Year: 1875

king bell of the chimes of st. Johns.
Faithfully lie kept his place before the
furnace, while the man George sat down
at little distance and began to eat his
supper Doubtless the latter intended
to keep general oversight, but he GER
tainly made the inventors eyes do most
of the looking. Whether he felt kind
| of reckless trust in the instinct of his
half-witted companion, or idolently con-
cluded that nothing wrong could hap
! pen, he was sadly to blame for chargin g
himself SO little with the important duty
before him.


Not word was said by either watcher
and only the deep roar of the furnace
was heard through the vast foundry.
George finished his supper and sarn-
tered into one of the tool shops to hld
his pipe. Inventor sat alone before
the great blast. The one rational facul-
ty of his feeble mind enabled him to
! comprehend what it meant, and even
something of the magnitude of the en-
terprise that was 1ipening inside those
burning walls. He knew that the fur
mace was full of valuable metal, and that
close beside him, buried out of sight in
the sand, was the huge mold, soon to be
filed with the precious cast. He knew
and could see that all the channels for
the flow of the fiery liquid were ready,
/ and that near the mouth of the furnace
stood the long iron rod that was to be
used when the moment came to let on
| the motion stream.


All this his limited thoughts took in
by habit. Dimly conscious that some
thing was soon to be done, he sat with
intent.


| Suddenly something startled him.
| There was slight noise, and burning
crack appeared near the top of the fur
mace. Then another crack, and scorch-
ing brick fell out and rolled to the
| ground at his feet.


The lad opened his mouth to shrek,
| but SO terrified was he that the sounds
stuck in his throat, as if he had been in
a fit of nightmare.


| A thin red stream followed the fallen
| brick, and trickled down the furnace
side like running lava. Then came an
| other alarming noise, and thin gap
half way down the masonry let out more
| of the kissing metal.


f,;f
full fellow still hunting for his pipe? The
furnace was bursting with only poor
half-idiot lad to guard it.


What did he do? He did what per-
haps lad in his right mind would not
have dared to do. Rushing to the mouth
of the furnace, he seized the long iron
rod that stood near, and tapped the vent.
One desperate thrust with sharp point
up the terrible funnel-a few quick pry-
| ing strokes. Stand back now. The
conining clay fell away, and the yellow
white food spurted out with resistless
force. It Ieaped into the clay-ined
troughs, and hissed its way, flaming
down to the mouth of the bell mold.


The ''fool' had done deed worthy of
a general on a field of battle.


Was it too late A? Every moment new
assures opened in the doomed furnace.
Some of the upper stones toppled over.
Still the metal poured out into the mold
| But the waste was great from those gap
| ing flaws. The pressure was relieved by
the open vent, but the leaks multiplied
continually. 1t was art running race
with ruin.


Poor "Mopus" stood rowerless before
tine coming catastrophe. His knees
| knocked together and his head swan. A
| great heap of red hot bricks and rubbish
| fell at his feet. He had barely thought
| to get out of the way and save his life.
| He heard wild shout of voices in the
| distance, then an awful roar behind him,
and he saw and felt himself pursued by
surges of seething fire. Sharp, blister
ing pains pierced his flesh at hundred
| points. The rest was all horrible, un-
| Ineligible dream. 1t was as if he had
suddenly sank into the earth and had
been swallowed up.


BY seven o'clock comparative quiet
reigned again on the scene of the disas-
ter. Ruins lay everywhere. The engines
had quenched the flames that had caught
the building, and the men, blackened
with smoke, stood in silent groups
around the remains of the furnace. 1t
had fallen to pieces and nothing was left
but heaps of steaming rubbish.
I Poor Inventor" who had been found
with the tapping-rod in his hand, lying
on his face in the sand, frightfully burn
ed, had been carried to his home.


Little was said, but the few words
spoken uttered with no mild emphasis
hands against the man George, whose
excuses for himself only exaggerated his
offense.


''See what he's DONE" said they, a
few days later, as they stood in the half
burned foundry. Give thousand dol
lars gone to waste in a minute The
best job in twenty years spoiled! The
rascal, to go hunting for his pipe and
leave that suffering idiot to watch Is
that all he can say for himself? Out
upon such carelessness Why, the boy
didn't even know enough to bawl out
when he 1lust have seen the furnace
tumhling to pieces !"