The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills Part 9

"Not much."

"Then you can tell me all about this. You were in it, weren't you?"

"I guess I was. But I can't tell you anything now. I'll tell you all I know later on. Have you seen Jarvis?"

"No; where is he?"

"That is what I want to find out. He was working on the pit that blew up."

"I guess he is settled then."

"I am afraid so."

"Well, we will hope not. I would help you look for him, but you know I've got my hands full," explained the man from the office.

"Yes; I understand. Hunt me up after you get through, and I will give you all the information I have, which isn't very much."

Rush started away. He came face to face with the surgeon who had dressed his wounds.

"What are you doing here, Rush?" demanded the surgeon. "You get back to the ambulance."

"I'm looking for Jarvis. You--you haven't found him, have you?"

"No. Is he hurt?"

"I think so."

"That's too bad," muttered the ambulance surgeon, returning to his work of dressing the wounds of those who had been burned.

Rush went on, asking every one he met if they had seen Jarvis. No one had. Foley, Kalinski, all denied having seen the boy. Steve was perplexed. By this time the smoke cloud began to grow thinner and more transparent. One could see fully half way across the shop. As the cloud lifted, all became clear. The place looked as if it had been in the grip of a cyclone, though the damage was not nearly as great as had at first appeared.

"Who is killed?" asked Rush.

"No one, so far as I know," answered the man addressed.

"Have you seen Bob Jarvis anywhere about?"

"Don't know him. Who is he?"

"He was my partner. He was working on number eight when it blew up."

"Then you'll need a basket to gather him up," was the cheerful answer of the mill hand. "The last time a pit exploded here we lost twelve men. We found the pieces of them, but somehow we never were able to put them together. The pieces wouldn't fit, nohow."

Steve turned away. The lad's face was drawn and white, partly from the pain of his burns and partly from anxiety for Jarvis.

"Ignatz!" he called, observing the Pole darting across to the furnaces.

The lad halted sharply and glanced around to see who was calling him. He caught Steve's eye and hurried over.

"Have you found Jarvis?"

Brodsky shook his head.

"Mister Bob not here," he said.

"He must be," protested Steve.

"Mebby Bob him run away," suggested the Pole.

"No, Ignatz; he is not that kind. He is here somewhere and something has happened to him or we should have seen him somewhere about. He was standing on the edge of the pit at the time it exploded."

"I see him a minute before. He put too much water on," added the boy, with a shake of the head. "Bad, bad! Somebody tell him do that."

Rush attached no especial significance to the suggestion at the moment.

Later on, the words of the faithful Pole came back to him fraught with meaning.

"He must have been thrown up into the air. Perhaps he is down in the pit there buried under the slag now," said Rush, a sudden, startled expression flas.h.i.+ng into his eyes.

Brodsky instinctively glanced upwards.

"Look! Look!" cried the Pole, dancing up and down and pointing excitedly up above their heads into the thin cloud of smoke that hovered over them.

Steve looked. His heart sank within him as he did so and his head began to whirl dizzily.

CHAPTER VI

BOB'S DIZZY FLIGHT

"Bob, him there! Bob, him there!" cried Ignatz. "See, see!"

On a girder, a huge steel truss some fifteen feet above their heads, and a little to one side of the centre, lay a limp figure, apparently ready to topple off at the slightest jar. The face of the figure up there was not visible, for it was flattened on the girder, while the arms and limbs hung over limp and motionless.

"It's Bob!" gasped the Iron Boy. "Help me, Ignatz! We must get him down."

Young Brodsky did not wait to consider the matter. He darted away, followed by Steve. To reach the figure on the girder the lads were obliged to climb the upright of a big automatic crane that was used for conveying heavy pieces of iron from one end of the building to the other. Ordinarily the boys would have been stopped, but in the excitement no one paid any heed to them as they s.h.i.+nned up the iron column, Steve in the lead, Brodsky so close behind him that now and then Rush's heels grazed the Pole's face.

Steve crept along the girder, using care not to cause it to vibrate any, lest he might be the means of shaking his companion down.

At last he reached the spot where Jarvis lay.

Steve uttered a shout to attract the attention of those below. As they glanced up they comprehended at once. Jarvis had been blown to the girder by the pit explosion. From appearances the spectators believed him to be dead. Steve did not know whether such were the case or not. He realized the necessity for haste if it were not.

"Throw me a rope," shouted the lad.