The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills Part 27

"I hit you," spoke up the head melter.

"You did?"

"Yes. There wouldn't have been so much as a grease spot left of you, by this time, if I hadn't."

"What did you hit me with?"

"I threw the dolly at you, and it did the business. It knocked you plumb over on your back. The cast was right on top of you when I let go the dolly. You know the rest."

"Then you saved my life, too, Mr. Peel?"

"Well, something of that sort," grinned the head-melter.

"We're both ent.i.tled to hero medals, you see," added Bob.

"Thank you; I owe you both one for that. Well, Mr. Peel I am ready to go to work. How about you, Bob?"

Jarvis glanced up to where the ladder disappeared in the veil of smoke high above them.

"If I had an elevator I'd be all right, but I'll try it."

"You need not go up if you don't feel like it," said the melter. "I will send one of the furnace men up to finish your trick, if you wish."

"No, I'll go myself. There won't be any trouble about getting down. I can fall down, but the difficulty will be in climbing that ladder with the skin all off my hands. Say, those rungs are hot. Why don't you cool them off?"

"We'll play the hose on you while you are going up if you want."

"You'd better not, if you know what is good for you. If you even breathe on me I'll fall off. Well, here goes!"

Rush, followed his companion to the foot of the ladder.

"Are you sure you are all right, Bob?" he asked anxiously.

"No; I am not all right, but I'm right enough to beat this game. I can't do any more than break my neck, and I guess that isn't breakable. We have had our initiation ceremonies; now maybe we'll go along for a time without anything happening. Here goes!"

Bob, with evident effort, began climbing. Once he seemed to lose his grip and Steve, believing he was going to fall, started to run up the ladder.

"Quit that!" howled Jarvis, feeling the vibration on the ladder. "What are you trying to do--throw me off?"

"I thought perhaps you needed some help."

"I'll tell you when I do. What I want most just now is to be let alone."

Rush stepped back to the platform, but he remained standing there until finally Jarvis disappeared in the cloud of smoke and gas up near the top of the blast furnace. Then he turned back to the furnace work.

"What next, Mr. Peel?" he asked.

"Well, if you think you can get out of the way quick enough, you can begin to patch up the gutters again."

The hot metal train had long since pulled away over the bridge, on its way to the mills, where the ingots would either be rolled in their crude state or placed in the open-hearth furnaces to be transformed into ingots of steel.

"I guess I can keep out of the way, now that I know what to keep out of the way of."

"I'll put you on the dolly to-morrow, and make a monkey-man of you. If you don't get incinerated we'll make a real man of you."

"Thank you."

Peel did not know whether the remark was intended to be sarcastic or not, and Steve's impa.s.sive face gave him no clue to the truth.

For the rest of the night each of the Iron Boys labored faithfully, and that morning, the moment they struck their beds, they instantly fell into the deathlike sleep of the laborer in the steel mills.

CHAPTER XVI

THROUGH THE MELTING POT

"I've got a new job for you," said the head melter to Steve, when the Iron Boys reported for duty on the following evening.

"Am I to be the monkey?"

"No, not to-day. I'll let you be the ladle man."

"What does he do?"

"Not much. He stands with a ladle in his hands, scooping from the molten metal, as it bursts out through the clay dam, all the cinders and slag he can pick up. Every little bit helps. You've got to watch lively, or you will be burned to a crisp before you pick up the first ladle full,"

was the cheerful additional remark of the head melter.

"I was going to ask if you have a new job for me to-night," interrupted Bob, "but I don't think I care very much for your promotions. That's where I have the best of you, Steve. If anything happens in my department I can jump down, but you can't jump up to get out of the way of your troubles."

"At least, I am in little danger of breaking my neck in trying to jump up," laughed Rush.

Bob was soon at the top of the furnace. He was still sore from the b.u.mp he had gotten in collision with the train of flat cars. Jarvis walked with a limp. One leg seemed to be shorter than the other, since the accident, but of course this was not the case. He took up his work with more confidence than he had begun it on the previous night, relieving the monotony by alternately whistling and singing, though the latter was usually attended with a severe coughing spell as he swallowed a mouthful of gas and smoke.

Steve found his new occupation far from an improvement over what he had begun with. His first effort to scoop cinders and slag from the yellow stream resulted in his losing his eyebrows, much of the hair on his head and nearly all the clothing he had on.

Had it not been for the quick action of the man with the hose he would not have had a st.i.tch of clothing left on him, and perhaps very little skin-covering either.

"Dip and jump!" shouted the melter. "What are you trying to do?"

"Princ.i.p.ally jumping, only I didn't jump quite quickly enough," laughed Steve, the tears running from his smarting eyes. He bathed them liberally in cold water, after which they felt better.

The next dip was not much of an improvement over the first, except that there were fewer clothes to be burned and no eyebrows at all. Now, Rush was shouting for water, as had the others before him. Being a raw hand it was dashed over him by the pailful, in addition to the deluge he got from the hose in the hands of the hoseman.

The Iron Boy staggered away, gasping for breath. His head was a-whirl and he felt as though he were on fire.