The range-finder and the other appliances used with it are the inventions of Lieutenant Bradley A. Fiske, of the United States navy. No other navy than ours has them, although the naval authorities of other nations are thinking of adopting them. If we should have a war right away, we should have an advantage over an enemy. Constant experience has shown their complete success.
In another article we shall consider some more of these "trifles" that are used in connection with electricity on war-ships.
A STORY OF THE WAR OF 1812 BETWEEN AMERICA AND ENGLAND.
The fire must have eaten through the chimney, and had probably been burning in the walls along the staircase and in the floors of the rubbish chambers for some minutes before we had inkling of it. It was almost beyond imagining, the way it spread. But the steps of the staircase itself were firm underfoot, although inside the walls, and even to the roof, the roaring crackling flames were gutting the left wing of the house.
The doctor did not stop to help Mr. Edgerton find the key; he threw his weight against the door I pointed out again and again. It went open with a crash at last, after I had thought that the doctor would have stove his own side in first.
There was no smoke on this side of the house, but it followed us from the hallway, choking the throat and stinging the eyes. There was the box in the middle of the room.
Now we were all three encouraging one another and shouting for haste. Twice did the lawyer drop the bunch of keys as he tried to fit the lock.
"Take them, lad," he cried at last, looking over his shoulder; "your fingers are the nimbler. But make haste!" The tears were pouring down his face; he hurriedly rose from his knees, and, making a leap for the window, kicked out the glass and the shutter that had been nailed fast, and thrust his head to the air, coughing, struggling, and gagging as if his last day had come.
In the mean time the doctor was bending over, with his face close to mine, and whispering admonitions to be cool; but his hand on my shoulder shook as if the ague had possession of him. Upon my soul, I think I was the coolest of the three! Key after key I tried without success. Suddenly the doctor slipped his fingers into the handle at the end.