RUSH MAKES A DISCOVERY
STEVE'S new station was located on the main line of the electric tram road. Long rows of dump cars were drawn there by an electric motor, on which sat a motor-man controlling the speed of the car with one hand, and with the other continually ringing a gong warning everyone to get out of the way.
In the narrow levels, there was barely space enough for one to stand between the trams and the wall, but the trams never stopped. Miners were supposed to look out for themselves, according to the code of the tram motor-man.
At the chutes, however, there was a large open space at one side, with a plank floor laid down, and above this hung the tally-boards, a series of boards with quarter-inch holes bored in them. Every time cars were run over the chutes the men on the cars would call the name of the contractor or the drift whence the cars had come, and the tally-boy or man, as the case might be, would then move the peg in the board forward as many holes as there were cars. Each contractor had a tally-board, as had each drift operated by the mining company's own labor.
The tally-man at the chutes on level seventeen was a man named Marvin. Steve took a violent dislike to the man the moment he set eyes on him, and the questions that the lad would have asked about the working of the tally-boards remained unasked.
Rush's duty was to strike the catch on the side of the car with an iron bar, permitting the side board to swing out, whereupon the load of ore would drop through the iron chutes to a lower level. From there it was shot to the surface in the fast-moving skips, or ore elevators, that ran up an inclined plane.
"This work is so easy that I am ashamed to draw pay for it," muttered Steve, after an hour or so had passed.
Still he was obliged to keep a sharp lookout for approaching trams, as every second in this operation counted. The tram trains must unload and get back for other cars promptly, else miners working in the drifts would be held back and the work of that level delayed.
As soon as a car was dumped, the dumper would call out "clear," whereupon the motor-man would shove his train forward. Though the work was easy, it had to be done quickly.