Show ww adventurers CLUB 1 the lion iron tomb v by bj FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter bof 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 foi each of the thirty thousand members of the adventurers club and still you wont be drinking as big a toast as the one alex himself almost drank alex started working on a tall fall cool one that was 20 feet long and 12 feet high aldno and no lemon juice or sugar in it either it was only by the sheerest shee she iest erest luck that lie managed to get out of finishing that cocktail too boys and girls its a lulu of a story it li happened in school alex going to that school to get a cr cranium mum of knowledge though he was there for the good hard cash thre there was vas in it maybe the fact th that atthe the school was in scotland had something to do with that it was in the year 1922 and alex who was just a kid then had nailed himself a job as apprentice with a boiler re repairing paIrIn g firm in the scottish town of glasgow trapped inside a rapidly filling boiler they were working on a 0 huge boiler in the basement of the clydebank Cl Cly debank public school there were three of them on that job alex ales his boss and an inspector the inspector had find climbed out of the boiler room and gone home alexs boss had decided that done enough work for the day find 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 waited lie pulled a copy of a diamond dick novel out of his pocket and sat down beside a guttering candle to read in a few minutes he had forgotten that he was sitting inside a stuffy old boiler he was out on the open prairie following diamond dick through a series of adventures that would curl the quills of a porcupine he realize C t 1 I 7 in n a frenzy F renzy he pounded an on thi the metafile Me tafile 1 wall that in another minute or two b hed e d be going through a real honest to goodness adventure of his own own an adventure that would maki make all of diamond dicks exploits look like so many pink tea bartles pait part les lesS ac t ir I 1 4 t the next thing alex kne knew there atas wasa a tremendous rush ruiah pi water at the fa far end iii of the boiler oi e Jumped 1 and h 0 canall beside him rolled to the floor a and i n d went outi out i alix alex looked uthen lip ithen for the daylight that should be streaming through the tn angole 1616 top pethe af pf the boiler but the big tank was black as night tji his aps bps s had come bachand bac back kand and thinking alex had gone homi home had replaced iced the manhole cover and started to fill the boiler up f ales lost his head then Hervi he rushed hed to tie the front of the holler boiler and began hammering hammeil ng on it with his bare fists that covany do any goop goo atte the noise of the pump outside di owned drowned any so sound adhe he make that dayi in a frenzy of fear lie ran to the pipe through which the water was coming and made a futile attempt to td stop the fiba with his big hands bands that get hini him anywhere either but the cold wa water ier thadda that dashed shed in his face sort of brought bi ought him blin to his senses and he started telling tilling himself to keep a level head the deadly water kept Kepi pouring in my breath he says was coming In I 1 remembered bat that I 1 hadI hadlett had left eft a hammer and chisel at the othir other end of the boiler and and I 1 started back to get them that boiler was just twenty feet long but it seemed like twenty mites miles the water vias was setting getting higher every minute but I 1 finally fin ally madi made it found the hammer and started pounding on on the sides I 1 pounded hard enough to loosen the klets rivets but still thi the water came pouring in I 1 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 ahe time the water reached the gauge niel level it would be a foot over my head another few minutes and alex befanto be ganto get dizzy the pressure caused by tee inrush of water was going to his head still soll he pounded away not because he thought it would do any good but beca because fise in his terror he be think to stop the grim reapers readers Re apers scythe nearly foll fell fearsome thoughts were going through his mind what would his mother say when he come home that night would anybody e ever er find him what would happen wh when inthey they fit the ae ire 1 in i n the morning jt it was waa then anji sas alex that I 1 went insane I 1 stalled screaming and tearing with my bare hands at the rusty iron wall of the boiler I 1 seemed to hear bear voices outside saying hold on aiebi alex ill III geyo uj j but I 1 was too far gone to realize what it meant I 1 even noticed that the water had stopped coming ip in I 1 seemed to lose ray my senses somewhere in there and the next thing I 1 knew I 1 was lying on my back out in the school ard yes alexs boss had dragged him out of that boiler unconscious he had fallein alien in a faint and had taken so much water into ats his lungs that the boss had to give him artificial respiration before lie he came to alex Is a krown grown man now but he still has nightmares about that hoi horrible minutes when hen he was trapped in a filling boiler Q service |