CHAPTER XVII
THEIR FIRST PROMOTION
"Wait a minute," said Mr. Penton, hurrying across the hall to the officeof the time-keepers.
He was gone but a few moments and when he returned there was a look onhis face that Steve had never seen there before. It was a look thatmeant trouble for someone. The superintendent sat down, gazing out ofthe window at the towering shaft of the Cousin Jack Mine.
"You did not answer my previous question. I asked you whom yoususpected."
"I dislike to make so serious a charge against anyone, sir, but acertain man was seen standing near the door leading down to the platformthe day before I fell in. Two persons saw him."
"Who was the man?"
"The man was Spooner, sir."
"You are sure of that?"
"Sure of it according to my information."
"Well, lad, this is Spooner's time check that you have brought to me,"replied Mr. Penton in an impressive voice.
"I reckon that evidence would hang a live cat," muttered Bob Jarvis.
"Yes, it is sufficient evidence to warrant my looking up the man andlodging a complaint against him. Was he alone when he was seen at thedoor of the shaft, or don't you know?"
"Marvin was with him, sir."
"Ah! Rush, you have done well. You are a very shrewd young man. In fact,I am proud of both of you. When we have anything of this sort on handagain I shall get you to investigate it. However, I do not believe thereis another man in the mine who is wicked enough to attempt the life of aboy. There is another matter that I have had in mind for some time. Thatis, your advancement. You have learned fast. You already know more aboutthe mine and its operation than a number of men who have spent thegreater part of their lives below ground."
"Thank you, sir. We have tried to improve our opportunities."
"You have done so. You have done the company a great service in findingthe place where the shortage occurred. I have already expressed myselfon this point. After receiving my report in that case, the president ofthe company wrote me to reward you as I saw fit. I shall do so bypromoting you. It is not much of a promotion, but it will give you anopportunity to acquaint yourselves the better with the mine and itsoperations. I now appoint you two boys inspectors of tracks. Your dutieswill be to see that the tram tracks are in perfect condition. It willkeep you busy, for there are a good many miles of track in the CousinJack. You, Rush, will take the east half and Jarvis the west. That willtake you both well over the mine. It would be simpler to divide yourterritory by levels, but I consider the former plan the better one foryour own good. You will require some technical information that theengineer will give you. He also will supply you with maps of thetrackage, which you will study carefully."
"I am very grateful," breathed Steve, his eyes lighting up.
"You're welcome, lad. I want to push you along as fast as you are ready,but you must not expect to go too fast."
"I think I have done very well as it is, sir."
"Your pay will be two dollars a day."
Twelve dollars a week! It was more money than either of the boys everhad earned before. To them it seemed a large sum of money. They werevery happy and proud. Their new work was to begin on the followingmorning. Jarvis went back to finish his day at drifting in ore, whileSteve returned to his boarding place, where he sat down and wrote a longletter to his mother, telling her of his good fortune.
In the meantime Mr. Penton set an inquiry on foot to locate Spooner andMarvin. The men had applied for work in a neighboring mine, he learned,but had failed to get employment there. Neither man had been seen inthose parts since. Mr. Penton decided that they had left the range, andhe was thankful for it, as it relieved him of an unpleasant duty.However, that day he made a detailed report to the president of themining company by letter, giving the boys full credit for what they haddiscovered. Mr. Penton also made report of the promotion he had giventhem. This was afterwards heartily endorsed by President Carrhart.
Early the next morning the boys went over the mine with an assistantengineer. He gave them a long talk on tracks, Steve asking manyquestions as they went along. That afternoon the Iron Boys began theirwork, having laid out a certain number of levels that were to be visitedeach day. As Mr. Penton had told them, their new position took them tonearly every part of the mine, from the lowest working level to the tramtracks on the surface and far up on the trestle.
By the time that they had been at their new work for several months,each lad had proved that he was worthy of the confidence placed in himby the general superintendent.
Steve had been figuring on a problem in his department for a long time,and one day he went to the superintendent with it, or rather to learnwhether the problem were a problem at all.
"I want to ask, Mr. Penton, if the expense of keeping up your motorsthat draw the dump cars in the mines is very great."
"I should say it is," was the prompt answer. "You see, they draw veryheavy loads. Those cars of ore are not light."
"I am well aware of that. You will remember that I had a load dropped onme once," smiled Steve.
"We wear out, I should say, on an average of six motors a year. Thatruns into money. And the repairs on them, in the meantime, are veryexpensive."
"Would any arrangement that would tend to lessen the strain on themotors be of advantage to the company?"
"That is self-evident. Of course it would. What is more, relieving thecars of the strain to which they are subjected would save a few thousanddollars a year. Have you something in mind?"
Mr. Penton smiled good-naturedly on the young man who was standingbefore him.
"Yes, sir, I have a plan by which I think you ought to be able to saveyour electric motors considerably and at the same time make greaterspeed in getting ore to the chutes."
"If you have a practical plan for doing that you will have accomplisheda great deal, young man. What is your plan?"
"Well, sir, it is an engineering problem. Not being an engineer, Iperhaps shall not be able to overcome all the difficulties in the way. Ican tell you, though, what I think would help."
"Do so."
"I find that in most of the levels there is a considerable up grade tothe chutes where the tram cars are dumped."
