"You have to go by instinct largely," said Pig-Iron Peel. "You can't lay down any hard and fast rule. The only way is to taste of the metal and then you know when it's done to a turn."
"Taste of it?" exclaimed Steve. "Excuse me. I have come as near to it as I want to. I'm not a metal-taster."
"I don't mean to drink the stuff down, but tasting with your ears, eyes and nose; hearing, seeing and smelling--understand?"
"When you get to that point you may consider yourself a furnace man. But it is dangerous business. A man never knows when he's going to get his, and be dragged out in the wagon. We don't think of it, though. A fellow gets used to all sorts of dangers, and goodness knows these mills are full of them. When a fellow gets hurt, however, it's most likely his own fault. The company does all it can to protect its men."
"So I have observed. Some of its men are more dangerous than the perils of the mills themselves," answered Steve with a laugh.
"I reckon you are right at that. You're learning the whole business, ain't you?"
"Then you've bit off a full mouthful. Going to the open hearths from here?"
"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.
"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.
"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.
