"I am afraid that would not have helped you much if the stuff had gone off."
"Rush, if you suspect anything keep your eyes open; that's all I have to say. What you don't see will not be worth the seeing."
"Very well, sir; I will do as you request, but I have not much hope of getting at the truth."
"I'll risk that. I am going to the lower level. There is some difficulty with the pumps there, the engineer tells me," said the superintendent, proceeding on his way.
Steve had not very much to do, so he walked back to his old post on the seventeenth level to wait until Bob Jarvis should come along. Steve and the superintendent had no sooner left the spot where they had been talking than a figure slunk from a deserted drift near by, glanced up and down the level, then hurried away. The man's hat was pulled down, and the candle above aided in throwing his face into deep shadow, but the full beard was not hidden, had anyone been near by to observe it.
Steve had been sitting on the platform at the chutes for about thirty minutes when the level's telephone rang.
"Mr. Penton wants to see you on the lower level," said the telephone boy.
"Where is he?" questioned Steve.
"He says he'll meet you near the suction pipes."
"Very good," answered the lad, rising. "If Mr. Jarvis comes along tell him where I have gone. If I get through in time I will meet him here and go up with him."