“Hurry, please,” added Mr. Allen, looking straight at Larry. “I am in the midst of an important experiment.”
Thereupon Larry went to the bench. Mr. Allen was holding one end of a long steel tube from which radiated several smaller tubes of glass. At one end of the steel tube was a rubber pipe which was attached to a gas jet, and at the other end of the tube there was another pipe which was fastened to a water faucet.
“Turn on the gas a little more, and then help me hold this tube,” spoke the scientist. “I am generating steam.”
He spoke as though it was the most natural thing in the world for Larry to be there, and give him assistance. Larry recognized that Mr. Allen was too much absorbed in his experiment to care who helped him, so the boy lent a hand.
Larry turned the gas on, and then grasped one end of the tube. Mr. Allen held the other. There was a curious rumbling sound, followed by a roar.
“Duck! She’s going to explode again!” cried Mr. Allen, dropping his end of the tube, and crawling under a table. Larry lost no time in following his example. The next instant there was a loud report, and pieces of the tube and rubber hose were flying in all directions.
“It’s all over, you can come out now,” remarked the scientist, in a quiet voice, a few seconds later.
“Does it often act that way?” inquired Larry, earnestly.
“That’s the twenty-seventh time it has blown up,” replied the professor. “I guess the glass is not strong enough for the steam.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?” ventured Larry.