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A GAS CALLED KX
237

body fell over; it might be coming now on us. Do you feel any movement of air from that pipe?"

"I can't be sure," I said.

"Come out now," said Teverson, pulling at me absolutely unnecessarily; he didn't have to put up any argument. "I may be a damn fool, as Sencort suggests, but then I've rather a longer life expectancy—away from slotted gas pipes—than he. Besides, I'm beginning to feel some of this is personal against me. I was invited to Costrelman's dinner and was expected, though I didn't get there. . . . Weston, get help at once and try to cover the places where these pipes may run to; they may be entirely outside the building, of course. Jump! Reed, post men here to see no one uses this room or room next to it to-day. Leave the electric lights burning as if the room was being used and send some one, on the run, to that animal store the other side of Broadway in a cellar, Thames Street, I think, and buy four or five guinea pigs; if he gets back with them in fifteen minutes, cover your head, hold your breath, and put them inside this door; close it. If he doesn't get back that soon, don't even go near the door. Wait