"I did not send for you. That was a mistake. And that is what puzzles me. I am told you thought you received a message from me to meet you on the sub-level above the lowest level."
"Yes, sir; that was the message I received."
"Well, I never sent it. I haven't been down there recently. I had started to go there to-day when some other matters came up calling me back to the office."
"You did not send for me?"
"I certainly did not."
"Then whoever did send that message must have done so for the purpose of getting me down there to do me up. I begin to understand."
"But, Steve, who could bear you such ill will?"
"I don't know."
"It isn't Steve alone they are after," interjected Jarvis. "The rascals seem to have it in for the mine, too. Take, for instance, the cage. They've put that out of business."
"The villains! I should like to catch them—I should like to get my hands on the man who pushed me in this afternoon."