The Iron Boys in the Mines; or, Starting at the Bottom of the Shaft

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER III

  TWO THOUSAND FEET UNDER GROUND

  Jarvis sprang forward and with shovel in hand began throwing the dirt inall directions.

  "If you don't mind, please don't pile any more of this red stuff on myhead than you can help. I have plenty as it is," said Steve.

  "That's so; I was throwing it your way, wasn't I?" chuckled Bob,laughing good-naturedly.

  Steve found time to study the other boy while the latter was digging himout. In spite of Jarvis' meanness to him, Rush felt certain that the ladpossessed a good heart, and it was a strong, resourceful face that Stevefound himself studying as the digging progressed.

  "Bob," he said finally, "have you ever been thrashed?"

  "Thrashed? Licked, you mean?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, not since my dad gave me a walloping last," laughed the boy.

  "Don't you think a good, sound thrashing would do you a whole lot ofgood?"

  Bob grinned broadly. By this time he had dug down around Rush until thelatter was able to clamber from the pile of ore.

  "Well, I don't know about that."

  "I do, and I know you've got to have one before very long," announcedyoung Rush with strong emphasis.

  "I will, eh?"

  "You will," affirmed Steve, brushing the dirt from his clothes.

  "And who's going to give me this licking, Little Miss Hurry-up?"demanded Jarvis threateningly.

  "I am," replied Steve in a quiet tone.

  Jarvis began to take off his coat.

  "Not now, Bob," spoke up the other quickly. "This is the company's time.We should both be discharged if we were to be caught fighting here andnow. We will settle our difficulty some other time."

  "So you were only bluffing, eh? I knew you didn't have the spunk tofight anything."

  Steve pointed off to the mine shaft.

  "There comes the skip with a load of ore. You had better get your carback there or you will have trouble enough without a fight."

  Jarvis, with an exclamation, began pushing the tram car back over thetop of the dump, Steve picking up his shovel and beginning his work ofclearing the end of the tracks.

  All day long the lad toiled industriously. It was hard work and his backached, yet he kept to his task. When night came Steve had thesatisfaction of being told that he had done a man's work that day.

  A truce had been declared between the two boys, so far as fighting wasconcerned, though Jarvis continued his nagging at every opportunity.Steve took the other's scoffing good-naturedly, turning Bob's jibes withsoft answers. For a full week both lads had labored far up on the oredump. They had been too busy to think of their personal grievances forany great length of time. Saturday night had arrived, and when Steveleft the dump to start for his boarding house he was told that thegeneral superintendent wished to see him.

  "I guess he is going to discharge me," thought the boy. "Well, I havedone the best I could."

  His surprise was great, therefore, when the superintendent said, as thelad came to a halt in front of the official's desk:

  "You have done very well, Rush."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "Do you still think you would like to work below ground?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Then you may begin on Monday."

  "On what shift?"

  "The day shift, going down at seven o'clock. The best I have for you nowis a contract job run by a man named Spooner. You will find it prettyhard work. You see, these contracts are given out for so much per tonand the men who take the contracts propose to get as much out of theirworkmen as possible. You will be worked to your full capacity."

  "I can stand it, sir."

  "If you do, you should be able to endure anything we have to offer inthis business. I have arranged for Spooner to take you on as a miner'shelper. Your wages will be a dollar and a quarter a day. Be very carefuland guard yourself from accident. Carelessness may cost you your life,for there is danger everywhere below ground."

  "I will be very careful, sir."

  Steve hurried away full of anticipation. He was to be a real miner; hewas to start his career as a miner on a level two thousand feet belowthe surface. The lad had never been below ground before and he was fullof anticipation of what awaited him on the following Monday morning.

  Acting on the suggestion of the boarding-house boss, the lad hadpurchased a suit of yellow oilcloth, rubber boots, oilcloth hat andcandle holder. This latter, as used by the ore miners, is a piece ofsteel, one end coming to a sharp point, the other having an opening forthe candle itself. The whole fastens securely to the hat. When necessarythe candle holder may be carried in the hand, or driven into a creviceof rock or ore.

  This, with pick and shovel, comprises the miner's outfit and was theoutfit of Steve Rush when he presented himself at the mouth of the shafton the following Monday morning. There were about five hundred men to godown in the cage, the car that carries the miners and other passengersdown to the various levels, and Steve found himself pushed aside, sothat he was among the last to get aboard the steel cage.

  "Will you tell me where the Spooner contract is located?" he asked ofthe cage-tender before getting aboard.

  "Seventeenth level."

