Did you ever go into a man's place
to pay a bill you owed him, and find
him out?
Plankington (emphatically) - No,
sir. Did that happen to you?
"It did. I had a notion, or, rath
er, I nerved mygelW to it, to settle
up some bills that I awed. So on my
way from the office I dropped in to
cords and clutching them wildly and
rising steadily once more!
"Great Caesar's ghost!" gurgled the
inventor. "This is awful!"
"Awful!" I gasped when breath had
returned. "It's-it's-"
"Lord! Lord! We're going straight
for Staten Island. Don't move,
Griggs."
"I can't," I said. "I'm caught tight
here. Good-by, Hawkins."
"We're-we're not done for yet,"
quivered that individual. "We may
hi land. But isn't-isn't it terrible?"
'Oh, no," I groaned. "It's all right.
No more climbing down red-hot lad
del's through belching flames! No
more throwing children from-"
"Don't joke, Griggs," wailed Haw
kins. "I will say I'm sorry I got you
into this."
"Thank you, Hawkins," I said, near
ly strangled by a cord which persisted
in twisting itself about my neck. "So
am I."
Conversation lagged after that. For
my part, I was too dazed and too firm
ly enmeshed in the cords to say much.
I fancy that the same applied to
Hawkins, but he happened to be facing
ahead, and now and then he called
back bulletins of our progress.
"Getting nearer the island," he an
nounced after some ten minutes of
the agony.
