| Show A lri V E a 9 TU nEPSy K 13 E 4 clur D p A the iron tomb by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter those lenlon lemonade ade glasses and drink a toast rill ILL up to alex mackail mack ail F of port chester N Y pill fill up tile the longest tallest glasses you can fill up one for each of the thirty thousand members of the ad club and sta II 11 you wont be drinking 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 only by tie the sheerest she erest luck inch that ile he manal managed ed to get out of finishing that cocktail 1 l too luo boys and girls its a lulu 1 of a story 7 it happened in school alex going to 10 that school to net get a cranium of knowledge though he was there for the good hard cash there here was in it maybe the fact that the school was in scotland had something tom ething to do with that it was in the year 1922 and alex who was just a 1 kid then had nailed himself a job ob as apprentice with a boiler repairing firm in the scottish town of glasgow trapped inside a rapidly filling boiler they were working on a huge boiler in the basement of the Cly clydebank Clyde debank hank public school there were three of them on that job alex ales ills his boss and an hi inspector tile the in inspector had climbed out of the boiler room and gone home alexs alas boss had decided that done enough work for the day and had combed climbed out after him to telephone the shop alex was going to wait until the loss bm came caine back from telephoning so they could both go home together while to he waited he pulled a copy of a diamond dick novel out of his pocket and sat flown down beside a gut guttering terin g candle to read in a few minutes he had forgotten that he was sitting inside a stuffy old boiler ue ile was out on the open prairie following diamond dick through a series of adventures that would curl the quills of a porcupine ile he realize r C C 0 f IL H tn in a frenzy he pounded on the metallic wall that in another minute or wo iwo hed be going through h a real lion honest est to goodness adventure of ills 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 tile 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 bis head then lie fie rushed to the front of the boiler and be began an hammering on it with ills his bare fists alint do any good the no noise se of the pump outside drowned any sound he might inight make that way in a frenzy of fear he ran to tile the pipe through which the water was coming and made a futile attempt to stop tile the low flow with his is lands hands that get allm anywhere either cither but the cold water that dashed in ills his face sort of brought him to his senses and he fie started telling himself to k keep e LP a level lead head the deadly water kept pouring in my breath he cays was coming in sobs I 1 remembered that I 1 had ad 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 soni someone eone 0 outside to shut the water off when alien it re reached ached the gauge leel that much com forte rt though because by the time the water reached tile gauge gaug ge fe leel el it would be a afoot foot over my head another few minutes and alex ales began to get dizzy the pressure C caused by y the inrush of mater aler was going to ills his head dead still ile he V 1 I 1 11 tided led way away 1 a not net because in ills his te terror aror he thought it would do any good but because think ink to stop the grim reapers readers Re apers scythe nearly fell his mind what would h his s fearsome thoughts were going through mother home that night would anybody ever say when he come tid find him what would happen when they lit the fre fire in the morning arteLl screal screaming lillig an and 1 sl it was then says alex that I 1 went insane tear ft S with my bare hands at the rusty iron it n wall of the boiler I 1 seemed to tear 1 but I 1 was too far r voices outside saying hold on alex ill get you gon the water had stopped to realize what flat it meant 1 even noticed that coming in there an and d tile the next tiling than S in I 1 se seemed eucled to lose my senses somewhere lanew w I 1 tn ill tile school yard was lying on oll my back out had 11 he e yes alexs alexa boss ind had dragged him out of 1 hat hoiler boiler unconscious fallen aa ills his lull lungs gs that the boss had in n a ta nt and had taken tal so much water into to give eive him film artificial respiration before tie he came to alex alek Is a browd wan naeta now ile he was vas s hat but Ini minutes when he still horrible coteen D has about that t ua night nightmares wares appedu in a filling ailing boiler 0 W WU U service |
