The Argosy, June 1904 — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

es. Ty THE HAWKINS HYDRO-VAPOR LIFT. 523 “ Now, then,” pursued the inventor, “No!” I protested. “Oh, no!” “T have had a steel tube made, a little “Good Lord, why not?” cried Haw- longer than the shaft, you understand.” kins. “What! Even longer than sixteen “My wife,’ [ murmured. “ She can- stories? ” not spare me, Hawkins—not yet.” “Of course. The tube fits the shaft “Why, there isn’t the slightest ele- exactly, just as an engine cylinder fits ment of danger,” the inventor argued. the plunger. The elev ator stands upon “ Surely, Griggs, even you must be able the upper end of the tube. We let to grasp that. Can’t you see that that is steam into the tube by operating this the chief beauty of the Hydro- waar lever, which eontrols my patent re- Lift? There are no cables to break! versible steam-release. What happens? That’s the great feature. This car may Why, the tube is foreed upward and be loaded with ton after ton; but if the elevator rises. I let out some of the she’s overloaded, she simply stops. steam—and the tube sinks down into There are no risky wirc-ropes to snap the ground! That iron plate which you and let down the whole affair.” see is the manhole cover of the tube, “I know, but there are no wire ropes as it were—it corresponds, of course, to hold her up, either, and-—— to the cylinder-head on an engine.” Hawkins snorted angrily. Then he As the novelists put it, I stood aghast. grabbed me bodily and forced me along It overwhelmed me utterly—the idea toward the door of his Hydro-Vapor that in a great, sane city like New litt. York an irresponsible maniac could be =“ Actually, you do make me tired,” permitted to dig a hole sixteen stories he said. “You seem to think that deep under a new office building and everybody is conspiring to take your then fill up that hole with a shaft and wretched little life!” a tube such as Hawkins had just de- “ But what have you against me?” I seribed. asked mournfully. “Why not let me “And the people who own this place out and do.your experimenting alone?” —did they allow you to do it, or have ‘* Because—Lord knows why Pm do- vou been chloroforming the watchman ing it, yowre not important enough to and working at mght? 1 inquired. warrant 1t—Dm bound to convince you ‘Don’t be absurd, Griggs,” said that this contrivance is all that [I Hawkins. “I pay a big rent here. The claim! ” owners were very nice about 10” Oh, had I but spent the days of my They must have been—exceedingly youth in a strenuous gymnasium! Had so, | thought; nice to the point of im- I but been endowed with muscle beyond becility. Had they known Hawkins as the dreams of Eugene Sandow, and I know him, they would joyfully have been expert in boxing and wrestling handed back his lease, given hima sub- and in the breaking of bones, as are the stantial cash bonus to boot, and even Japanese! have thrown in a_ non-transferable Then I could have fallen upon Haw- Cook’s Tour ticket to Timbuctoo be- kins from the rear and tied him into fore they allowed him to embark on the knots, and even dismembered him if project. necessary—and escaped. It would have been a low sort of trick But things are what they are, and upon Timbuctoo, but it would have Hawkins is more than a match for me; saved them money and trouble. so he banged the door angrily and * Well,” Hawkins said sharply, break- grasped the lever. ing in upon my reverie. “ Don’t stand “Now, observe with great care the there mooning. Did you ever see any- superbly gentle motion with which she thing like it before? ” rises,” he instructed me. “Once, when I was a child,’ I con- _[ prepared for that familiar head- fessed, “ I fell while climbing a flagpole, going-up-and-the-rest-of -you - staying- and that night I dreamed below sensation and gritted my teeth. * Bah! Come along and watch her Hawkins pulled at the lever. The work.” Hydro-Vapor Lift quivered for an in- PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG COMICEMOOC|KS.COnn ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED