adventurers PR V CLUB 4 1 4 the iron tomb by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter FILL ILL up those lemonade glasses and drink a toast to alex mackail of port chester N Y fill up the longest tallest glasses you can find fill up one for each of the thirty thousand members of the adventurers club and still you wont be drinking drinkin tg as big a toast as the one alex himself almost drank alex started working on a tall cool one that was 20 feet long and 12 feet high and no lemon juice or sugar in it either it was orill only b by y the sheerest she erest luck that lie he managed to get out of finishing that cocktail too boys and girls its a lulu of a story it happened in school alex going to that school to get a cranium of knowledge though he was there for the good hard cash there was in it maybe the fact that the school was in scotland had something to do with that it was in the year 1922 and alex who was wa just a kid then had nailed himself a job as apprentice with a boiler repairing firm in the scottish town of glasgow trapped inside a rapidly pilling filling boiler they were working on a huge boiler in the basement of the Cly clydebank debAnk public school there were three of them on that joh job alex his boss and fin an inspector the inspector had climbed out of the boiler room and gone home alexs boss had decided that done enough work for the lay day and had climbed out after him to telephone the shop alex was going to wait until the boss came back from telephoning so they could both go home together while he be waited he pulled a copy of a diamond dick novel out of his pocket and silt sat down beside a guttering glittering candle to read in a few minutes he had forgotten that he was sitting inside a stuffy study old boiler lie ile was out on the open prairie following follon in dia diamond mond dick through a series of adventures that would curl the quills of a porcupine tie ile realize Z P 2 in a frenzy he pounded on the metallic wall that in another minute or two hed be going through a real honest to goodness adventure of his own an adventure that would make all of diamond dicks exploits look like so many pink tea parties the next thing alex knew there was a tremendous rush of water at the far end of the boiler he jumped and the candle beside him rolled to the floor and went out alex looked up then for the daylight that should be streaming through the manhole in the top of the boiler but the big tank was black as night his boss had come back and thinking alex had gone home had replaced the manhole cover and started to fill the boiler up alex lost his head then lie ile rushed to the front of the boller boiler and began hammering on it with his bare fists that do any good the noise of the pump outside drowned any sound he might make that wily way in a frenzy of fear he ran to the pipe through which the water was coming and made a futile attempt to stop the flow with ills his hands that get him anywhere either but the cold water that dished dashed in his face sort of broughal him to his senses and lie he started telling himself to keep a 1 level head the deadly water kept pouring in my breath he says was coming in sobs I 1 remembered that I 1 had left a hammer and chisel at the other end of the boiler and I 1 started back to get them that boiler was just twenty feet long but it seemed like twenty miles the water was getting higher every minute but I 1 finally made it found the hammer and started pounding on the sides I 1 pounded hard enough to loosen the rivets but still the water came pouring in nevertheless I 1 kept on pounding I 1 knew there must be someone outside to shut the water off when it reached the gauge level that much comfort though because by the time the water reached the gauge level it would be a foot over my head another few minutes and alex began to get dizzy the pressure caused by the inrush of water was going to his head still he pounded away not because lie thought it would mould do any good but because in his terror lie he think to stop stal the grim reapers readers Re apers scythe nearly pell fell fearsome thoughts were going through his mind what would his mother say when he come home that night would anybody ever find him what would happen when they lit the fire in the morning it was then says alex that I 1 went insane I 1 started screaming and tearing with my lay bare hands at the rusty iron wall of the boiler I 1 seemed to near bear voices outside saving hold on alex ales ill get youl put cut I 1 was too for far gone to realize what it meant I 1 even noticed that the water had stopped coming in I 1 seemed to lose my iny senses somewhere in there and the next thing I 1 knew I 1 was lying on my back out in ID the school yard yes alexs boss loss had dragged him out of that boiler unconscious ile he had fallen in a faint and had taken so much water into his lungs that tiie the boss had to give him artificial respiration before he came to alex Is a grown man now nov but he still lias has about that horrible fifteen minutes when he be was trapped in a filling boiler 0 service lc