"I do not know; I am going wherever I am put."
"That's the usual way they promote from here, and so on into the mills themselves. Where'd you begin?"
Rush told him, relating his experiences in the pit, but mentioning no names. Pig-Iron Peel's face grew black with righteous indignation as he listened to the recital.
"Who was the fiend?" he demanded.
"I am not going to tell you."
"He ought to be whaled with a red hot angle bar, until there wasn't a piece of skin left on him as big as a bolt-head. I'd like to get the duffer in my hands just once—only once—that would be enough for a starter from me. The pup!"
Peel had raised his voice to a high pitch. Steve glanced over toward Watski Kalinski. The latter was regarding Peel and Rush angrily. It was quite evident that either he had caught the drift of the conversation by hearing some of the words, or else he suspected the truth from their actions.
"I wish you'd tell me who it was, Rush."
"No, I could not think of doing that. He has been pretty well punished already, and he is likely to get worse if he tries any more of his tricks. Jarvis gave him an awful whaling, you know."
Rush raised his voice so that Kalinski could not help hearing every word this time.