CHAPTER XIII
STRAIGHTENING THE CROOKED ONES
A brief investigation on the part of the mine captain on the dayfollowing verified all that the boys had told the superintendent.Watching the tally-board man from behind the partition that shut off theskip shaft, the captain saw the man falsify the tally of the ore cars,making it show a considerable excess of the actual amount of orecontained in each car.
At noon Marvin was summoned to the office of the superintendent andconfronted with the facts. After a few minutes of stubborn denial, therascal gave in and told the whole story. He was to share half of theamount thus gained with the man Spooner. Up to that time the two men hadmade a substantial rake-off six days in every week.
After the tally-man had made a clean breast of the steal thesuperintendent said:
"Go back to your post. You will receive further orders later in the day.But see to it that nothing is said to Spooner until I have seen him;then you two can talk and growl all you wish. You will have something togrowl about, I promise you that. How long has this thing been goingon?"
"For six weeks, sir."
"How much have you cheated the company out of thus far?"
Marvin handed Mr. Penton a slip of paper on which he had made somefigures while talking, after which the tally-man departed very muchcrestfallen.
Spooner was the next man summoned, and the contractor passed the mostuncomfortable hour of his life under Mr. Penton's shrewd questioning.Spooner had been a miner and his contracting was of only recent date.When he saw that the superintendent was in possession of all the facts,he admitted that he had been receiving pay for many tons a day more thanhe had delivered to the company.
Mr. Penton considered the matter for some moments, while the contractorstood before him twisting his hat nervously between his hands, now andthen shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"What do you think I ought to do with a rascal like you?" finallydemanded the superintendent.
"I'll give up my contract and go back to working in the drift."
"You will do nothing of the sort! You will keep on with your contractuntil you have paid back what you have robbed the company of, you andyour partner in crime, Marvin. You are a fine pair. By rights I ought tosend both of you to jail. Perhaps I may do that yet, but that willdepend upon what officials higher up order me to do. For the present,however, you will engage to pay back what you have stolen; that is,unless you prefer to hand over the money in a lump."
"I haven't that much money--I have no money."
"I thought not; therefore two thirds of the amount will be deducted fromthe money due you each week and one third from the wages of thetally-man."
Spooner essayed to speak, but the words seemed to stick in his throat.Finally he managed to mumble:
"All--all right, sir."
"But, mind you, no more of your thieving tricks, or I'll have you in thecooler before you realize it."
"All right, sir. I--I'd like to ask a question."
"Ask it."
"Who was the man who gave me away?"
"You ought to know better than to ask me that question. Frankly, it isnone of your concern. We have been looking for this leak for some time,and we have found it. Had you possessed a grain of common sense youwould have known that, sooner or later, you would have been checked up.You're checked. The interview is ended. Go back to work."
"I'll _find_ the man!" growled Spooner. "I'll find him if it takes allthe rest of my life to do it, and when I do----"
"What then?" interrupted the superintendent, fixing stern eyes on theman before him.
"I'll tell him what I think of him," answered the contractor lamely, ashe left the room.
All the other contract drifts had been found to be working regularly, soit was reasonable that the entire shortage might be charged to Spooner.As a matter of fact, this shortage tallied very closely with the figuresthat the tally-man had given to the superintendent.
When the contractor returned to his drift he was more subdued than anyof his regular shift had ever before seen him. They could not understandthe sudden change. There was one there, however, who did understand.That one was Bob Jarvis. Bob was leaning against the "shore" justoutside of the vein the men were working. He was doing nothing inparticular.
Some moments passed before Spooner discovered this.
"Get in there, you, before I shove you in! Get hold of a shovel! What doyou think I'm paying you for? What are you trying to do--hold up thewall? The lagging will do that without your help. Get to work."
"I am working," answered Bob coolly, making no effort to obey the orderof the contractor.
"You are working, eh?"
"Yes."
"May I inquire what you are working at?"
"Yes, I'm working for the company. My particular business at this momentis watching you."
"Watching me?"
"Yes, sir; I am here to check you up. I am not working for you to-day.As I said, I am working for the company. Don't let me disturb you, sir.I'll try not to get in the way."
"Do you know why you are doing this?"
"Yes; because I am ordered to do so."
"Is that all you know?"
"It may be, and then again it may not be."
With a growl, Spooner turned and began to abuse his men, while Bobremained leaning against the wall, checking each car as it was filled.
In the meantime, when Marvin returned to his station on the level below,he stepped to the tally-board and relieved the man who had been placedthere to act during the regular man's absence.
As Marvin was looking over the boards Steve stepped up, touching him onthe shoulder. The tally-man's face flushed angrily.
"What do you want?"
"Merely to say to you that I have had orders to check you up, to seethat you check every car properly."
"I won't stand it. I'll----"
Steve shrugged his shoulders.
