Hobart was at his desk with his ear to the telephone receiver when the
great financier came into the inner office of the manager.
"Yes. When? Driven out, you say? Yes--yes. Anybody hurt? Followed our men
through into our tunnel? No, don't do anything till you hear from me. Send
Rhys up at once. Let me know any further developments that occur."
Hobart hung up the receiver and turned on his swivel-chair toward his
chief. "Another outrage, sir, at the hands of Ridgway. It is in regard to
those veins in the Copper King that he claims. Dalton, his superintendent
of the Taurus, drove a tunnel across our lateral lines and began working
them, though their own judge has not yet rendered a decision in their
favor.
Of course, I put a large force in them at once. To-day we tapped their
workings at the twelfth level. Our foreman, Miles, has just telephoned me
that Dalton turned the air pressure on our men, blew out their candles, and
flung a mixture of lime and rocks at them. Several of the men are hurt,
though none badly. It seems that Dalton has thrown a force into our tunnels
and is holding the entrances against us at the point where the eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth levels touch the cage.
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