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The Hydro-Vapor Lift quivered for an instant. Then it ascended the shaft and very gently and pleasantly. "There! I suppose you've trembled until your collar-buttons have worked loose?" Hawkins said contemptuously, turning on me. "Not quite that," I murmured. "Well, you may as well stop.
There are no risky wire-ropes to snap and let down the whole affair." "I know, but there are no wire-ropes to hold her up, either, and " Hawkins snorted angrily. Then he grabbed me bodily and forced me along toward the door of his Hydro-Vapor Lift. "Actually, you do make me tired," he said. "You seem to think that everybody is conspiring to take your wretched little life!"
"There are times," I said, "when appearance don't count for much." "Well, this isn't one of them," rejoined the inventor sourly. I did not reply. There was nothing that occurred to me that wouldn't have offended Hawkins, so I kept silence. We stood there for a period of minutes, but the Hydro-Vapor Lift seemed disinclined to move either up or down.
"The words are synonymous," said Hawkins coldly. "Then why the dickens didn't you call it a steam elevator and be done with it? Wasn't that sufficiently complicated?" "Oh, Griggs, you never seem able to understand! Now, a steam elevator so called is an old proposition. A Hydro-Vapor Lift is entirely new and sounds distinctive!" "Yes, it sounds queer enough," I admitted.
Hawkins gave a mighty push to the controlling apparatus. A charge of dynamite seemed to have been exploded beneath the Hydro-Vapor Lift! Up we shot! I watched the freshly painted numbers between floors as they whizzed by us with shuddering apprehension: 9 10 11 12 "We're going too fast!" I cried. Hawkins, I think, was about to laugh derisively.
I exclaimed, as it dawned upon me that the big iron thing was radiating warm waves through the stuffy little car. "Your Hydro-Vapor Lift will be pleasant to ride in when the thermometer runs up in August, won't it?" Hawkins did not deign to reply, and I fell to examining the plate. "Look," I said, "isn't that steam?" "Isn't what steam?" "Down there," I replied, pointing to the plate.
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