"Rush, we must go into this matter very thoroughly. The man who let you through the trap on number seventeen is no longer with us. He has not been with us for several months, but the attacks on you have been renewed. Next thing we know damage will be done to the company's property. I don't want to confess that we are beaten and send for detectives."
"You leave it to us—we'll catch him," spoke up Bob Jarvis. "I have an itching at my finger tips and I won't do a thing to him when I get them on him."
"That is exactly what I want you boys to do—find the man or men guilty of this outrage, and I shall not be as lenient as I was in the other affair."
Steve lay with half-closed eyes thinking deeply. Instinctively there appeared to his mental vision the picture of the bewhiskered man whom he had seen several weeks before, and who made such an unfavorable impression upon him.
"Yes; I shall be very glad to do what I can," he said, glancing up at Mr. Penton. "I am ready to begin at once. Doctor, don't you think it is about time you were letting me get up?"
After taking Steve's temperature and thumping him upon the chest, the physician decided to let the lad get up and dress. He did, however, most emphatically protest against Rush climbing the ladders all the way to the surface.
Steve found himself a little weak from his experiences, and it was decided that he should remain in the mine for the rest of the night, or until the cage machinery had been repaired so he could ride up. The surgeon sat nodding in the pump-man's chair, and the men who had assisted in the rescue returned to their duties in other parts of the mine.
Mr. Penton had been in communication with the surface by telephone. He learned that all was being done that could be done to repair the hoisting apparatus in the shortest possible time, so there was no necessity for him to climb the rest of the way up.
"I think I'll stay down here with you boys for the rest of the night," he said. "Everything is quiet. I see the surgeon has put the engineer out of house and home, so I think I shall lie down on the work-bench and get a little sleep."
"Yes, it is quiet enough," began Steve, when suddenly there came a dull, muffled report. The ground beneath their feet trembled perceptibly, then silence reigned.