Now tell me, is the feed choked, miss ?' "'I don't know,' she exclaimed.
"'Have you tried letting off the exhaust ?' "She shook her head with a doleful look.
"'I don't know what it is,' she said.
"But already I was hastily gathering together a few instruments, questioning her rapidly as I did so.
"'How's your pressure gauge ?' I asked.

'How's your water?
Do you draw from the mains or are you on the high level reservoir ?' "It had occurred to me at once that it might be merely a case of stoppage of her main feed, complicated, perhaps, with a valvular trouble in her exhaust.

On the other hand it was clear enough that, if her feed was full and her gauges working, her trouble was more likely a leak somewhere in her piping.
"But all attempts to draw from the girl any clear idea of the symptoms were unavailing.

All she could tell me was that the cellar boiler wouldn't work.

Beyond that her answers were mere confusion.