CHAPTER II

THE IRON BOYS AS CARGO

THROUGH some fortunate twist of his body, Jarvis righted himself while going through the big hopper into which the ore was shooting. He landed feet first at the bottom of the hopper.

In the meantime Steve Rush, with a few seconds' start of his companion, had gone on down through the hopper. He hit the long wooden ore chutes that led down into the ship; he struck the chute with a heavy bump and then went on at a speed that took his breath away. Steve was in a sitting posture. Jarvis followed him at the same rate of speed, lying flat on his back.

There was ore on all sides of them; in fact, they were riding on the swift-moving ore; all about them was darkness, and even had there been lights it is doubtful if the Iron Boys would have seen them, because of the speed at which they were traveling.

Steve's mind was working with its usual rapidity. Had he known exactly what awaited them below he might have been able to plan with more certainty. He did reason, however, that they would probably have to pass through a small opening when they reached the bottom of the chute. In this he was wrong, though right across the chute where it entered the ship was a heavy iron brace dividing the chute in half, which was placed there to give the ship more rigidity.

"Lie flat!" shouted Rush, with quick instinct, himself dropping on his back. He did not know whether Bob were following him or not. Jarvis was, but he was in no need of the admonition to lie flat. He was as flat as it was possible for him to be and he could not have straightened up had it been to save his life.

Jarvis was close enough, however, to hear the warning cry. He opened his mouth to answer, getting it full of red ore as a result. The ore got down in his throat, sending him into a paroxysm of choking, sneezing and growling that was lost in the noise about him.

Suddenly Steve felt himself shooting through space. He realized, in that instant, that he had left the chute. A few seconds more and he struck heavily on his feet, bounded into the air, then plunged forward head first.

The lad landed on his stomach, slipped down a conical pile of ore to the bottom, his head striking the side of the ship, doubling him up and leaving him stunned and unconscious.

Jarvis, who was not far behind him, went through very much the same experience, save that he turned a somersault when he left the chute, landing flat on his back on the pile of ore. His feet drove against the side of the ship with the force of a battering-ram, backed by the full weight of the lad's body. The effect was nearly the same as it had been in the case of Rush. Bob was stunned. He, too, lay still, after curling up against the vessel's side.

"Hey, what's that?" a voice had shouted as the boys disappeared through the hatches.

"What's what?"

"I thought I saw something besides ore go through the chute in number seven hatch."

"You're seeing things!"

"Maybe I am."

"Close number seven hatch!" shouted the second mate, and the two deck hands, after the chute had been hoisted a little above the deck, slid the heavy hatch cover into place. All the ore that was needed had gone in through that hatch. The ship was nearly loaded. All that was now required was a few car-loads at the ends to trim the ship properly, after which she would be ready to sail.

Within the next ten minutes the rest of the ore had been shipped. With loud crashings, interspersed with hoarse shouts, harshly-uttered commands and an occasional toot of warning from the ship's whistle, the hatch-covers were put in place and the ship made ready for her journey down the Great Lakes.

There followed a moment of inactivity; then came a blast of the whistle fully a minute in duration. It was the signal that the ship was about to back out of her slip, warning all other craft to keep clear.

The propeller began to churn the waters of the harbor and the ore carrier, with its cargo of ten thousand tons of iron ore, backed slowly out into the stream.

Bob Jarvis rolled over until he was practically standing on his head and shoulders. He toppled over on his back with a jolt that woke him up. The lad gave a kick and some one grunted.

"Hey, there, take your foot out of my stomach, whoever you are. Is that you, Bob?"

"I--I don't know. Hello, Steve, that you?"

"I guess it's both of us. Ugh! My mouth is so full of ore that I can hard--hardly talk."

"I've got a dark red taste in my own mouth. I've swallowed enough ore to make a steel rail. Do you know where we are?"

"We have fallen into the hold of a ship, and we are lucky that we are not dead."

"Maybe we are and don't know it," jeered Jarvis, pulling himself up. He tried to get to his feet, but the ore slipped from under him, leaving him at the bottom against the side of the vessel again.

"Quit it!" shouted Steve. "Are you trying to bury me?"

The latter was on his feet too, brushing the dirt from mouth, eyes, nose and ears. Bob had sent a quantity of it sliding down the chute.

"I can't help it. What's the matter with you? What do you think about this business?"

"I don't think, I know. We are in a nice fix."

"Think so?"

"I told you I didn't think," retorted Steve in a tone of slight irritation.

"Glad you admit it."

"We have been dumped into the hold of an ore vessel. I don't know whether or not there is any way to get out, and it is sure that the hatches will not be opened again until the vessel reaches her destination."

"How long will that be?"

"That depends upon where they are going. If they are bound for any of the Lake Erie ports I should imagine it would take a week or more."

Bob groaned.

"I'm going to yell."

"Yell, if you can. I've too much ore in my mouth to make much of a noise."

Jarvis raised his voice in a shout. It did not seem to attract any attention. The lad shouted again and again. By this time the ship was trembling from stem to stern under the jar of the propeller that was beating the water at many hundred revolutions a minute.

"Nobody on this ship, I guess," muttered Bob. "Come, suggest something. You've always got something to say," urged Jarvis.

"I was about to say that you might as well save your breath. No one can hear us through the thick decks; in fact, I presume every one has turned in except those on watch forward, and the engine room crews at the rear end of the ship."

