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Illustration: Steve Tossed the Man Out of the Pit. _Frontispiece._
The Iron Boys in theSteel Mills
OR
Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits
By
JAMES R. MEARS
Author of The Iron Boys in the Mines, The Iron Boys as Foremen,The Iron Boys on the Ore Boats, The Iron Boys on the Steel RailJob, etc.
Illustrated
PHILADELPHIAHENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BYHOWARD E. ALTEMUS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. TOO SLOW FOR HIM 7 II. MAKING A NEW START 24 III. IN THE CINDER PIT 33 IV. LAYING HANDS ON THE BOSS 42 V. ON THE BRINK OF A VOLCANO 53 VI. BOB'S DIZZY FLIGHT 63 VII. AN UNJUST SENTENCE 71 VIII. IGNATZ ON THE WAR PATH 80 IX. STEVE MEETS WITH DISAPPOINTMENT 93 X. SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THE BOSS 103 XI. READJUSTING THEIR FINANCES 112 XII. THE BOYS MEET WITH A SURPRISE 121 XIII. FACING THEIR ACCUSERS 130 XIV. BY THE ROARING FURNACES 142 XV. MENACED BY A DOUBLE PERIL 154 XVI. THROUGH THE MELTING POT 164 XVII. A HANG-OVER AND A FLAREBACK 173 XVIII. IN A FIERY RAIN 182 XIX. RUSH MAKES A SUGGESTION 194 XX. THE CHIEF EXPRESSES HIMSELF 203 XXI. RAKED BY THE "PIG" 213 XXII. DIRECTORS GET A SHOCK 224 XXIII. AN UNLOOKED-FOR PROMOTION 235 XXIV. CONCLUSION 250
The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills
CHAPTER I
TOO SLOW FOR HIM
The telephone bell rang sharply. Its very insistence seemed to indicatethe nervous haste of the person on the other end of the line.
"Hello!" growled the boy, looking longingly out of the office window ashe clapped the receiver to his ear. "What's that? What building? Pitythey couldn't pick out a hot day, while they were about it. Yes, I'lltell him. 'Yes,' I said. Can't you hear?"
Several clerks, with coats and vests off, were lounging about the officeof the great steel works in the accident department. The sun beat downon the building with relentless energy, and there was scarcely a breathof air stirring. There was little incentive to work, and hardly any onewas making the slightest pretext at it.
Steve Rush and Bob Jarvis glanced inquiringly at the telephoneoperator. Being in the accident department, they were interested everytime they heard the telephone bell ring. It was their duty, immediatelyupon an accident being reported in any of the mills, to proceed to thescene at once and gather all the facts for the future use of thecompany. Furthermore, they were allowed considerable latitude in thedisposal of persons who had been injured.
"Anything doing?" questioned Jarvis.
"Accident," answered the operator in a tone that led one to believe thatthe mere effort of speaking gave him pain.
"Where?"
"Number twenty-four," meaning the building bearing that number. "That'sin your district, Rush."
Bob Jarvis grinned.
"I am in luck that it isn't in my division. It's hot enough here, butexcuse me from going into the mills on a day like this. Want any help,Steve?"
"No, thank you. And besides, you are too lazy to work to-day. You wouldonly be a handicap to me. What is the accident, did they say?"
The operator shook his head wearily.
Steve Rush, picking up a pad of paper which he stuffed in his pocket,hurried from the office and started across the street on a run. As hedid so he saw a red light burning dimly at the peak of one of the longrow of soot-blackened mills that made up the plant of the Steelburghmills, a signal indicating that a disaster of some sort had occurred inthat building. Seeing that signal it was the duty of the Iron and SteelPolice, who kept order in the mills, to report the fact to the accidentdepartment at once.
Steve did not need the red light to guide him. He was by this timefamiliar with the location of all the buildings, though there were some,such as the plate mills, where the armor plate was made for the ships ofthe Navy, which he had never entered. No one save those who wereemployed there were able to gain admission to the buildings where secretprocesses were employed.
Steve dashed by the guard at the gate.
"Here, where are you going?" demanded the guard.
"Accident department."
"Let me see your card!" demanded the officious gate guard.
"Some other time. Can't you see I am in a hurry?" answered the lad,running past the gate and into the yards at top speed.
The Iron and Steel Police like nothing better than an opportunity toshow their authority. The result was that Steve had gotten but a shortdistance inside the yard when policemen, seeing him running, beganshouting at him from all sides to halt. Perhaps they had seen himpassing in and out, daily, for several weeks. But this made nodifference. He was running, and all persons going faster than a walkmust have a reason for so doing. It was their duty to stop the runnerand learn what it meant. At least, that was the way these guardians ofthe mills construed their duty.
