“I see a man,” exclaimed Billy, “up in a cage!”
“He’s controlling that crane,” said Mr. Prescott. “See it carry that ingot of red-hot iron!”
“This,” said Dr. Crandon, “passes belief. There’s a boy over there, in a reclining chair, who is opening a furnace down on this side.”
“Look at that!” exclaimed John Bradford, pointing to a crane like a huge thumb and forefinger, which had picked up a red-hot ingot, tons in weight, and was dropping it on a waiting car.
“Let’s follow it,” said Mr. Prescott, pleased to see John Bradford so excited.
They followed it to a room filled with clanking rolls.
Another crane swung the red-hot iron into the jaws of rollers.
On went the fiery bolt, sometimes up on one roller, then down on another, till at last they found that it had come out a finished rail.
Then a huge, round steel magnet, lowered by a man in a derrick house, picked up half a dozen rails; another lever sent the crane down the overhead tracks; and the rails were dropped in order on waiting cars.
“It used,” said Mr. Prescott, “to take a dozen men to load a single rail.