The tiny animal was racing around its cage.
Memory of the fact that such mice on submarines indicated the presence of leaks from battery or engine of undetected gases such as sulphuric acid gas came. He wondered if his dark-room held such a menace to respiration. He decided to take the mouse to the outer air and observe its reaction.
To his dismay, the inner door of the light trap did not respond.
He was wedged or otherwise fastened in. And the mouse was certainly exhibiting signs of uneasiness.
Chapter 31
THE HIDDEN MENACE
Instead of shouting, beating on the door and otherwise wasting energy and using up the available oxygen of the room, Roger paused, taking only the precaution of mounting on a high developing table, to avoid any floor accumulation of poisonous fumes.
Such mice, he remembered, could detect a dangerous fume long before human nostrils caught the odor; and this made them life-savers on submarines. They gave the crews time to trace gas fumes and suppress or nullify their effect.
“Now, there isn’t any gas I know of in what I am using,” Roger spoke, under his breath, to his tiny companion, just as most people will discuss an emergency with a dog or cat.
Fumes of such chemicals as he might use for “reducing” and “intensifying” improperly exposed negatives gave off offensive odors in certain mixtures; but he had mixed none. Hypo was not dangerous: and the ventilating system should have sucked away any fumes of whatever sort, he knew.
Nevertheless, the animal grew still more excited.