Steve merely pointed to the red light high up on number twenty-four, asthe best answer to their questions. He kept on running. So did some ofthe policemen, but they were no match in speed, for the supple youngfellow, who realizing the necessity for haste, kept on at top speed.
As he neared the building, three uniformed officers dodged out frombehind a pile of steel bars, their attention having been called to thesprinter by the shouts of their companions.
"Hold up!"
"I can't!" answered Steve, continuing on toward them.
"Ye'd better stop, if ye know what's good for ye."
"There has been an accident. I can't stop. I'm from the accidentdepartment, and----"
"We'll stop ye!"
"The wooden-heads, they actually are going to hold me up! Well, I'llteach them a lesson, even if I lose my job for it," gritted the boy."Get out of the way, I tell you! Don't you dare stop me here!"
The officers spread out a little, drawing their clubs as they executedthe movement, one stepping forward a little in advance of the others.
"There's only one way out of it," muttered Steve. "I've either got toget by them or be called down at the office for being too slow. I don'tbelieve I'll be called down for being late to-day. At least, not foranything that I see just now."
The foremost of the Iron and Steel Police made a grab for the fleeinglad, catching and whirling the boy around, facing in the oppositedirection.
"Let go of me!"
A firmer grip was the answer. Rush made a quick turn. His right arm wasthrust forcibly against the neck of the policeman, followed by a suddenkick on the shins. The policeman fell flat on the cinder-covered ground.
The other two men sprang forward with drawn clubs to attack the boy whohad used their companion so roughly. Their clubs were raised to strike,but ere they could bring their weapons into use they too had dropped tothe ground.
"Now, maybe you'll learn to mind your own business," shouted the boy,starting on a run for the building over which the red light stillglowed. "The idiots! Why, a man cannot go about his business withouttheir interfering with him. I wonder the company stands for such idioticnonsense."
Steve dashed in through the door of number twenty-four, which also wasguarded by a polic
eman.
"Accident department," said the boy as he ran in, at which the officernodded understandingly. "He has some sense," breathed Steve.
The lad's quick eyes caught sight of a group of men standing half waydown the centre of the dimly lighted building. It was the open-hearthfurnace building, and the group was a little to the right of thefurnaces that extended down nearly through the centre.
Hurrying up to the group Rush elbowed his way through to a point wherehe saw half a dozen men lying on the floor groaning. The foreman wasthere waiting, having sent for an ambulance to convey the men to a placewhere they could be treated.
"Burned?" questioned Steve sharply.
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Small ladle tipped over, spattering some hot metal on them," repliedthe man, jerking a thumb toward the suffering men.
"Tell me exactly how it happened."
The foreman did so with evident reluctance. In the first place, anaccident in his department reflected on him and his management. Besidesthis he was so used to seeing men injured, during his long service inthe steel mills, that the sight of human suffering did not make the sameimpression upon him that might otherwise have been the case.
"Who else saw the accident?"
"All the men on the pit and ladles."
Steve quickly had the names of the witnesses and made brief notes oftheir stories, after which he returned to the foreman to get the namesof the injured men. By the time he had completed this, only a fewminutes elapsed before the photographer arrived.
Steve pointed to the injured men, as indicating that they were to bephotographed first. Next he turned his attention to the ladle that hadbeen capsized. He made a quick examination of this, motioning to theforeman to join him.
"The chain broke, did it not?"
"You can see that one of them did," answered the foreman gruffly.
"I am asking you. No matter what I see. How did it happen to break?"
"Too much strain on it, I suppose."
Rush picked his way gingerly around to the other side, for the groundwas covered with metal that in some cases was still red hot. Reaching apoint where he could do so without being burned he poked the brokenchain about with an iron bar that he had picked up, until he got thebreak where he could see it more plainly. There was a dull mark acrossthe break, that seemed especially to interest him. The dull markextended clear to the surface of the link.
"Photographer, I want a picture, first of this break in the chain, andnext a general view of the upset ladle and chain. You had better use aflash light on the link so your picture will show the break plainly."
"Say, what do you want to do that for?" demanded the foreman.
"What do I want to do that for?" repeated the boy, turning sharply.
"Yes, no need to give a fellow away like that. It was an accident."
"Bill Foley, what do you take me for? I'm not that kind of man. I wouldhelp you if I could, but I am paid for gathering all the facts wheneveran accident occurs. You are the foreman of this open-hearth, and youought to be the very first one to demand an honest investigation."