"Then I am going to lie down and go to sleep," declared Jarvis.

"Don't do anything of the sort. The ore is likely to slide down and bury you. The less disturbance we make here the better it will be for us."

"Why didn't you think of that before we fell in? I suppose we are pretty deep down in the ship, aren't we?"

"About as close to the bottom as we can get without drowning. We will keep as quiet as possible until we can plan some way of helping ourselves out of this predicament."

Bob grunted unintelligibly. For some time after this the Iron Boys leaned against the side of the ship, Steve trying to plan some way out of the difficulty, Bob growling inwardly over the hard luck that had befallen them.

All at once the ship gave a quick, sudden lurch. Jarvis lost his balance, falling over on his face. The ore came down in a deluge, covering him from head to feet before he had sufficient time to scramble out of the way. Steve, bracing himself against the side of the ship, stooped over and helped his companion to his feet.

"The old tub's going to tip over," gasped Jarvis. "What's the matter with her?"

"Nothing is wrong. We have gotten out of the ship canal and into the open water of Lake Superior. There must be considerable sea. Don't you hear the waves smashing against the sides of the ship?"

"It isn't what I hear, but what I feel," answered Bob faintly. "I feel queer. My head's spinning like a top. Is yours?"

"No; I can't say that it is. Are you getting seasick?"

"How do I know? I have never been seasick. How does it feel to be that way?"

"I have heard that when people are seasick they don't care very much whether they live or die."

"Then--then--I wish I could die right here, if it would make me forget that awful goneness under my belt. Ugh!"

Bob settled down against the side of the ship, moaning.

"Don't be a baby. Get up and be a man."

"I--I don't want to be a man. I--I'd rather be a wooden image, then I wouldn't care what happened. In case the ship went down I could float and----"

Bob's words were lost in an anguished moan. Steve felt far from comfortable, but he set his teeth and made a resolve not to give up.

"The sea is coming up, Bob," announced Rush after a long period of silence.

"The--the sea----? It's my opinion that something else will be coming up soon if things don't stop moving around the way--the way they are doing now."

Steve laughed.

"Remember, Bob, that we are not likely to get anything in our stomachs for some days. Be careful."

Bob groaned.

"If I ever get anything solid under my feet I'll take it out of you for that! That's a mean trick to play on a fellow when he's in the shape I'm in at this minute. How long do you suppose the noise outside will keep up?"

"I don't know. Probably all the way down Superior."

"And how far is that?"

"Let me see. I think Mr. Carrhart said the trip to the--the Soo took thirty-six hours."

"Help!" muttered Jarvis faintly.

"Now, I want you to brace up. Come on, get up. If you don't I'll trounce you and make you forget your troubles."

"Yes, you can talk, but if you felt as badly as I do, you wouldn't spout that way. You; couldn't without--without----"

"Perhaps I _do_ feel badly, but I may have the will power to fight it out."

Steve reached down and pulled Jarvis up beside him. The latter protested, but it did him no good, for he was apparently unable to offer any resistance. Rush threw an arm about his companion and began talking about other subjects in order to divert Bob's mind from his sufferings, for his was a real case of seasickness.

In the meantime the sea seemed to be rising, though as a matter of fact there was little sea on. The short, sharp waves of the lake were moving the big, flat-bottomed steamer almost as roughly as they would have moved a little row boat, for the ore carriers are proverbial rollers.

After a time Jarvis began to feel easier, and the lads, lulled by the motion of the ship, grew sleepy. Steve did not dare allow himself to go to sleep. He knew, full well, that such a thing would be dangerous. A lurch of the vessel might cover their heads with dirt and smother them to death before they were able to extricate themselves. Then again, they might be buried too deeply to dig their way out at all.

"Lean up against me, Bob. No need of our both standing here suffering for sleep. If you get too heavy I'll let you drop; then I guess you will wake up."

Bob leaned heavily on his companion. He would have done so in a moment more at any rate, for his eyelids seemed to weigh a ton. The lad was asleep almost instantly. After a time Steve's eyelids also drooped. He could hold them up no longer. Then he went to sleep, braced against the wall of the hull, his companion sleeping soundly in his arms.

There could be but one result of this. They had been asleep but a few moments before, in a lurch of the ship, Rush toppled over with Jarvis on top of him, a ton or more of ore banked up about them.

"Get up! Get up!" shouted Steve, as soon as he was able to get his mouth free of the red ore.

Jarvis muttered, and Steve was obliged to push his companion off by sheer force. The lad pinched and pounded himself, to awaken his dulled senses thoroughly, then he began to punch Jarvis about with his clenched fists.

"Leggo! Quit that, or I'll----"

Bob tried to strike Steve, but instead, he measured his length on the ore pile.

"I'm trying to get you awake, and if you don't want to be roughly handled you'd better pull yourself together," warned Steve.

"I'll get even with you for this one," growled Jarvis. "What's the use in trying to keep awake?"

"I've answered that question already. Besides, I am going to try to find some way out of this hold."

"You'll have a nice time doing it," growled Jarvis.

"I expect to have. But I know there must be some way. You keep close to me."

"What are you going to do?"

"Feel my way along the side of the ship to see if I can get hold of a ladder or something that we can climb up."

"I couldn't climb a step ladder without falling off, the way I feel now," objected Jarvis.