Then I perceived where we were. The Blank Building people had been constructing an addition to their immense stack of offices; we stood in the freshly completed and wholly unoccupied annex.
“There, sir!” said Hawkins, extending his forefinger. “What do you see, Griggs?”
“Six empty barrels, about three wagon-loads of kindling wood, a new tiled floor, and six brand-new elevators,” I replied.
“Oh, hang those things! Look—where I'm pointing!”
“Ah! somebody's left a packing-box in one of the elevator-shafts, eh?”
Certainly, more than anything else, that was what it resembled.
At the first glance it appeared to be nothing more than a crude wooden case about the size of an elevator car, standing in one of the shafts and contrasting unpleasantly with the other new, shining polished cars.
“Packing—ugh!” snapped the inventor “Do you know what that is?”
“You turned down my first guess,” I suggested humbly.
“Griggs, what appears to you as a packing-box is nothing more nor less than the first and only Hawkins Hydro-Vapor Lift!”