The Iron Boys in the Mines Part 6

Steve jumped off.

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

Water that had dripped down through the shaft from the surface and the upper levels was, by this time, running from the oilskins of the young miner in tiny rivulets. Dampness was everywhere. A blast of hot, damp air 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 through the haze, so that one was able to see but a few feet ahead.

"Where is the Spooner contract?" called Steve to a pa.s.sing miner.

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

By this time the mine was in full operation. Strange sounds smote the ears of the young miner. The roar of the electric tram cars as they dashed by him, now and then narrowly missing running him down, the thunder of the skips, huge black objects hurling themselves surfaceward loaded with iron ore, the bang, bang of the drills and the detonations of many dynamite explosions, filled the heart of Steve Rush with awe and wonder.

The lad was confused. He did not know which way to turn, nor what second he might step into an opening and plunge downward. Had he but known it there was little danger of such an accident so long as he kept to the main level. There were many dangerous holes--ore chutes--but these ordinarily were protected so that there was little chance of one's falling 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 in authority, and to this one he appealed to direct him to the Spooner contract.

"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 the last 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 danger everywhere about here."

"So I have already discovered, sir."

"There is no excuse for men getting hurt, however, if they do not get careless. 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 we cannot guard against everything."

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

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

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

"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 the slender ladder to the unknown regions above him.

CHAPTER IV

STEVE SHOOTS THE CHUTES

Reaching the sub-level, as he supposed, Steve found it enshrouded in inky blackness. He was in a side drift, but he did not know it.

"I guess I am as badly off as I was before. I haven't the least idea where I am, so I guess there is not much danger of getting lost."

Removing the candle from his hat, the lad held it before him, lighting the shadows sufficiently to enable him to see where he was stepping.

After a time he came out into a larger tunnel, which, he decided, must be one of the main levels, for there was a narrow track extending along it. Steve decided to follow this track and trust to luck. He had gone along for perhaps fifteen minutes when he made a discovery.

"I've lost the track!" he exclaimed. "I wonder where it could have gone to?"

The lad retraced his steps, but search as he might he was unable to find the steel rails again. For what seemed hours to him the youthful miner wandered here and there. The fact that he had neither seen nor heard anyone led him to where the work was going on.

Steve was beginning to get disheartened. He was thankful that he had his dinner pail with him, in case he failed to find his way out before the day's work was done.

At last, however, he reached a drift or level, he did not know which, where he could not stand upright. The rocks overhead had been sh.o.r.ed up with heavy timbers. It was a dangerous spot. Steve understood that without being told, so he crawled quickly through. At the far end of the low drift he encountered another ladder.

Deciding that it must lead to an upper level, the lad began climbing. He had gotten a little more than half way up when all at once his candle slipped from his hand, falling clear to the bottom, where it went out, leaving Steve in darkness.

"Oh, that's too bad. I must get it again before I dare go on any further."

Steve hurried down and began searching about on the ground for the lost candle. After a little he found it, but the candle was useless. In tramping about he had crushed it under his heavy boots, flattening the candle out hopelessly.

"Only a grease spot," muttered Steve. "Well, I can't be much worse off than I have been, so I am going back up the ladder. I surely must find someone if I keep on hunting about. There are more than five hundred men in this mine right now, and unless they are all hiding from me I am bound to run across some of them. I am afraid I am not much of a success as a miner. At least my first day below ground has been a sad failure so far."

Steve was on his way up the ladder once more. It was a long climb, much longer, it seemed to him, than the other ladder had been. He began to climb faster, when all at once he received a shock that wrenched his hands loose from the rungs of the ladder. Before the lad could regain his balance he toppled over backwards and plunged downward.

Steve's head had come in contact with the rocks above, that left but a small s.p.a.ce for a man to crawl through to reach the upper level. He had b.u.mped his head with such force as to cause him to let go.

Grasping frantically for something to stay his flight, the lad went tumbling down. He landed on the ground at the bottom, flat on his back, bruised and breathless.

For a moment Steve lay where he had fallen. But shortly he got up, rubbing his bruises gingerly and trying to collect his thoughts.

"Tumble number one," muttered Rush. "I'll try it again."

This time he met with better success, for he managed to get through the manhole above without striking his head against the rocks. But once on the upper level the question arose as to what to do next. There was the same dense blackness over all, the same deep silence that the lad had found below.

After considering a moment, he decided to feel his way along as best he could. An investigation had told him that his dinner was still safe, though the tin pail had been battered all out of shape.