"You are mistaken, sir; I wanted to do nothing of the sort."

"You did; you _know_ you did. You had it all fixed to be put in as secretary and----"

"If there was any fixing, Mr. Cavard, it was not on my side of the house," retorted Rush sharply.

"Do you mean to insinuate that I----"

"Oh, no; I am not insinuating. I was merely stating a fact."

The Duke's face was distorted with rage. He was making a great effort to control himself, but was only partially successful. It was not advisable to have an open rupture with Steve, for the latter might do his cause serious harm, considering the boy's influence over the miners, which appeared to be almost equal to that of the walking delegate and president of the union.

"You are a traitor to the union!"

"Be careful, sir," warned the lad.

"See here, Mister Man, don't you go to handing out any loose language around here," spoke up Bob Jarvis in a belligerent tone. "We don't stand for any of that kind of talk, you know."

"Then be careful that you don't do something that you will be sorry for," retorted the Duke. "I know a thing or two about what you fellows are up to, and let me tell you that the union won't stand for it by a long shot! First thing you know you will be out in the cold; you'll lose your jobs and you will find that it will be rather difficult to get others in these parts."

"Is that a threat?" demanded Rush.

"You may construe it as you wish."

"Very well----"

"Tut, tut; what's this?" demanded the man Driscold, who had come up in time to overhear the last remarks. "This won't do at all. Harmony is what we want in the union, and harmony is what we must have. What is the difficulty here?"

"There is no difficulty so far as we are concerned," replied Rush. "Mr.

Cavard is a little excited, that's all. He will feel better to-morrow.

Good night."

The boys turned away abruptly and started for home.

"Now, Steve Rush, will you please tell me what all this means?" demanded Jarvis after they had reached their room. "What on earth ever possessed you to join the union after you had been roasting it so hard?"

"I had my reasons, Bob."

"Yes; I suppose you had."

"I joined the union because I believed I could be useful to it, and to our employers as well, and that is the purpose that _you_ must have in view."

"You don't mean that you and I are going to be spies and report everything to Mr. Penton, do you? If that's the case, you may count me out."

"Certainly not. You ought to know me better than that. What sort of speech did I make?"

"Say, it was a dandy! I didn't think it was in you. You ought to have seen how those fellows hung on every word. They were sitting forward on the edges of their seats, every man of them."

"Except Cavard and Driscold," laughed Steve. "I rather think _they_ were on the anxious seat. Well, we shall see. But be careful that Cavard does not draw you into an argument that will cause you to lose your temper. I have an idea he will try to do so, unless he thinks better of it and tries some other plan. I believe that man is a crook, Bob Jarvis. I may be doing him a wrong. If so, time will tell. In the meantime, we shall do what we can for the union. I hope Mr. Penton will not lose confidence in us. He may misunderstand our motive. If he does, we shall have to stand it; that's all."

"It may be the means of losing our jobs," suggested Jarvis.

Steve was thoughtful.

"I may have done wrong, but I did what I believed to be best. Out of the union we should not have so much influence with the men. In it we shall be able to do many things for both sides, being loyal to each."

"We're going to try to please everyone--is that it?" grinned Bob.

"If we are able to do it," replied Steve earnestly.

"How are we going to explain our action to Mr. Penton?"

"I shall not try to do so."

"But if he asks?" persisted Bob.

"I can't answer that beforehand. My answers must depend upon circ.u.mstances."

The boys turned in soon after that, but Steve Rush lay awake for a long time, thinking over the events of the evening. He was wondering whether he had done right; wondering whether the officials of the company, who had been so kind to him, would misconstrue his motives and no longer take their former keen interest in him.

"I've done the best I know how, and I'm not done yet," muttered the boy, as he turned over, buried his head in the pillow and tried to go to sleep.

CHAPTER XII

MINERS MEET IN SECRET

"WELL, Steve, I hear you joined the new union last night," said Mr.

Penton, halting in the drift where Rush was directing some changes in the work of his shift.

The Iron Boy flushed.

"Yes, sir. I hope you have no objection to my having done so."

"Not in the least. We have nothing to fear from such upright men as you in the union. I wish they were all of the same calibre. I want to thank you for the speech you made last night. Such words do much toward steering the men in the right direction. I may say that I am very glad you decided to join."

"I had decided not to do so, until I met and talked with you before going to the meeting last evening."

"How so?"

"You gave me a new point of view. I decided that it was my duty to join and I did so. Do you think Mr. Carrhart will mind when he hears of it?"

"He knows all about it now. He knew that the meeting was going to take place, perhaps even before you learned of it," answered the superintendent, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Of course that is confidential, you understand."

"Certainly, sir."