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As the gale gave no signs of abating, our three Indians swam on shore, Kallolo with his blowpipe, and the other two with their bows, to kill some game. After safely landing, they were soon lost to sight amid the trees. The skipper would allow no one else to go. "It will not be wise to be left shorthanded, in case anything should happen," he observed. "We know not what may occur."
Their lines wavered, but fresh men took the places of the fallen, and they pushed on. Another volley from our guns, and the dead and wounded encumbered the progress of the living. A shower of stones and timbers gave us the light, and they withdrew with savage yells to open the siege once more. Only one of our men had been wounded, he by an arrow from a blowpipe. All that night we kept watch.
These dimensions are however small, compared to those of the tubes from Drigg, one of which was traced to a depth of not less than thirty feet. The internal surface is completely vitrified, glossy, and smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope appeared, from the number of minute entangled air or perhaps steam bubbles, like an assay fused before the blowpipe.
The construction and power of blowpipes, with the laws ruling the proportions and power, will be found in an article on "Blowpipe Construction," published in Design and Work, March, 1881, and as the matter is there fully treated, no further reference to the subject is necessary.
The success of the whole business depended on the fact that brass filings, which bear a strong external resemblance to gold dust, are dissipated in the strong heat of the blowpipe.
But I, well knowing what this was and remembering the unseen thing that had tracked us, turned to the shadow of a bush hard by and thus beheld a shaggy head that peered amid the leaves, a hairy face with wild, fierce eyes and teeth that gleamed. So the man John stared down at his handiwork, flourished his deadly blowpipe and was gone. "He is dead!" said Don Federigo.
They have the advantage too of not breaking the skin; but for flying a shotgun is infinitely more accurate. You will have little difficulty in learning to shoot well, as your eye is already trained by the use of your blowpipe. Will you want any knives for skinning?" "No, sir. I have a plentiful stock of them." "Are you going back to Eaton Square?
The thousands of uses to which blowpipes are adapted are so well known, that they need no mention, except the curiously ignored fact that the power of any blowpipe depends on the air pressure. A compact flame of high temperature cannot be obtained except with a heavy air pressure, and the ignorance of this fact has caused an immense number of unexplained failures.
"They say that to-night there's going to be a massacre." "Aha! Thunder!" exclaimed Chichoy, looking about for a weapon. Seeing none, he caught up his blowpipe. The silversmith sat down, trembling in every limb. The credulous simpleton already saw himself beheaded and wept in anticipation over the fate of his family. "No," contradicted the clerk, "there's not going to be any massacre.
He looked vaguely about for something that Thornton might smoke, then seated himself on a cluttered bench holding a number of retorts, beside which flamed an oxyacetylene blowpipe. He was a wizened little chap, with scrawny neck and protruding Adam's apple. His long hair gave no evidence of the use of the comb, and his hands were the hands of Esau.
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