"That is a matter with which I have no concern. You will have to fightthat out with the superintendent. I shall obey my orders and it will bebetter for you, I should imagine, to submit without trying to makematters uncomfortable for me. I shall do what I have been told to do,just the same. When a train draws up you will plug only when you seethat I am looking at the board, please. I'll dump the cars after youhave done that and I shall know if you have moved the plugs when I amnot looking."
Marvin's face twitched nervously, but he made no reply.
There was nothing of triumph in Steve's attitude. The lad was attendingto business to the best of his ability. He discovered, after a time,that Marvin was watching him narrowly. As he watched, the tally-man'sface grew blacker and blacker.
"I wonder if he suspects?" thought Rush.
As a matter of fact, Marvin was beginning to see light. At noon thetally-man hurried away, after sulkily asking Steve to watch thetally-board. First, however, the man made a memorandum of the tally, sothat Steve could not change it without Marvin's being aware of the fact.The lad pretended not to have observed this, but a quiet smile hoveredabout the corners of his mouth as he laid out his lunch on a clean,white napkin on the bench beside him.
Instead of going up in the cage, Marvin hastily climbed a ladder to thesub-level, where he waited for Spooner to come out.
"Well, what is it?" demanded the contractor in a surly tone.
"I've got wise to something. Where can we talk?"
"Come over in the drift here. There's no one near by."
The men slipped into a dead drift, extinguished their candles andengaged in earnest conversation.
Bob Jarvis' shrewd eyes had observed the actions of the men. He wassitting in the Spooner contract eating his lunch, but they had notnoticed him.
"I wish I could find out what they are talking about," he muttered. "ButI am not a spy. I don't know that I care particularly. I'll tell Steve,for I have an idea there is mischief in the air. There they go down thelevel."
The two men climbed down the ladder to the main leve
l. A few minuteslater Steve saw Spooner alone, sauntering along the tracks. When thecontractor reached the chute he halted, peering over at the lad as if hehad just discovered him.
"Hello, Rush," he greeted, turning and coming over to where Steve wassitting.
"Good afternoon."
Spooner sat down on the bench, and, for a moment or two, nothing wassaid, Steve continuing with his lunch as indifferently as if thecontractor had not been there.
"So you're the sneak who gave me away, are you?" demanded Spooner,turning upon the lad savagely.
Steve eyed the contractor calmly.
"Am I?"
"You are!"
"I may be the man, and in fact I will admit that I was instrumental inexposing your crookedness, but I am not a sneak. It strikes me that youhave laid yourself open to being called one."
The man's face turned white with anger. He opened and closed hisfingers, with difficulty restraining himself from fastening them uponthe calm-faced boy beside him. Steve munched his food steadily, but hewas watching the man narrowly.
"I--I'll be even with you for that, you sneaking cur!" shouted Spooner."Yes, I'll be even with you!"
"I wouldn't threaten, were I in your place. If anything should happen tome you might be accused, you know," answered Rush in a tantalizing tone."What do you propose to do to me?"
Spooner leaped up and shook his fist under the Iron Boy's nose. Thelatter did not flinch.
"What do I propose to do to you? I'll tell you what I am going to do toyou. I'm going to drive you out of this mine. I'll never stop till I'vedriven you off the range and out of the mine country. You'll never beable to get a day's work in a mine on this range after I get throughwith you, if nothing worse happens to you in the meantime. I'll----"
"It strikes me that you are pretty much in the same box yourself----"
"Oh, I wish you were a man! I wish you weren't a weak, baby-faced kid!I'd beat you to a pulp right----"
"Don't let that worry you, Spooner. Sail in, if you feel you have got totake it out of me. Perhaps you will feel better after you have ventedyour ugly temper on someone, even if it is a boy. Now get off from thisplatform!" commanded Rush, with a sudden change of tone, as he rosequickly to his feet. "You've got no business here, anyway. Get out!"
Steve grabbed up the iron bar with which he dumped the cars and startedfor the contractor. He had no intention of using it on the man, but hedid not wish to engage in a fight with the fellow, being pretty surethat he would get the worst of it, for Spooner was a large and powerfulman. Therefore the Iron Boy chose what he considered to be the mosteffective way of ridding himself of the contractor's presence.
Spooner hesitated a moment, then began backing up, his face pale withrage, his fists clenched.
"You had better turn about and face the other way, unless you want tofall through the chutes," warned Steve.
Spooner turned with an exclamation. A second more and he would havefallen in and shot down to the level below. As it was, he was obliged tojump over the opening to save himself, landing on the other side of thetrack. There he paused and renewed his abuse of young Rush.
"I've had enough of your nonsense! Get out!" commanded the sturdy lad.He, too, leaped the chutes and made for the contractor, brandishing hisiron bar. Spooner turned and ran down the level until he reached theladder, up which he climbed to his own drift.
"There, I guess I shall not be troubled by that fellow any more," saidSteve, returning slowly to his interrupted lunch.
But he had not heard the last of Spooner.
The contractor, fuming with rage, was already plotting the downfall ofthe lad who had been the cause of his undoing.