  "Does the car stop there?"

  "If it doesn't, you're a goner."

  Rush leaped aboard, grasping the rod that he saw above his head tosteady himself. The protecting bars in front of the cage fell in placewith a noisy clang.

  "All clear," announced a voice.

  The support beneath the lad seemed to drop from under him. With a rushand a roar, a grinding and crunching the steel cage dropped from sight.Instantly everything was plunged in inky darkness.

  "Do--do they always go like this?" asked the young miner of a manstanding beside him.

  "This isn't going much. He has slow speed on this morning because thecage has a bigger load than usual. Afraid, are you?"

  "No, I am not afraid. I was wondering what would happen if the manforgot to shut off his power when we reached the bottom."

  The miner laughed.

  "We'd punch a hole in the bottom of the shaft," he said.

  "How deep is the shaft, sir?"

  "Two thousand feet to the bottom--fifty feet less than that to the lastworking level. The bottom level is used to drain off the water from theother levels. From there big steam pumps pump the water to the surface."

  The two could scarcely hear for noise.

  "The Spooner contract is on the seventeenth level, is it not?"

  "Yes, on the sub-level above the seventeenth. Is that where you aregoing to work?"

  "Yes, sir; for Mr. Spooner."

  "Then I feel sorry for you."

  "Why so, sir?"

  "Because he is a slave driver. Every man in the mines knows him and noneof them wants to work for him. I guess he hasn't a white man on thecontract."

  "I didn't know there were any colored men employed here."

  "There are not. We call a white man one who is not a foreigner," laughedthe miner.

  "Oh!"

  Now and then the car would halt with a jolt; two or three men would leapoff and disappear in the darkness, after which the cage would drop downanother level or so.

  "Here is your level," announced the miner. "Jump off, or you will becarried by."

  Steve jumped off.

  "Thank you," he called, but the miner did not hear him, for the car haddropped quickly out of sight.

  Water that had dripped down through the shaft from the surface and theupper levels was, by this time, running from the oilskins of the youngminer in tiny rivulets. Dampness was everywhere. A blast of hot, dampair smote him in the face as he turned to look about him.

  "I wonder where I am to go?" muttered Steve.

  A heavy fog hung over everything, electric lights glowing dimly throughthe haze, so that one was able to see but a few feet ahead.

  "Where is the Spooner contract?" called Steve to a passing miner.

  The man jerked a hand
over his shoulder, whereupon the lad made his waycautiously down the level or tunnel, which is the main avenue, and fromwhich other tunnels, called drifts, run off into the ore beds.

  By this time the mine was in full operation. Strange sounds smote theears of the young miner. The roar of the electric tram cars as theydashed by him, now and then narrowly missing running him down, thethunder of the skips, huge black objects hurling themselves surfacewardloaded with iron ore, the bang, bang of the drills and the detonationsof many dynamite explosions, filled the heart of Steve Rush with awe andwonder.

  The lad was confused. He did not know which way to turn, nor what secondhe might step into an opening and plunge downward. Had he but known itthere was little danger of such an accident so long as he kept to themain level. There were many dangerous holes--ore chutes--but theseordinarily were protected so that there was little chance of one'sfalling through them. Such accidents, however, had been known to occur.

  At last Steve saw a man who looked as if he might be a person inauthority, and to this one he appealed to direct him to the Spoonercontract.

  "Who are you?" demanded the man sharply.

  "My name is Rush. May I ask who you are?"

  "I am the mine captain. Do you work with Spooner?"

  "I am going to do so if I can find the way to his place."

  "Come this way. I will show you how to get there. You are late."

  "Yes, sir; I was not able to find my way and I guess I was among thelast ones to come down in the cage."

  "This is your first experience below ground?"

  "It is, sir."

  "Then let me give you some advice; never get careless. There is dangereverywhere about here."

  "So I have already discovered, sir."

  "There is no excuse for men getting hurt, however, if they do not getcareless. That is why so many get hurt, and why some lose their lives.We do everything we can to look out for the safety of our people, but wecannot guard against everything."

  "I shall try to follow your advice, sir."

  The captain strode along rapidly through dark drifts, turning here andthere with perfect confidence. Steve felt sure that he never should beable to find his way about in that labyrinth without getting lost, andhe asked the captain how he should do so.

  "Follow the crowd," was the brief answer. "There, do you see thatladder?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Climb it. It is a forty-foot ladder. The top of it is the sub-level,where the Spooner contract is located."

  "Thank you, sir," answered Rush, beginning his long, dark climb up theslender ladder to the unknown regions above him.