Torch bearer

“ Like parasital mites making their intestinal way the two men followed the windings of the narrow, black corridor until they came into another chamber where, from a grotto in the wall, oil was taken to replenish the torch cups.
"There is now a long journey before thee," the torch-bearer said. "Many and devious windings will take thee up and down, back and across the Campagna that doth lie, with its cart burdened roads, fifty feet above our heads. By the light of thy lamp thou wilt see the walls change. ”

“ The scene becomes continually clearer and brighter; the individual torches and their bearers appear distinctly, and behold! the mass of people separates before our eyes. To right and left they shrink back, as if the multitude feared that advancing train would yet snatch another out of this moving throng, out of the gladsome drift of life into the chill of the grave.
A numerous band of music comes at the head of the procession, lighted by torch-bearers. ”

“ To scare and vex the Papists, the church bells began to clash out as early as three o'clock on the morning of that dangerous day. At dusk the procession of several thousand half-crazed torch-bearers started from Moorgate, along Bishopsgate Street, and down Houndsditch and Aldgate (passing Shaftesbury's house imagine the roar of the monster mob, the wave of torches, and the fiery fountains of squibs at that point!) , then through Leadenhall Street and Cornhill, by the Royal Exchange, along Cheapside and on to Temple Bar, where the bonfire awaited the puppets. ”

“ At the village boundary the procession stops and the torch-bearers throw down their torches. At the same moment the spirits of the dead are believed to pass into the dying flambeaux and in that guise to depart to the far country. There is therefore no further need for their living representatives, who are accordingly stripped of all their finery on the spot. When the people return home, each family is careful to light a pine torch and set it burning on a stone in the house just inside the front door ”

“ The horses are speedily put to the fire-engine, the buckets placed in a row, a couple of torches lighted, and the torch-bearers stand ready on either side holding on to the engine, which is instantly covered with men. ”

“ After a little while in the intense silence of the forest she ventured to touch the switch of her torch, very cautiously.
In the faint, pale lustre she saw a tiny rivulet flowing westward from a spring, and, beside it, in the mud, imprints of a man's feet.
The tracks were small, narrow, slimmer than imprints made by any man she could think of. Under the glimmer of her torch they seemed quite fresh; contours were still sharp, some ready to crumble, and water stood in the heels. ”

“ The flaring torch he dashed full at a grisly muzzle that snapped and slavered at his legs. To their nostrils the singe of burned hair wafted. Yelping, the beast swerved back.
But others ran in and in at them; and now the torch was failing. Both of them shouted and struck; and the revolver stabbed the night with fire.
Pandemonium rose in the forest. Cries, howls, long wails and snuffing barks blent with the clicking of ivories, the pad-pad-pad of feet, the crackling of the underbrush. ”

“ Sometimes, as if it crouched beneath a stroke, the flame of the torch would dip and shrink under a current of gas, then leap jocund again when the peril was swept by; sometimes the tinkle of falling water would gladden our ears as with a memory of ancient happiness; and, passing on, in a moment we should be bedewed with spray, and catch a glimpse, in the glare, of a very dropping well of fire. At length, at the turning of a corridor, Gusman called us to a halt. ”

“ ISABELLA’S CHRONICLE. CHAPTER VII.
THE TORCH. I did not know what had happened. I did not see the walls fall down. It was very dark, and some one held my arm. Then I saw the flare of a torch.
I could hear no voice in the commotion, but it was upon Roy Lee’s face that the light of the torch fell. I saw his steel blue eyes in quick search for the cave look swiftly around.
Above our heads the tunnel walls were roofed with trees laid crosswise. These were coated with ice; long icicles depended like white swords, gleaming above our heads.
When the torch expired we should die in darkness! ”

“ A hurried altercation in low tones, a subdued word of command, [Pg 64] and a dozen men, their rifles and entrenching tools slung over their shoulders, applied themselves to the back of our car, and slowly it slithered out of the mud. The column broke into file to allow us to pass, my companion went on ahead with a tiny electric torch to show the way, and with infinite caution we nudged slowly along the rank, the faint light of the torch bringing face after face out of the darkness into chiaroscuro, faces young and fresh and ruddy. ”

“ Travers began to walk toward the featureless black mass of the stockade. When after a few steps she looked back over her shoulder, the lagoon, the beach, the canoe, the men she had just left had become already invisible. She was alone bearing up a blazing torch on an earth that was a dumb shadow shifting under her feet. At last she reached firmer ground and the dark length of the palisade untouched as yet by the light of the torch seemed to her immense, intimidating. ”

“ Lighting two of the largest torches she fixed them slantingwise in crevices of the rock, so that their flame shone over the mouth of the shaft, down which she threw, first, a bundle of unlit torches, and, lastly, one on fire. This torch did not go out, as she half expected that it would, for presently, looking down the pit, she saw a spark of light shining a hundred and fifty feet or more beneath her. ”

“ The idea of this torch is to have the light above the heads of the campers. The trouble with a fire upon the ground is that while the flames give light they also hide part of the crowd, and the smoke is always in someone's face. This elevated torch is a brand new idea for this purpose. ”