"That is a fact."
"Would it not be much better to have the loaded cars run down grade tothe chutes? Then they would go back up the grade empty," suggested Stevehalf hesitatingly.
Mr. Penton gazed at him quizzically.
"Do you know, my boy, you have made a suggestion that even the keenestof our engineers evidently never have thought of?"
"I am glad if I have suggested something worth while," said Steve, witha pleased smile.
"But how do you propose to go about it? The levels are made and thetracks are laid to fit the conformation. How are you going to get overthat condition?" asked the superintendent, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"As I told you, I am not an engineer."
"But you have an idea?"
"Yes, sir."
"Let's hear it."
"I have watched the trackmen grading on the railroad and I do not seewhy you cannot do the same thing here. You have plenty of waste dirt androck in the mine. It is being taken out every day. Why not utilize someof it in raising the tracks at the 'rises'? That would give the cars agood start and the electric motor would not have to wear itself outgetting the cars started. Continue doing this, even if you have to begincutting the level lower down by the chutes. I am sure that that featurecould easily be overcome by your engineers. In the sub-levels and newdrifts you could do the same thing."
"How?"
"Cut down to them, sir, when you are drifting in. I want you to knowthat this is not wholly my idea. My friend Bob, in discussing the trackquestion with me, said it was a pity that the motors had to haul theirloads up hill in most instances. I got to thinking over this and out ofit all came the plan I have proposed, so you see he is the one who isreally entitled to the credit."
"
The credit is yours. Rush, you've a great head on that slender body ofyours, and it isn't so slender, at that, judging from the ease withwhich you picked up a rail one day last week and laid it in place." Mr.Penton laughed. "No; not so slender as it might seem to one who did notknow you. This is really a very important matter. It is a matter that Ishall have to take up with the main office at Duluth. I have an ideathat they will adopt your suggestion without very much delay," said Mr.Penton.
"Yes, sir."
"The engineering department reports that the inspection of tracks hasnever been done so thoroughly and intelligently as since you and Jarvishave been on the work. This naturally pleases me very much. It shows methat my estimate of you was correct. Have you anything else to suggest?"
"No, sir; I think not. I think that will be about enough for to-day."
The superintendent agreed with him and Steve went back to his work. BobJarvis was quickly acquainted with what the superintendent had said,much to the latter's gratification. In due time, the plan having beenpassed upon by the company's engineers at the home office, word wasreceived at the mines that it had been adopted. The young men who hadsuggested it were highly commended, President Carrhart adding in hisletter to Mr. Penton:
"I knew that boy Rush couldn't help but do something, with a name likehis."
The work was put in progress as soon after that as the plans could beworked out, bearing in mind that the operation of the mine must not beinterfered with. It may be imagined with what keen interest Steve Rushand Bob Jarvis watched the changing of the grades. They were alsointerested in another direction, when, one pay day soon after, theyfound that their salaries had been raised to fifteen dollars a weekeach.
Bob declared he felt like a millionaire.
"What are you going to do with all that money?" asked Steve.
"I think I shall buy some of the company's stock," answered Jarvis.
"Not a half bad idea. That is what I am going to do when I get moneyenough. As it is, I am sending home most of what I earn. But the moneyis in good hands," he smiled.
"Mine's in the bank. I am getting four per cent. interest on it, but Ihaven't got to where I can live on the interest I receive from it. I wasfiguring the other night, and at the present rate it will be twentyyears before I shall be able to live on my income--my interest, I mean."
"Well, I don't want to live on my income. I want to be up and doingsomething as long as I've got a kick left in me. Cheer up, Bob, you maybe a millionaire yet."
"Yes; when I have long, yellow whiskers, maybe," laughed Jarvis.
In the course of two months the new system was working to thesatisfaction of everyone. Already it was being applied to the othermines belonging to the company, and even at that early day it wasapparent that the Rush Gravity System, as it was called, was destined toprove a great saving to the company. The name, too, was consideredunusually appropriate.
One day, a few months later, as Steve was on his rounds, he caught sightof a man in miner's costume who instantly attracted his attention. Theman was rather tall and wore a full beard. Rush stopped and gazed afterthe fellow until he passed out of sight.
"I wonder who he is?" muttered Steve. "There is something abouthim--about the way he folded his hand over his mouth, that isunpleasantly familiar to me."
On the day following, while Steve was chatting with one of the shiftbosses on the twelfth level, he saw the fellow again.
"Who is that man?" asked the boy sharply, pointing to the one who hadattracted his attention.
"His name is Klink--John Klink."
"What does he do?"
"He is acting as a drift inspector at present, I believe."
"Klink?" mused the lad. "I don't think I ever heard the name before. Doyou know where he comes from?"
"I think he comes from the San Juan Mine, over on the McCormick range. Idon't know anything about him, but he seems to know his business prettywell. He is inspecting temporarily. The inspector whose place he istaking is at home sick. Klink is a boss miner."
"I must have been mistaken," thought Rush, as he proceeded along hisroute inspecting the tracks on that level. "But I can't get it out of mymind that I have seen the fellow somewhere before, and under unpleasantcircumstances, at that."
He had, and at no distant day, he was destined to see the man understill more unfavorable circumstances.