The danger could not be averted2 by switching off the power altogether at the various electrical stations of the metropolis3. At intervals4 along the tubes were immense accumulators which for the present could not be touched. It was these accumulators that rendered the streets such a ghastly peril5.
It was the electrical expert to the County Council—Alton Rossiter—who first got on the track of the disaster. More than once before, the contact between gas and electricity had produced minor6 troubles of this kind. Gas that had escaped into man-holes and drains had been fired from the sparks caused by a short-circuit current wire. For some time, even as far back as 1895, instances of this kind had been recorded.
But how could the gas have leaked into the tube, seeing that it was a steel core with a solid bedding of concrete beyond? Unless an accident had happened when the tube was under repair, this seemed impossible.
The manager of the associated tubes was quite ready to afford every information to Mr. Rossiter. The core had corroded7 in Bond Street in consequence of a settling of the earth caused by a leaky water-main. The night before, this had been located and the steel skin stripped off for the necessary repairs.
Mr. Alton Rossiter cut the speaker short.
"Will you come to Bond Street with me, Mr. Fergusson?" he said; "we may be able to get into the tunnel there."
Fergusson was quite ready. The damage in Bond Street was not so great, though the lift shaft8 was filled with débris, and it became necessary to cut a way into the station before the funnel9 was reached.
For a couple of hundred yards the tube was intact; beyond that point the fumes10 of gas were overpowering. A long strip of steel hung from the roof. Just where it was, a round, clean hole in the roadway rendered it possible to work and breathe there in spite of the gas fumes.
"We shall have to manage as best we can," Rossiter muttered. "For a little time, at any rate, the gas of London must be cut off entirely11. With broken mains all over the place the supply is positively12 dangerous. Look here."
He pointed13 to the spot where the gas main had trended down and where a short-circuit wire had fused it. Here was the whole secret in a nutshell. A roaring gas main had poured a dense14 volume into the tube for hours; mixed with the air it had become one of the most powerful and deadly of explosives.
"What time does your first train start?" Rossiter asked.
"For the early markets, four o'clock," Fergusson replied. "In other words, we switch on the current from the accumulator stations at twenty minutes to four."
"And this is one of your generating stations?"
"Yes. Of course I see exactly what you are driving at. Practically the whole circuit of tubes was more or less charged with a fearful admixture of gas and air. As soon as the current was switched on a spark exploded the charge. I fear, I very much fear, that you are right. If we can only find the man in charge here! But that would be nothing else than a miracle."
All the same the operator in charge of the switches was close by. Fortunately for him the play of the current in the tube had carried the gases towards St. James's Street. The explosion had lifted him out of his box, and for a time he lay stunned15. Dazed and confused, he had climbed to the street and staggered into the shop of a chemist who was just closing the door upon a customer who had rung him up for a prescription16.
But he could say very little. There had been an explosion directly he pulled down the first of the switches, and his memory was a blank after that.
Anyway, the cause of the disaster was found. To prevent further catastrophe18 notice was immediately given to the various gas companies to cut off the supplies at once. In a little time the whole disastrous19 length of the tube was free from that danger.
By the afternoon a committee had gone over the whole route. At the first blush it looked as if London had been half ruined. It was impossible yet to estimate the full extent of the damage. In St. James's Street alone the loss was pretty certain to run into millions.
Down in Whitehall and Parliament Street, and by Westminster Bridge, the damage was terrible. Here sharp curves and angles had checked the rush of expanding air with the most dire17 results. Huge holes and ruts had been made in the earth, and houses had come down bodily.
Most of the people out in the streets by this time were properly equipped in indiarubber shoes and gloves. It touched the imagination strongly to know that between a man and hideous20 death was a thin sheet of rubber no thicker than a shilling. It was like walking over the crust of a slumbering21 volcano; like skating at top speed over very thin ice.
Towards the evening a thrilling whisper ran round. From Deptford two early specials had started to convey an annual excursion of five hundred men and their wives to Paddington, whence they were going to Windsor. It seemed impossible, incredible, that these could have been overlooked; but by five o'clock the dreadful truth was established. Those two specials had started; but what oblivion they had found—how lingering, swift, or merciful, nobody could tell.
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收听单词发音
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1
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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2
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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3
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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4
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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5
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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6
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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7
corroded
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| 已被腐蚀的 | |
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8
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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9
funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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10
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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11
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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12
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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13
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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14
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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15
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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17
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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18
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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19
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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20
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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21
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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