The Iron Boys on the Ore Boats Part 8

"Don't you think that will try them out as quickly as anything else?"

said the captain.

"I guess that's right," admitted the chief engineer. "And we need them just now, too. I'm glad they are on board, even if they are green hands.

But young Rush is going to be a winner, and no mistake."

"What's the matter with the other one?"

"Nothing, except that he is a little fresh at times."

"So I already have observed. You will take that out of him, Mac."

"I'll do that all right, or break his back in the trying. The stoke hole isn't any place for weaklings, as you and I know."

"Keep me posted. I want to know about them. If they make good maybe I'll change them, giving them a berth on deck."

"We'd better give them a good try-out first," advised the chief.

"Certainly."

In the meantime the subjects of this discussion were toiling with might and main far down below the water level. The ship seemed much steadier down there, and there was scarcely any roll perceptible. Had it not been for the terrific heat the youngsters would not have minded the work so much. However, as the day drew on they began to feel the strain.

The gong, announcing the change of watch, sounded loud and startling.

They did not give it any heed, but kept right on shoveling.

"Well, are you fellows going to work right through the next trick?"

asked the foreman.

"Have we finished?" questioned Bob innocently.

"Until nine o'clock to-night."

The lads put down their shovels with a sigh of relief.

"Is there such a thing as a bath room that we can use?" questioned Rush.

"What? Do you fellows ever wash?" demanded the stoker who had had the words with Steve earlier in the day.

"That depends upon the company we have been in," answered the lad sharply. "Did you tell me about the bath room, sir?"

The foreman could not repress a grin. He pointed up the companion ladder.

"You will find one on the deck above this. First door to the right."

"Thank you, sir."

Steve began climbing up the ladder, followed by Bob and, a few rungs behind, by the surly stoker who had sought to have fun with the Iron Boys and had got the worst of the argument in each case.

Their first trick on board an ore carrier had been gotten through successfully, but it was about the hardest six hours the lads remembered ever having put in. They hurried out into the air before taking a bath.

Never had fresh air smelled so sweet as it did that day. The lads were black, the coating of soot on their faces being streaked with perspiration, and their clothes could have been no wetter had they just come up from the sea.

"This is about the limit!" laughed Bob Jarvis. "Here I am, without any eyebrows and half my beautiful locks burned away, all because you and I have ambitions to get on in the world. Honestly, Steve, is it worth it?"

"You know it is, Bob Jarvis," answered the Iron Boy, gazing straight into the inflamed, soot-framed eyes of his companion.

CHAPTER V

TROUBLE IN THE STOKE HOLE

"I'LL put you to sleep one of these fine days, young feller," greeted the stoker with whom Steve had had the words. The boys had just turned to go to their bath, Bob already having entered the deck house.

"Are you addressing me?" demanded Steve coldly.

"I'm talking to you."

"Forget it," said the lad, brushing past the soot-begrimed stoker and hurrying in to his bath.

That was the beginning of it. Surely Steve had not tried to make an enemy of the man, but he had done so just the same, and an enemy whom he was to hear from ere many days had pa.s.sed.

Meeting the first mate later in the day Steve asked who the man was.

"The name he gave on coming aboard was Smith. I don't know anything about him. He has never sailed with us before, but I understand he knows his business--that is, he is a good stoker and has been on ships before.

Why do you ask?"

"I wondered," answered Steve evasively.

"Has he been bothering you?"

"Oh, no; I am not very much bothered," answered the lad, with a smile.

The boys' cabin was on the starboard or right side of the ship. It was a pleasant little room, commanding a view out over the water. There were two berths in the cabin, a little desk and a couple of steamship pictures, the door of the cabin opening out to the deck.

They felt very much at home in their new quarters, and after the first good sleep there they were ready for anything that might be required of them.

The new stokers took their evening trick, each determined to hold up his end of the work with the rest of the men. And each did. Not a man in that hot, fiery pit shoveled more coal on that watch, or shoveled it to better advantage than did the Iron Boys.

The man Smith shoveled at the furnace door next to Steve Rush, and the former lost no opportunity to hurl rough jokes and taunts at the Iron Boy. These were, in most instances, greeted with howls of delight by the other stokers, who seemed to take the keenest pleasure in seeing the two boys humiliated.

Steve took it all good-naturedly, but Jarvis had to exercise great self-restraint to keep himself in check. He could hardly resist taking it out of the big bully.

Smith was tall and angular, his small, beady eyes setting more closely together than was good to look upon. In addition to this there was a slight slant to them, giving him almost the appearance of an Oriental.

Steve shrewdly came to the conclusion that Smith was a bad man, and furthermore, the boy decided in his own mind that the man had a past, for Rush was a keen observer, few things pa.s.sing him un.o.bserved.

All at once, Smith's shovel slipped, showering Steve with coal from head to foot. The sharp edges of the chunks of coal cut the boy's head and one cheek until the blood came.