"It just broke, that's all. They're all likely to do that."
"They are all supposed to be examined daily, too," answered Rushquickly. "The company's first care is for the safety of its men. Still,it's not the part of my duty to preach to you."
"Then _don't_!" growled Foley.
"No; I'll do my duty, old chap, though in this case it means sometrouble for you."
Two ambulances had arrived by this time and the surgeons were givingfirst aid to the injured as the men lay stretched out on the still hotcinders on the floor of the dingy mill.
The work of the mill had not ceased. It went on with a rush and a roar,interspersed with reverberating crashes, here and there, that sounded asthough the steel roof were caving in.
"Any of them seriously hurt, Doctor?" demanded Steve.
"One is very badly burned. He won't get well. As for the others, I can'tpromise."
"Should they all go to the hospital?"
"Yes."
"Then take them there, please. Do you need any more ambulances?"
"No; but I wish you would get some men to carry these poor fellows tothe ambulances."
"Foley, will you please assign men as litter-bearers?" requested Rush,turning to the foreman of the open-hearth.
The foreman did so sullenly and grudgingly.
"They might better go home," he growled. "You fellows are trying to makea mountain out of a mole-hill."
Four men were assigned to the task, however, and these, hurrying out,soon returned with two litters. On them the injured men were placed andin turn borne to the waiting ambulances, in which they were tenderlyplaced. The first ambulance, being filled, was hurried away to thecompany's hospital, a few doors from the main offices of the mills.
Steve pushed forward his inquiry with great energy. There seemed nothingtoo trivial for him to inquire about, if it could possibly bear on theaccident. So persistent were his inquiries, into these accident cases,as to cause those who were in any way responsible to feel a sense ofuneasiness the moment they saw the lad enter their building. Rush sparedno one when that person was in any way to blame. He did his work welland conscientiously, without fear or favor. As a result he made manybitter enemies as well as some life-long friends.
The men in the mills with whom he came in contact in these hurriedvisits had come to regard Steve as one among many. He did not side withthe bosses, and, though he was the friend of the men, he did not sidewith them unless their side chanced to be the right one.
The reader has already recognized in Steve Rush and Bob Jarvis, the IronBoys, who, as told in "THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES," began their careerin the great industrial world, at the foot of the deep shaft in theCousin Jack Iron Mine. It will be remembered that they distinguishedthemselves there in the beginning by their courage, resourcefulness andpersistent efforts to serve their employers in the best possible manner.It was in this, their first employment, that the Iron Boys becamefriends after a fight and from that moment began a friendship that wasdestined to last for years, in fact as long as the lads lived. Theirescapes from death were many and thrilling, but because of their courageand cool-headedness they came safely through their apprenticeship,winning promotion and the confidence and respect of their employers.
Again, as narrated, in "THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN," Steve Rush and BobJarvis met with new and exciting experiences. They became, as will beremembered, involved in a great strike, and because of their fidelity towhat they believed to be the right, were expelled from the union, evenafter they had by their heroic efforts saved the mine from destructionby fire and dynamite, and thus saved the lives of many of theircompanions. The Iron Boys through their further efforts exposed theleader of the strike, proving him to be a dishonest man and a rascal ofthe worst type, who, instead of working for the interests of the honestbut misguided members of the union, was seeking power and money,regardless of the suffering that his unworthy ambition brought toothers. In the end the lads, after deeds of violence had beenperpetrated, saved the bridge that was the key to the transportation ofthe company's product, for all of which they were handsomely rewarded bytheir grateful employers.
From the mines the Iron Boys took the next step in their calling whichthey were determined to learn from start to finish. This second step hadto do with the transportation of the ore from the mines to the mills. Itwill be recalled by readers of "THE IRON BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES" thatthe lads shipped on an ore boat; that they boarded the boat through anore chute, being dumped in the hold, and that they nearly lost theirlives before making their way to the upper deck of the ship. Their firstexperience on shipboard had to do with the fire room in which they wereput to work as stokers, and where they had a most unique but desperatebattle with the "black gang" of the stoke hole. Collision and shipwreckwere a part of their early experiences, during which Steve Rush and hiscompanion again proved themselves heroes. And now, a
fter a season on theGreat Lakes, they had moved on to the steel mills, where the red orethat they had helped to take from the depths of the earth was worked upinto pig iron and steel. The boys had declined to take letters ofintroduction to the mills, proceeding there like any one else and askingfor jobs.
