"My friends," he began, "the bosses have triumphed over us to-day, but we shall down them yet. I have a piece of news for you showing the trickery to which they have resorted. The men of the Blair Mine have gone back to work. The bosses have done this to tantalize you."
None thought how inconsistent this was. The men began to grow noisy and restless after this announcement.
"How do they go back?" shouted a voice.
"At the old terms," answered the chairman. "They gave it up."
"We'll keep it up! We won't give up till we starve!"
"No; down with the bosses! We should get guns and drive these troops, these hirelings, from the range. Arm yourselves, men, and assert your manhood!" cried another voice, that of one of the leader's lieutenants, though he made certain that only a few of those about him observed whence the words came.
Steve Rush and Bob Jarvis rose from the corner of the room near the stairway unobserved. Steve jumped up on a window-sill, waving his hat to attract their attention.
"Men, men! Listen to me!"
There was a sullen roar when the miners discovered who it was, and the mob rose to its feet, surging toward Steve.
"Stay where you are if you value your lives. There are fifty rifles trained on this hall at this moment. The guardsmen will riddle you with bullets if you make a hostile move toward me."