After bidding the president good-bye, the boys took their leave. It seemed only a few weeks since Steve Rush had first entered the office of the president of the mining company looking for a job. The same office boy with whom he had had trouble at the start of his career was on guard at the door, but Steve had grown away from him. Steve, who with his companion, Bob Jarvis, will be recognized at once as one of the Iron Boys, was tall for his age and muscular. His manner of life had done much for his physical well-being, and he was not the same boy who had fought his way into the president's office, the account of which is set forth in "The Iron Boys in the Mines."
It was there that Steve Rush and Bob Jarvis first became friends, after they had met and fought a battle in a lonely drift in the Cousin Jack Iron Mine; it was there that both lads proved their heroism by saving the president and several other officials of the company, when the entire company was threatened with death from a burning bag of dynamite.
It was in the Cousin Jack Mine that Steve and his newly found friend saw the need of and invented a new tram railroad system, by which the mining company was saved many thousands of dollars a year.
Again in "The Iron Boys as Foremen," was told how the lads proved themselves by saving the powder magazine from blowing up while the mine was burning and the flames were creeping toward the deadly explosives. It will be recalled that it was mainly through the heroic efforts of the Iron Boys that the Red Rock Mine was saved from almost total destruction, and that through their further efforts many lives were undoubtedly saved. From then on they continued to distinguish themselves, playing a conspicuous part in the great strike, in the end exposing and unmasking a wicked and unscrupulous man who was leading the miners on to commit deeds of violence.
They were the same boys who were now starting out on a new career for the same company. In this instance the lads were to become sailors on the inland seas, known as the Great Lakes. The lads were taking up this new calling for the twofold purpose of learning still another branch of the great corporation's business and they fondly hoped their work would prove of importance to their employers.
The office of the president was located in Duluth, many miles from the Iron Range where the boys had been working for the last two years.
Their first act after leaving the offices was to make their way down to the water front to the ship canal, leading from the harbor out to Lake Superior. Steve pointed out the äerial bridge to his companion. This was a car carried through the air suspended from a giant truss over the river, by which passengers were transferred across to Superior on the other side. Bob had never seen this wonder before and was deeply interested in it. To Steve Rush it was of particular interest, for he had acquired no slight knowledge of engineering during his experience in the mines up on the range.
Boats were moving in and out, huge lake freighters, ore boats and passenger ships, for the lake traffic was in full cry now. After strolling about for a time, Steve took his companion home with him, and the rest of the afternoon was spent with Steve's mother. Supper finished, the lads decided that they would get down to the ore docks, as the ship would likely be in by that time.
Darkness had set in when they reached the docks. These docks, as those who have had the misfortune to have to make their way over them are aware, consist of tiers upon tiers of trestle. Over the tops, high in the air, ore trains rumble in by day and by night, discharging their cargoes of red ore into huge hoppers, from which the ore is loaded into the boats, or Great Lakes ore carriers, as they are called.
Neither boy had ever been out on one of these trestles before, and the task looked to be rather formidable.