h shovel in hand began throwi

ore of this red stuff on my head than you c

your way, wasn't I?" chuckle

Jarvis' meanness to him, Rush felt certain that the lad possessed a good heart, and it w

ally, "have you ev

? Licked,

es

d gave me a walloping

sound thrashing would do

dug down around Rush until the latter w

on't know

ve one before very long," announce

ill,

Steve, brushing the d

s licking, Little Miss Hurry-up

ied Steve in

n to take o

s time. We should both be discharged if we were to be caught figh

eh? I knew you didn't have t

d off to the

ou had better get your car back there or yo

ack over the top of the dump, Steve picking up his shovel

back ached, yet he kept to his task. When night came Steve had the

naturedly, turning Bob's jibes with soft answers. For a full week both lads had labored far up on the ore dump. They had been too busy to think of their personal grievances for

ge me," thought the boy. "Well,

he superintendent said, as the lad came t

done very

k you

you would like to

s,

may begin

hat s

er. You will find it pretty hard work. You see, these contracts are given out for so much per ton and the men who t

stand i

er to take you on as a miner's helper. Your wages will be a dollar and a quarter a day. Be very careful and gu

very care

r as a miner on a level two thousand feet below the surface. The lad had never been below gro

er. This latter, as used by the ore miners, is a piece of steel, one end coming to a sharp point, the other having an opening for the candle its

haft on the following Monday morning. There were about five hundred men to go down in the cage, the car that carries the miners and other

contract is located?" he asked of th

teenth

e car st

sn't, you'

ve his head to steady himself. The protecting bars i

," announc

a rush and a roar, a grinding and crunching the steel cage dropp

his?" asked the young miner

d on this morning because the cage has a

t would happen if the man forgot to shut

ner la

in the bottom of

is the s

working level. The bottom level is used to drain off the water from the

d scarcely h

t is on the seventee

e the seventeenth. Is that

; for Mr.

eel sorry

so,

nes knows him and none of them wants to work for h

e were any colored

hite man one who is not a f

O

ee men would leap off and disappear in the darkness, af

nced the miner. "Jump off,

jump

iner did not hear him, for the ca

by this time, running from the oilskins of the young miner in tiny rivulets. Dampness was

e I am to go?"

lights glowing dimly through the haze, so t

contract?" called St

way cautiously down the level or tunnel, which is the main avenue, a

ed by him, now and then narrowly missing running him down, the thunder of the skips, huge black objects hurling themselves surfaceward loaded

n 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

ht be a person in authority, and to this one he

" demanded th

ush. May I as

aptain. Do you w

o if I can find the

l show you how to get

y way and I guess I was among the l

irst experience

is,

ce; never get careless. There i

lready disco

at is why so many get hurt, and why some lose their lives. We do everything we can

to follow you

rfect confidence. Steve felt sure that he never should be able to find his way about

the brief answer. "There

s,

. The top of it is the sub-level, wh

ing his long, dark climb up the slender