"I cannot leave here. Every loyal man is needed right here every minute of the day and night. There is no telling at what moment trouble will break loose, and when it comes it is going to come thick and fast, if I am any judge of men. The miners are getting desperate. They are going to break out, and with our handful of helpers we shall be powerless to stem the tide."
"I reckon you're right. When do you think it is coming?"
"It is likely to occur at any minute now—to-night, to-morrow, any time. I believe it is a part of Cavard's game to have something like that occur."
"I wish I'd let Segunder finish the fellow while he was about it. He would have killed the leader in a minute more."
"Bob, how can you say such a thing?" chided Rush.
"Yes; I suppose it is rather a strong statement, but I don't love that man Cavard one little bit."
"Neither do I, but that is no excuse for wanting to see him killed. We will beat him at his own game, and with his own weapons if we can. If not the company will have to get out of its present situation as best it can."
"I guess that will be the answer."
On the following day Steve set an inquiry going in another direction, having enlisted the services of a man whom he and Bob had sent for from the city at their own expense. This man belonged to a private detective agency, and Steve had known him before coming to the mines.
There was a long conference, that night, at the house of one of the loyal miners, where the detective, Steve and Bob had gone that they might not be observed. To have met in the boarding house would have been to arouse suspicion, for the strikers had spies in every place of the sort. Cavard saw to it that he was kept well-posted as to all that was going on.