"There's no way those curs could have turned on any gas, here.

You're crazy, ha! ha! ha! Insane, eh?
A good joke--capital joke, that! I must tell it at the Union League Club! 'Tiger' Waldron, suddenly insane, and--ha! ha! ha!" He burst into a long, shrill cacchination.

Already his face was scarlet and his mind a whirl.

Though neither man understood the reason, yet the fact remained that one of the last great explosions had ruptured a subterranean check-valve closing the six-inch pipe that was to feed the storage-tanks; and now a swift, huge stream of pure oxygen gas was rushing at tremendous velocity into the vast chamber of steel.
Waldron, his heart leaping as though it would burst his ribs, raised a fist to strike down his insulter; then, with drunken indecision, joined in the maniacal laughter of the staggering old man.
In their ears a strange, wild humming now became audible.

Lights danced before their eyes; their senses reeled, and violent, extravagant ideas surged through their drunken brains.
"_Ha! Ha! Ha!_" rang Waldron's crazy laughter, echoing the old man's.
All at once, his cigar broke into flame.