How were we to
surmount this last and most formidable barrier?
I turned in time to see Kennedy and O'Connor hurrying up the
steps with a huge tank studded with bolts like a boiler, while
two other men carried a second tank.
"There," ordered Craig, "set the oxygen there," as he placed his
own tank on the opposite side:
Out of the tanks stout tubes led, with stopcocks and gages at the
top. From a case under his arm Kennedy produced a curious
arrangement like a huge hook, with a curved neck and a sharp
beak. Really it consisted of two metal tubes which ran into a
sort of cylinder, or mixing chamber, above the nozzle, while
parallel to them ran a third separate tube with a second nozzle
of its own. Quickly he joined the ends of the tubes from the
tanks to the metal hook, the oxygen-tank being joined to two of
the tubes of the hook, and the second tank being joined to the
other. With a match he touched the nozzle gingerly. Instantly a
hissing, spitting noise followed, and an intense blinding needle
of flame.
"Now for the oxy-acetylene blowpipe," cried Kennedy as he
advanced toward the steel door. "We'll make short work of this."
Almost as he said it, the steel beneath the blowpipe became
incandescent.
Just to test it, he cut off the head of a three-quarter-inch
steel rivet--taking about a quarter of a minute to do it.
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