"The old teakettle is just getting 'het up' a bit. By the gods and
little fishes, just listen to it singing down there!"
The help was gathered in a crowd at the head of the bath-house
staircase, where a cloud of steam was coming up, and down below we could
hear furious talking, and somebody shouting, "Mike! Mike!" in a voice
that was choked with rage and steam.
Doctor Barnes elbowed his way through the crowd to the top of the stairs
and I followed.
"There's Minnie!" Amanda King yelled. "She knows all about the place.
Minnie, you can shut it off, can't you?"
"I'll try," I said, and was starting down, when Doctor Barnes jerked me
back.
"You stay here," he said. "Where's Mr. Pier--where's Carter?"
"Down with the engineer," somebody replied out of the steam cloud.
"Hello there!" he called down the staircase. "How's the air?"
"Clothes! Send us some clothes!"
It was Mr. Sam calling. The rest was swallowed up in a fresh roaring,
as if a steam-pipe had given away. That settled the people below. With
a burst of fury they swarmed up the stairs in their bath sheets, the
bishop leading, and just behind him, talking as no gentleman should talk
under any circumstances, Senator Biggs. The rest followed, their red
faces shining through the steam--all of them murderous, holding their
sheets around them with one hand, and waving the other in a frenzy. It
was awful.
The help scattered and ran, but I stood my ground. The sight of a man in
a sheet didn't scare me and it was no time for weakness.
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