United States or Suriname ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Continuing his investigation of the basement, he came to the three huge fifty-horse-power engines, whose duty it is to suck the air from the pneumatic telegraph tubes in the great hall above. Here the detective became quite an engineer, asked with much interest and intelligence about governors, pistons, escape-valves, actions, etcetera, and wound up with a proposition.
The Judge cogitated for a moment, then said: "Ah, that's bad unmarried and forty, and no vices except this. It gives him few escape-valves. Is he good-looking? What is his appearance?" "Nor short, nor tall, and square shoulders. His face like the yellow brown of a peach, hair that curls close to his head, blue eyes that see everything, and a big hand that knows what it is doing."
The Judge cogitated for a moment, then said: "Ah, that's bad unmarried and forty, and no vices except this. It gives him few escape-valves. Is he good-looking? What is his appearance?" "Nor short, nor tall, and square shoulders. His face like the yellow brown of a peach, hair that curls close to his head, blue eyes that see everything, and a big hand that knows what it is doing."
In his ears the clamour of the shipwrecked men upon the decks was only a distant droning, hardly recognised for what it was by him who had not one thought other than to make all possible advantage of every precious instant; and so with the roar of steam from the escape-valves.
Many times a day he lost his temper and, as Lawford phlegmatically expressed it, "blew up." These exhibitions meant nothing particularly to Mr. Tapp. They were escape-valves for a nervous irritability that had grown during his years of idleness.