“Are--are they going to allow that?” I gasped.
“Why, nothing's settled as yet; but it is understood that if this experimental model proves a success----”
But my cry had summoned aid. Above us, and hidden by the roof of the car, some one shouted:
“Air ye in the box?” said the voice, its owner evidently astonished.
“An ax!” I repeated. “Get an ax and chop out the roof of this beastly thing so that we can climb out, and----”
Hawkins clapped a hand over my mouth, and his scowl was sinister.
“Haven't you a grain of sense left?” he hissed.
“Yes, of course, I have. That's why I want an ax to----”
“Tell that crazy engineer I want more steam!” bawled Hawkins, drowning my voice.
“More steam?” said the person above. “More steam an' an ax, is it?”
“No--no ax. Tell him I want more steam, and I want it quick! He's got so little pressure that we're stuck!”
We heard the echo of departing footsteps.
“Now, you'd have made a nice muddle, wouldn't you?” snarled the inventor. “We'd have made a nice sight clambering out through a hole in the top of this car!”
“There are times,” I said, “when appearance don't count for much.”
“Well, this isn't one of them,” rejoined the inventor sourly.
I did not reply. There was nothing that occurred to me that wouldn't have offended Hawkins, so I kept silence.
We stood there for a period of minutes, but the Hydro-Vapor Lift seemed disinclined to move either up or down.
Once or twice Hawkins gave a push at his lever; but that part of the apparatus seemed permanently to have retired from active business.
“Shall we move soon?” I inquired, when the stillness became oppressive.
Another long pause, and I hazarded again:
“Well, it is! Ah! The heat is coming from that plate!” I exclaimed, as it dawned upon me that the big iron thing was radiating warm waves through the stuffy little car. “Your Hydro-Vapor Lift will be pleasant to ride in when the thermometer runs up in August, won't it?”
Hawkins did not deign to reply, and I fell to examining the plate.
“Down there,” I replied, pointing to the plate.
A fine jet of vapor was curling from one point at its edge--a thin spout of hot steam!
“That's nothing,” said Hawkins. “Little leak--nothing more.”
“Positively, Griggs, I think you have the most active imagination I ever knew in an otherwise----”