However, unknown to them, the president of the mining company hadwritten to Mr. Keating, general superintendent of the mills, asking thesuperintendent to give the boys the best possible opportunity to learnthe business. The president had recounted some of their achievements, sothat, though they did not know it, the superintendent was fully preparedfor their coming. He had taken a liking to the frank-faced, athleticyoung fellows the moment he first saw them. He saw in them the making ofsplendid men. He reasoned, however, that their rise would be quickerwere they to start in the offices of the company. It seemed too bad tostart them with the rank and file in the turbulent mills, where hard,rough men toiled by day and by night at their hard labor.
Only the strongest could survive, and Mr. Keating, despite the athleticappearance of the Iron Boys, did not believe they possessed theendurance to stand up under the strain of work in the mills.
That was where he underrated the staying qualities of Bob and Steve.They had been placed in the accident department, where they haddistinguished themselves almost at once. No such clear and thoroughreports had ever been made of accidents in the mills as had been turnedin by Steve Rush and Bob Jarvis. But Steve was not satisfied. There weresome features about the work that he did not like. In the short timethat he had been at the work he had witnessed scenes that had stirredhim profoundly. Where his duty called him there was always suffering,and in many cases, death. Though the steel company did all in its powerto protect its men, accidents of the most harrowing nature were bound tooccur in that hazardous calling. The Iron Boys could not hold back orturn their heads at the sights they saw. It was their duty to face theordeal, and face it they did.
Steve, after all the injured men had been loaded into the ambulances,hurried out, leaped to the tailboard of the last ambulance and wentrolling away toward the company's hospital. He clung easily to thestanchions at the rear of the swaying wagon, thinking over the facts hehad gained. The ambulance surgeon hummed softly to himself, now and thencasting an eye over the moaning men who were being conveyed to thehospital. The surgeon's mind, perhaps, was far away and on more peacefulscenes.
"As soon as you have examined the men let me know who is in the bestcondition to be talked to," requested Rush, as the ambulance driverpulled up before the hospital. "I must get the stories of the men so faras possible."
The surgeon nodded. By the time Steve entered the hospital the grime hadbeen washed from the faces of the burned men. Steve halted as his eyescaught sight of a boy whose eyes were fixed upon his own.
"Why, Ignatz Brodsky!" exclaimed the Iron Boy. "I didn't know you werehurt."
The Polish boy, whom Steve had befriended on several occasions, thuswinning the lad's undying devotion, nodded feebly.
"Are you suffering?"
"Yes; I die."
"Nonsense. Doctor, look after Brodsky here as soon as you can, won'tyou?"
"I'll attend to him at once," answered the surgeon. "Why, he isn't badlyhurt. He will be able to go home, perhaps by to-morrow."
"There, what did I tell you, Ignatz? Of course you are all right. I willtell your mother how you are as soon as I can get away from the mills.Is there anything you want me to do for you besides that?"
"No, sir."
"Are you able to tell me what you know about the accident?"
"Yes."
Ignatz, in halting tones, gave the investigator a homely but graphicaccount of how the disaster had occurred. In the first place, the menhad been to blame because they had no business to be so near the smallladle of molten metal when it was being hoisted from the pit. In thesecond place, Ignatz said, that, after the accident, he had heard someof the men talking about the chain being defective. Steve secured thenames of these men from the Polish boy, then hurried on to the others ofthe injured. The lad had a pleasant, encouraging word for each, makingmemoranda of things the wounded men wished him to do for them. They knewhe would do what he promised, and it was a source of great comfort tothem to know that the messages they wished conveyed to their familieswould have the most careful attention from the Iron Boy.
Some of the men were too badly hurt to be able to talk. These Steve didnot try to question. He did, however, question others, who had been lessseverely injured.
The boy left the hospital with stern, set face. He drew a long breath ashe emerged into the burning sunlight, shook himself and hurried to theoffice. There he made a verbal report to the head of the department,which very plainly placed a good share of the blame on the foreman ofhearth number seven, Bill Foley.
While the head of the accident department was closeted with the generalsuperintendent in an adjoining room, giving him the details of thedisaster, Steve was busily engaged in making out his report, which hedictated to a stenographer. Bob Jarvis stood on the other side of thestenographer, his eyes fixed on Steve as he made his report. Bob,listening intently, was getting points for his own work.
Having completed his report, Rush got up, stretched himself and lookedat Bob.
"I'm through with this job," announced Steve, with emphasis.
"Through with it? Why?"
"It's too slow for me."
"What's that you say, Rush?"
The Iron Boy turned and found himself looking into the face of thegeneral superintendent.