A Finn made a vicious pa.s.s at Rush's head.

Steve planted a powerful blow between the fellow's eyes, the man toppling over backwards into the arms of his companions. Ere the victim had been pushed out of the way two other men had shared the same fate.

"Look behind you, Bob," cried the Iron Boy, as he began striking right and left.

Bob turned just in time to avoid a blow that had been aimed at his head.

He ducked and saved himself. As he came up he planted a blow on his a.s.sailant's jaw, sending the man to the floor and rendering him unconscious.

"Come on, you miserable cowards!" bellowed Jarvis. "We can't thrash all of the people all of the time, but we can thrash some of the people some of the time."

At this moment Steve had grabbed a fallen miner by the heels. The man was slight. Steve picked the fellow up and hurled him right into the face of the mob that was pressing in on him. Several men went down, but they were up again in a twinkling and charging the slender lads with redoubled fury.

During the tumult Cavard had made no effort to restore order. He stood calmly on the platform at the end of the hall, a grim smile of satisfaction on his face. He had known full well that this was coming, for he had skilfully brought it about. Little did he care if the Iron Boys were killed. There could be no responsibility on his part. He fervently hoped that they would at least be so thoroughly beaten that they would trouble him no further.

Thus far the lads had held their own. They were cool and collected, while those opposing them had lost all control of themselves. This gave the boys a slight advantage, but the lads knew they could not expect to hold out very long against those hundreds of angry men, who were fighting each other in their mad efforts to get at the "traitors," as they called the Iron Boys.

Steve was fighting with as much coolness as if he were in a friendly boxing match, except that his blows were delivered with considerably more force. Bob was proving himself a whirlwind, charging this way and that, using both feet and fists, all to equally good advantage. Many a shin felt the sting of his heavy boot and many a face bore the marks of his heavy fists for days afterward.

"Come down here, you coward, and I'll give you a dose of the same medicine!" yelled Jarvis, chancing to catch the eye of the presiding officer in a brief lull in the fighting. "It's coming to you, and you're going to get it some time, even if you don't to-night."

Suddenly Steve slipped and fell to the floor. Bob sprang to his a.s.sistance, jerking his companion to his feet. But the move was fatal.

A kick from a heavy boot laid Bob Jarvis unconscious on the floor.

With a yell Steve Rush hit the man who had delivered the kick, knocking him clear over two benches that had not yet been smashed in the scrimmage. In doing so Rush had turned his back on the most persistent of his enemies. They were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered, and leaped upon him.

Steve went down under the weight that had been suddenly put upon him, fighting, struggling, wriggling desperately to free himself. But the odds were too great, and besides he was exhausted by his exertions. He realized that the fight was ended so far as he was concerned.

"Kill the traitors!"

"No--throw them out! Beat them up!"

"Yes, throw them out! That will settle them. It isn't our fault if they fall out of the window," yelled Cavard.

"Out with them both!"

Someone jerked Rush to his feet, and as he did so, another planted a blow on the boy's jaw. Steve's head drooped to one side and his face turned suddenly pale. He would give them no further trouble, for he had been rendered unconscious by the cowardly blow.

"The window!" yelled a voice.

"Yes, out with him!"

Cavard's suggestion of a moment before had taken root. Instantly the miners began dragging the unconscious Steve toward the nearest window.

It was closed, but that made no difference.

"Now, he-o-hee!"

There followed the sound of crashing gla.s.s and breaking woodwork as the form the Iron Boy went hurtling through the window, taking the sash with him in his flight.

"Now the other!"

Two men grabbed Jarvis, one at his feet, the other at his head. Bob followed in the wake of his companion, turning a complete somersault as he shot through the window. Bob had the advantage of Steve in that he had no window to break through. His was a clean flight, but his fall was none the less a serious one.

The drop that the boys had taken was all of twenty feet. What was below not one of the strikers cared.

Cavard pounded on the table for order.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he cried. "You are forgetting yourselves! Now that you have removed the disturbing elements, you will please come to order and we will proceed to finish the business of our meeting. You should not have handled them so roughly, though I am forced to admit that your anger was justified. What is the further pleasure of the meeting?"

"I move we notify the mines and tell the night shifts to knock off,"

suggested a man with a cooler head, who had taken no part in the uprising.

Slowly the men resumed their places, and the meeting settled down to business again.

CHAPTER XVII

FACING THEIR a.s.sAILANTS

JARVIS was the first to recover himself. He found himself lying half on the body of his companion.

"Steve, Steve!" he cried. "Are you much hurt."

Rush did not answer.

Bob, as soon as he could pull himself together sufficiently to do so, began shaking his companion.

"Wake up, wake up!"

"Huh?" muttered Steve, twisting and trying to raise himself.

"Thank goodness, they didn't kill you," exclaimed Jarvis, hugging his companion delightedly. "Where are you hurt?"

"I--I thought the house fell on me. What was it?"

"Nothing much. I just landed on you from a second story window--that's all. It's a wonder I didn't break every bone in your body."

A pile of rubbish had been thrown out that afternoon, in cleaning up the hall for the evening meeting. There were papers, excelsior, burlap and other soft substances in the heap. It was on this heap that the Iron Boys had fallen in their plunge from the second story, and to that heap of rubbish they no doubt owed their lives. As it was, however, they were badly bruised and shaken.

"They must have thrown us out," said Rush, sitting up and rubbing the bruised spots on his body. "The hounds! But no, I shouldn't blame them so much. Cavard is the man who incited them to violence. Bob, I believe he planned, before the meeting, to do that very thing. I was warned not to come here to-night, and the person who warned me was in a position to know what plans Cavard had in mind."

"Who warned you?"

"You asked that once before, and I told you I could not tell you. I wouldn't under any circ.u.mstances give the name of the person who warned me."

"Let me help you up."