Rush released the man instantly. At first the Pole acted as though he was about to spring upon his remarkable young antagonist. He seemed to think better of it, however, after a glance into the unsympathetic faces about him, then into the smiling face of Steve Rush.
"Will you go to work, or must I throw you out of the mill!" snarled Kalinski.
"We shall be glad to go to work if you will let us alone. I wonder what the superintendent would say if he happened along about this time?"
"I shall fine both of you two days' pay," announced Foley, making a memorandum in a soot-soiled memorandum book.
"Very well, sir. That is your privilege. It is ours to protest, if we think best, which is not saying that we shall. We have been used most disgracefully, and——"
"You didn't think of that when you got me into trouble, did you?" sneered the foreman.
"So that is where the shoe pinches, is it? I begin to understand. You propose to get even with us? Well, all I have to say is that I should advise you not to try it. We have come here to work, and at our own request. If you become unbearable I warn you we are perfectly able to take care of ourselves, and we shall do so. We don't propose to submit to any insults from you or any one else, Bill Foley."
"Just put that in your pipe and smoke it!" chuckled Bob.
Steve was at work again. Jarvis slowly followed his companion to the pit, where both lads stood on the plank and shoveled out cinders. They gave no further heed to the foreman or the pit boss. The latter two had drawn back some little distance, where Kalinski was gesticulating and talking to Foley with considerable emphasis.
In a little while the shovelers had gotten down to where the pit was aglow with coals. The plank beneath their feet began to blaze up, the smoke getting into their mouths and noses, setting the lads to sneezing.