The Argosy, June 1904 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

526 Bzzzzzz2722! said the steam. 7 Pm going to shout for that ax again,” I said determinedly. “Ten minutes more of this and we'll be cooked alive! ” “ Now——” began the inventor. “ Hawkins, I decline to be converted into stew simply to save your vanity. He——” “Hey!” shouted Hawkins, dancing away from his lever into a corner of the car and regarding the iron plate with round eyes. “What is it now?” I asked breath- lessly. A queer, roaring noise was coming from somewhere. The Hydro-Vapor af- fair executed a series of blood-curdling shakes. From the edges of the plate the steam hissed spitefully and with new vigor. “That—that jackass gineer!” Hawkins sputtered. sending too much steam!” For a moment I didn’t quite catch the significance; then I faltered with sudden weakness: “Hawkins, you said that this plate corresponded to the cylinder-head of an. engine? Then the tube beneath us is full of steam?” “Yes, yes!” “ And if we get too much steam—as we seem to be getting it—will the plate blow off? ” “ Yes—no—yes—no, of course not,” answered Hawkins faintly. “ It’s bolted down with a “But if it should,” I said, dashing the streaming perspiration from my eves for another look at the accursed plate. “Tf it should,” the inventor admit- ted, “we'd either go up to Heaven on it, or we’d stay here and drop!” “Help!” I screamed. “Look out! Look out! Hug the wall!” Hawkins shrieked. A mighty spasm shook the Hydro- Vapor Lift. I fell flat and rolled in- stinctively to one side. Then, ere my bewildered senses could grasp what was occurring, my ears were split by a ter- rific roar. The roof of the car disappeared as if by magic, and through the opening shot that huge, round. plate of iron, of -an en- “ He’s PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ( - cubic mile I THE ARGOSY. seemingly wafted upon a cloud of dense white vapor. Then the steam obscured all else, and | felt that we were falling. Yes, for an instant the car seemed to shudder uncertainly—then she dropped! I can hardly say more of our descent from the fatal thirteenth story. In one second—not more, I am_ certain— twelve spots of hght, representing twelve floors, whizzed past us. I recall a very definite impression that the Blank Building was making an outrageous trip straight upward from New York; and I wondered how the oc- cupants were going to return and whether they would sue the building people for detention from business. But just as I was debating this in- teresting point, earthly concerns seemed to cease. In the cellar of the Blank Building annex a pile of excelsior and bagging and other refuse packing materials pro- truded into the shaft where once had been the Hawkins Hydro-Vapor Lift. That fact, I suppose, saved us from eternal smash. At any rate, I realized after a time that my life had been spared, ‘and at once sat up on the cement flooring of the cellar. Hawkins was standing by a steel pil- lar, smiling blankly. Steam, by the think, was pouring from the flooring of the Hydro-Vapor Litt and whirling up the shaft. I struggled to my feet and tried to walk—and succeeded, very much to my own astonishment. Shaken and bruised and half dead from the shock I cer- tainly was, but I could still travel. TY picked wp my coat and turned to - Hawkins. “{—I think TH go home,” he said weakly. “Tm not well, Griggs.” We ascended a winding stair and passed through a door at the top, and instead of reaching the annex we stepped into the lower hall of the Blank Building itself. The place was full of steam. People were tearing around and_ yelling “Yire!” at the top of their lungs. Women were screaming. Clerks were racing back and forth with big books. Older men appeared here and there, SOU ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED NOOK