The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills; or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits

  CHAPTER XVII

  A HANG-OVER AND A FLAREBACK

  "Take the monkey trick," ordered the head melter when Steve reported forduty at the usual hour.

  This meant standing right in front of the furnace much of the time. Itwas also the duty of the monkey-man to prod the clay dam with the dollywhen all was ready for a cast, as well as occasionally to prod throughthe shell of the furnace above the metal and just below the bustlepipes, in order to liberate the gases that had formed there.

  If anything, it was a worse position than he had yet had. But Steve didnot flinch. He was there to learn all there was to be learned, and heproposed to do so, whatever the cost to himself.

  "I guess I can stand it if others do," he thought when the new detailwas called off. These men were just getting ready to go to work, Stevehad stripped off a good portion of his clothes and donned a light rubbercoat when Jarvis, who had not yet gone to the charging platform, touchedhim on the arm.

  "What is it?"

  "S-h-h! Look out for yourself!" whispered Jarvis.

  "I'm going to."

  "When you get a chance, without attracting attention, just look behindyou and see who's here."

  Rush nodded understandingly and went on with his preparations for thenight's work, while Bob started for the "roof," as he called it. When anopportunity presented itself so that he could do so naturally, Steveturned.

  He gave a slight start. He found himself looking into the face of hisformer pit boss, Watski Kalinski. The latter did not appear to haveobserved Steve; at least, he kept his eyes averted until the lad decidedthat the fellow was ashamed to look at him.

  "I wonder what he is doing here?" muttered Rush.

  When he got an opportunity Steve asked the head melter about it, and wasinformed that Kalinski was taking the place of a man who had been struckby the metal train on his way to work that afternoon. Kalinski was anold furnace man.

  Steve nodded his understanding, but still he resolved to keep an eye onKalinski. He did not trust the man, knowing well his revengeful nature.

  "Next thing I know they will have Foley over here, and then it will betime to carry a club in my boot, for there'll be something doing atblast number four."

  Nothing did occur, however. The gang made the first cast with success.Steve still suffered from the heat, but not to the same extent. He waslearning how to favor himself and to save himself, a most necessary partof the furnace man's work. Kalinski was doing general work about thefurnace, but the Iron Boy did not relax his vigilance. As the eveningwore on he was convinced, from certain sinister glances in hisdirection, that the former pit boss was contemplating mischief. It mightnot come that night, but it was sure to come sooner or later, and theboy did not propose to be caught napping if he could help himself. Hehad no idea, however, that he would be taken so by surprise as he reallywas.

  Midnight arrived. Steve stood bravely at his place in front of thefurnace. It was heated through and through, and the metal was runningwell. Not a failure or a mishap had occurred to mar the serenity of thehead melter's temper, and his face wore a smile when it was safe tosmile without running the risk of cracking the smile from the heat ofthe furnace. During a lull in the work Steve was asking questions aboutthe operation of the blast furnace. He learned from the head melter thattwo tons of ore, as it came from the mines, smelted down to one ton ofpig; that unless the ingredients were exactly right and the boiling donejust right, thousands of tons might be spoiled in casting.

  "You have to go by instinct largely," said Pig-Iron Peel. "You can't laydown any hard and fast rule. The only way is to taste of the metal andthen you know when it's done to a turn."

  "Taste of it?" exclaimed Steve. "Excuse me. I have come as near to it asI want to. I'm not a metal-taster."

  Peel laughed.

  "I don't mean to drink the stuff down, but tasting with your ears, eyesand nose; hearing, seeing and smelling--understand?"

  "Yes; I catch your meaning."

  "When you get to that point you may consider yourself a furnace man. Butit is dangerous business. A man never knows when he's going to get his,and be dragged out in the wagon. We don't think of it, though. A fellowgets used to all sorts of dangers, and goodness knows these mills arefull of them. When a fellow gets hurt, however, it's most likely his ownfault. The company does all it can to protect its men."

  "So I have observed. Some of its men are more dangerous than the perilsof the mills themselves," answered Steve with a laugh.

  "I reckon you are right at that. You're learning the whole business,ain't you?"

  "I am trying to."

  "Then you've bit off a full mouthful. Going to the open hearths fromhere?"

  "I do not know; I am going wherever I am put."

  "That's the usual way they promote from here, and so on into the millsthemselves. Where'd you begin?"

  Rush told him, relating his experiences in the pit, but mentioning nonames. Pig-Iron Peel's face grew black with righteous indignation as helistened to the recital.

