Evening star., 1922-06-09

TIME heavy iron door swung smut
with a bang as Paddy ana
Capps. followed by Kennedy
and myself. crept into the air
lock. Paddy turned on valve. ana
compressed air from the tunnei oe-
gan to rush in with hiss as OF
escaping steam. Pound after p0uho
to the square inch. the pressure SLOW : :
" rose until felt sure the drums oi
nv cars would burst Then the mss
ing noise began to dwindle down to
a wheeze. and then it stopped an
of a sudden That meant that 'he
air-pressure in the lock was the s"
as that in the tunnel. Paddy pusneu
open the door in the other end OF 'he
lock from that by which we hao en-
tered.
Along the bottom of the completed
,ube we followed Paddy and Capps.
on we trudged, famed by the hloiS.
breath of the tunnel. Every rev
feet an incandescent light gleameo
in the misty darkness. After per
haps a hundred PAGES we mad 10 uush
down under a semicircular PARTITION
covering the upper half of the TUBE;
What is that" l shouted at Pad
dy, the nasal ring of my voice star
tlinG me.
"Emersency curtain" he shouted
back. :
Words were economical. Later, |
learned that should the tunnel start
70 flood. the other half of the emer-
cency curtain could be dropped so
as to cut off the inrushinS water.
Men passed. pushing little cars full
of muck" or sand taken out from
before the "shield"-which is the
head by which this mechanical mole
advances under the river bed ihtSe
men and others who do the Sho\Sl-
ing are the muckers
pines laid along the side of the
tunnel conducted compressed ar
and fresh water. while electric liSh!
and telephone *ires were strung an
| about These and the tools and other
| things strewn along the tunnel OBJ
| structed the narrow passage TO sucn
/ an extent that we had TO be careiu III
! in picking our way.
At last we reached the shield and
on hands and knees we crawled out
into one of its compartments. H-re
we experienced for the first time the
weird realization that only the AR
stood between US and destruction
from the tons and tons of sand ana
water overhead. At some points IN
the sand we could feel the air escap-
ing. which appeared at the surface
Of the river overhead in bubbles.
indicating to those passing in the
river boats just how far each tunnel
heading below had proceeded. When
the loss of air became too great, 1
learned. scows would dump hundreds
of tons of clay overhead to make an
artificial river bed for the shield TO
stick it's nose safely through. for if
the river bed became too thin over
head the air" would blow hole in
it.
Capps. it seemed to me, was un-
usually anxious to have the visit over
l., = sltr nd
Paddy were still crawling about the
shield, he stood aside, now and then
giving the men an order and ap-
parent forgetful of us.
My own curiosity was quickly
satisfied, and l sat down on pile
of the segments out of which the
successive rings of the tunnel were
made AS | sat there waiting for
Kennedy. l absently reached into
nv pocket and pulled out cigar
ette and lighted it. 1t burned amaz-
inely fast as if it were made OF
finder. the reason being the excess
of oxygen in the compressed air. l.
was looking at it in astonishment.
when suddenly | felt blow on my
hand. 1t was Capps.
You chump"' he shouted as he
ground the cigarette under his boot
Don't you know it is dangerous to-
smoke in compressed air.?
why, no." l replied. smotherins
my anger at his manner. NO one
said anything about it,"
We'll, it is dangerous. and Orton
fool to let greenhorns come in
here.''
ous?" 1 heard a voice inquire over
my shoulder. 1t was Kennedy: TO
Mrc>Jameson or the rest of us?''
Well" answered Capps. II sup
posed everybody knew it was reck-
less, and that he would hurt himself
more by one smoke in the air than
He turned on Kennedy sullenly. and
started to walk back up the tunnel
But l could not help thinking that
his manner was anything but solici-
tude for my own health. l could
Just barely catch his words over the
tunnel telephone some feet away. l
thought he said that everything was
going along all right and that he
was about to start back again. Then
he disappeared in the mist of the
tube without even nodding a fare
well.
Kennedy and remained standing,
not far from the outlet of the pipe
by which the compressed air was
being supplied in the tunnel from
the compressors above, in order to
keep the pressure up to the constant
level necessary. I saw Kennedy give
hurried glance about, as if to note
whether any one were looking at
motion he reached down. In his hand
was a stout little glass flask with
a tight-fitting metal top. For. a sec
ond he held it near the outlet of
the pipe: then he snapped the top
shut and slipped it back into his
pocket as quickly as he had pro-
duced it.
Slowly we commenced to retrace our
steps to the air-lock, our curiosity
satisfied by this glimpse of one of the
most remarkable developments of mod
ern engineering.
where's Paddy" asked Kennedy.
stopping suddenely. We've forgot
ten him."
Back there at the shield. sup
pose" said I. Let's whistle and at
tract his attention"
l pursed up my lips. but if I had
been whistling for a million dollars
! couldn't have done it.
Craig laughed. Walter. you are
indeed learning many strange things.
You can't whistle in compressed air
was too chagrined to answer.
First it was Capps; now it was my
my ignorance. l was glad to see
Paddy's huge form looming in the
semi-darkness. He had seen that we
were gone and hurried after us.
Won't We stay down an see some
more, gintlemen?" he asked, COR
have We had enough of the air? It
seems very smelly to me this mornin'
Il don't b'ame ye. 1 guess them as
doesn't have to, stay here is satis-
fed with a few minutes of it,"
mo, thanks, I guess we needn't
stay down any longer" replied Craig.
II think have seen all that is neces-
sary-at least for the present. Capps
has gone out ahead of US. I think
you can take US out now. Paddy.
would much rather have have you do
it than to go with anybody else"
l,x