end of the drift an' come back. Don't make any noise."

The forenoon was spent in what was little more than patrol duty, and when Mr. Wright came below he approved of their plans. Nothing better was suggested, and until night-fall all four paced to and fro, the other miners having been withdrawn from the drift.

When evening came Skip did not wait to see if Fred came out; but hurried off to the groggery where he was made happy by Billings' extreme friendliness.

"The leader of the mob arose immediately upon seeing him, and led the way outside, saying when they were some distance from the building:

"I've been thinkin' over what you told me, an' am certain we can work this thing all right."

"When?"

"In a day or two. If you could manage to get hold of that paper the job might be done in a jiffy."

"But Joe an' Bill have got it."

"S'posen they have. A smart lad like you oughter find some way to get at it, an' it would be worth your while to try."

"It couldn't be done."

"P'raps not by you; but I know of some, no older than you, who'd have it before morning. Of course, I don't blame a boy for not tryin' when he hasn't the nerve----"