  "Who was the fiend?" he demanded.

  "I am not going to tell you."

  "He ought to be whaled with a red hot angle bar, until there wasn't apiece of skin left on him as big as a bolt-head. I'd like to get theduffer in my hands just once--only once--that would be enough for astarter from me. The pup!"

  Peel had raised his voice to a high pitch. Steve glanced over towardWatski Kalinski. The latter was regarding Peel and Rush angrily. It wasquite evident that either he had caught the drift of the conversationby hearing some of the words, or else he suspected the truth from theiractions.

  "I wish you'd tell me who it was, Rush."

  "No, I could not think of doing that. He has been pretty well punishedalready, and he is likely to get worse if he tries any more of histricks. Jarvis gave him an awful whaling, you know."

  Rush raised his voice so that Kalinski could not help hearing every wordthis time.

  "He did, eh?"

  "Yes."

  "Is Jarvis much of a scrapper?"

  "He is a whirlwind."

  "Good for him! I'll get him off the charging platform and give himsomething better down here," said the head melter, as he noddedapprovingly over what Steve had told him.

  "That's the kind of a boy for me. No, I don't mean because he fights. Igot no use for a brawler, but because he can be a man when he gets upagainst the real thing. Tell me about that mix-up."

  This Steve did, including the kicking of Brodsky, which really led tothe interference of Jarvis. Peel stamped about on the fire brick of theplatform, his anger growing momentarily.

  "The whelp! The miserable cur! He'd better not show his face aroundthese furnaces. I'll break every bone in his miserable no-account body.Tell me who he is! Tell me who he is!"

  "Not now. Perhaps some other time. The man might not like to hear it,you know."

  Peel regarded his young charge suspiciously.

  "Isn't it about time we made a cast? The ore smells to me as if it wereabout ready."

  Pig-Iron sniffed the air with a snort.

  "Get ready for a cast!" he bellowed. "Boy, you'll do. You've got thenose that smells, you have. Heave up that dolly bar. How's them gutters?You, Kalinski, there, see that slag trough is open. Bud, get yourcinder-ladle ready. Come, now, the whole bunch of you is half-asleep.Anybody'd think you'd been out to a party all day long. Come, Rush!"

  "I am here, sir."

  "Git that dolly against the furnace dam, and get ready to jump whenthings are hot enough."

  "I will jump, never you fear," answered Steve laughing.

  The Iron Boy turned his back to the men and placed the dolly bar againstthe clay dam after facing the glaring heat at close range long enough toplace the end of the bar on exactly the right spot.

  "All ready, sir."

  "Drive it! Steady there," warned the voice of the head melter. "Keepwatch, Rush, and sing out when you get enough."

  After a moment the compressed air drill was put on, and after weari
ngthe dam thin, the dolly was once more resorted to as that could bewithdrawn much more quickly than could the compressed air drill. Hastewas necessary, or the lives of the men would be in great peril in casethe molten metal squirted from the dam around the sides of the dolly.The furnace men, especially those on the tapping job, would be likely toget the full charge in their faces.

  "Clank, clank, clank!" sounded the steel mall as it beat against the endof the bar held by Steve.

  "Tap lighter," ordered the boy.

  The sound of the blows grew fainter.

  "That will do. We can poke out the opening after we step to one side. Weshall then----"

  "Bang!"

  The mall struck the end of the dolly a terrific blow. The bar was driventhrough the thin shell of dolmite right into the hot metal of thefurnace.

  Like a projectile the dolly was wrenched from the hands of the Iron Boy.It was shot through the air, right past him at tremendous speed.

  Steve was about to shout, "Stop it!" but he was too late. The bar ofiron was soaring out over the mill yard. The head melter's voice wasraised above the din.

  "Who did that? Who hit that bar?"

  But Steve did not hear. For a brief second after the escape of the dollyhe stood still on the bushing. With an angry hiss a stream of white hotmetal shot past his head as though projected through the nozzle of ahose. It was a narrow escape, for, if the metal had struck him in theface, it would have gone clear through him.

  A dull report sounded in the furnace itself.

  "Look out for the flareback!" roared Pig-Iron Peel. "Run for it!"

  Now a new sound smote their ears. It was a rumbling noise that seemed tostart away down in the foundations of the blast furnace, working upwardat a rapid rate.

  Steve, who had quickly leaped from his dangerous position, glanced atthe head melter inquiringly, as if to ask what this new thing might be.

  "It's a hang-over!" shouted the melter. "Now we are in for it!"