Cavard showed some slight irritation under the sharp questioning of the Iron Boy.

"Why?"

The question came out with a snap.

"You should have attended the meeting if you want to know what was done.

We are not supposed to talk about it on the outside."

"Yes; no doubt I should have attended, but I did not for the reason I have just given. Why was I deposed and another put in my place?"

"Well, to be candid with you, since you insist, the members did not think you were old enough, nor that you had had experience enough to warrant keeping you in such an important position. You see, they chose you in a moment of intense enthusiasm. After they had thought the matter over more calmly they came to the conclusion that it would be better to have an older man for the place, so they elected another."

"Who?"

"Mr. Caldert."

"Mike Caldert?"

"Yes."

Steve laughed uproariously.

"Why, that man can barely write his name. I'll wager he cannot write correctly the name of the state in which he lives."

"I think you are mistaken," replied the walking delegate, drawing himself up frigidly. "At least I have nothing to do with that. It was the will of the meeting, and there was nothing for me to do but to put to vote the motions that were offered."

Steve surveyed the walking delegate with a sarcastic look on his face.

"Has Caldert the minutes of the meeting, or have you?"

"I believe he has them."

"Then I shall demand to see them to-night. I want to know what was done at that meeting, and I think I have a right to know. I shall bring the matter before the next meeting and find out whether you have the right to railroad through a piece of business like this. It's not that I care a rap about holding the office, but I don't propose to be done out of it in any such way without finding out what it all means."

Cavard saw possibilities of trouble.

"Don't be a baby. Take your medicine like a man. You are proving that you are not fitted for an office in the union yet. When you get older and have had more experience, then perhaps you may do."

There was an implied sneer in the man's tone, which his smiling face failed to mask.

"Indeed! I shall bring the subject before the next full meeting of the union, just the same, and we shall see whether it will stand or not."

"Look here, young man!"

The walking delegate dropped his mask of a.s.sumed politeness. His chin was thrust forward and his eyes gleamed with anger.

"I've been too easy with you--easy because you are a boy. Now I'm done with this foolishness. This is a man's game, and men are going to play it. You can get out of the union if you want to; we don't need you. But let me tell you one thing: you mind your own business after this, if you know what's good for you! I'm running this union just now, and I'm running it in the way that suits me best--that means the right way. If you don't like it, you get out and shut up--that's all."

Steve laughed in the delegate's face.

"Now you are beginning to show yourself in your true colors, Mister Man.

I don't want your office. I did not care in the first place to have anything to do with an organization that you were interested in, but I thought possibly it might be run by honest men, so I joined the union."

"What's that? You throw that at me--you accuse me of being dishonest, you young whelp?" shouted Cavard in a rage.

"Take what I said for what it's worth, and I repeat your own words: 'If you don't like it, get out and shut up.' That's my answer."

Steve snapped his fingers in the face of the walking delegate and turned on his heel. Cavard was at his side in a few quick, long strides. He gripped the collar of the Iron Boy and was about to spin him about when Steve turned on him.

"Unless you are looking for trouble, I wouldn't put hands on the other man in this instance, if I were you. If you do that again, you will answer for it."

"Indeed! And may I ask you if you are in authority here?" sneered Cavard.

"Well, all I have to say is, if you want to know who's boss on this shift, just start something. You'll find out mighty quick, and the knowledge may not be particularly pleasant to you, either. That's all I have to say to you to-day. I may have something further to say later.

Good afternoon."

Rush left the walking delegate fuming in the drift as he walked away.

The Iron Boy made it his business to ask every man he met whether or not he had received a notification of the meeting of the previous evening.

Some of them had received their notices that morning, others had received no notice whatever. Not one of the miners had gotten his card on the previous day, so far as the lad could learn.

Steve was determined to get to the bottom of the matter. He consulted with Bob Jarvis and the latter proposed looking up the walking delegate at once and giving him a sound thrashing.

"No, Bob, we don't know that he is to blame in this matter at all, though I have my suspicions. Even if we were sure, we should gain nothing by following that course. There, I forgot to ask him what else was done at the meeting. After we get off duty to-night we must find out what has been going on. I'll see you and talk it over later."

As soon as he had finished his work in the mine Rush went directly over to the post-office, where he waited until the postmaster was at leisure, when he called him aside.

"I received a postal card to-day that I should have had last night,"

said the lad, producing the notification of the meeting and handing it to the postmaster.

"What did you say?" exclaimed the postmaster.

"I said I should have received this post card last night," repeated Steve. "You see it is quite important. It is a notification of a meeting and the meeting was held last night."

"I don't see how you could very well have received this postal last night, when it wasn't mailed until this morning."

"Not mailed until this morning?" demanded the lad, in well-feigned surprise.

"No, sir."

"Are you sure of that?"

"I ought to be. These postals--there were a lot of them--were stuffed in through the slot in the door some time during the night. It must have been late, for we didn't close until nearly twelve o'clock. The postals were all on the floor when I opened up the place this morning."

"Did you read any of the postals?" asked Steve innocently.

"Oh, yes, I always read postals. Don't have much of anything else to do part of the day, you know," replied the postmaster in a matter-of-fact tone. "Why, what's in the wind? No trouble about it, is there?"

"There may be," replied the lad mysteriously. "But if you will state the facts when called upon to do so, there will be no trouble so far as you are concerned. Will you do that?"