“ The torch is a thick tube, perhaps a foot and a half long, with a bull's-eye of glass at one end. By pressing a spring the electric rays project like the illumination of an engine's headlight. A release of the spring causes instant darkness. I have found this invention useful in that it concentrates the light on any particular spot desired, leaving all the surroundings in gloom, so that the mind is not distracted, even unconsciously, by the eye beholding more than is necessary at the moment. One pours a white light over any particular substance as water is poured from the nozzle of a hose. ”

“ So, with a little electric torch in one hand and the other held out blindly before me, I crept into the darkness that was, presumably, Vining’s entrance hall.
After a moment I heard the front door close softly behind me, and then I ventured to use the torch.
Have you ever gone into a strange house and tried to make out the lay of the land with a pocket torch? The torch shows up only one tiny spot at a time, and when you have swept it all over one article of furniture and made out its general dimensions, you have forgotten everything else! ”

“ There are no words but the lilt up and down of the boys' tenor voices.
Then, as if they had finished the task of gathering up the wreaths and sweeping the petals, they stand in groups of two before the pillars where the torches have been placed. They lift the torches from the brackets. They hold them aloft between them, one torch to each two boys. Their figures are cut against the curtain like the simple, triangular design on the base of a vase or frieze—the boys' heads on a level, the torches above them. ”

“ To my considerable satisfaction I discovered that the air remained as pure as above, and there was no sign of the ropes yielding or parting; but the light from my electric torch showed nothing in the wall in the way of steps or break. It was as nature had left it, smooth and unbroken. ”

“ Strange as it may seem, the brass tip of the torch does not melt in this heat because the pressure behind the gases forces them out with such velocity that the flame is far enough removed from the tip to do it no injury, just so long as the operator does not put the tip square against the metal and drive the flame back against it. ”

“ The torch makes a flame that will cut through two inches of solid steel in less than a minute and pierce a twelve-inch piece of the hardest steel in less than ten minutes—a task that would take a saw almost twenty hours to accomplish.
When the soul burns with the heat of great enthusiasm, it will burn through obstacles that are entirely insuperable to ordinary efforts. ”

“ We had fancied that the fire was dying out; but the luminous ring around the horizon proved that the flames were still ascending. It was only that the noise came from a greater distance, that we heard it less distinctly.
Our human foes must have been still further away, they must have retired before the widening rim of the conflagration. But they had calculated upon doing so before applying the torch. In all likelihood, they had retreated to the savanna, to await the result.
Their object in firing the forest was not so easily understood. ”

“ The Baron and his knights returned up the broad stairway that led to the Rittersaal. Most of the torches were carried with them. The defences of the castle were so strong that no particular pains were taken to make all secure, further than the stationing of an armed man at the gate. A solitary torch burnt under the archway, and here a guard paced back and forth. The courtyard was in darkness, but the top of the highest turrets were silvered by the rising moon. The doomed men stood with the halters about their necks, as silent as a row of spectres. ”

“ Large jobs of brazing may be handled with a charcoal fire built in the forge, as this fuel produces a very satisfactory and clean fire. The only objection is in the difficulty of confining the heat to the desired parts of the work.
The most satisfactory fire is that from a fuel gas torch built for this work. These torches are simply forms of Bunsen burners, mixing the proper quantity of air with the gas to bring about a perfect combustion. Hose lines lead to the mixing tube of the gas torch, one line carrying the gas and the other air under a moderate pressure. ”

“ Against that thick blanket of mist the penetrating power of the torch's gleam was so effectually blunted that it could do nothing more than throw a pale, weak circle of light a few feet into the depths of a crowding vapour, leaving all beyond and upon either side doubly dark in contrast. ”

“ He kept her back and edged towards the trap-door, testing the soundness of the floor inch by inch as he advanced. It was not until he had thus satisfied himself about the safety of the footing right up to the edge of the opening that he would allow her to approach it.
They knelt down and turned the light of the torch into the gap. It shot down far into the blackness till it lost itself in space. Higher up they could see that the shaft was circular and lined with green, slimy brick. ”

“ The cutting torch is the same as the welding torch with the exception of an additional pipe from which flows a jet of pure oxygen to give the flame the necessary cutting property. The greater the supply of oxygen the greater the combustion, and the more penetrating the flame. ”

“ When gas is not available, recourse may be had to the gasoline torch made for brazing. This torch is built in the same way as the small portable gasoline torches for soldering operations, with the exception that two regulating needle valves are incorporated in place of only one.
The torches are carried on a framework, which also supports the work being handled. Fuel is forced to the torch from a large tank of gasoline into which air pressure is pumped by hand. ”

“ It’s a risk moving on, isn’t it? I expect that’s it.’ But she sounded very doubtful.
He switched off the small lights of the car, found the torch, and stepped out into about a foot of water. ‘We shall have to wade back,’ he told her, flashing the light inside. ‘I wonder if I could carry you.’
‘No, you couldn’t,’ she replied. ‘I’m an awful weight.’ Nevertheless he swooped upon her, just as she was getting out, and went [230] splashing forward with her in his arms, contriving at the same time to send the light of the torch before them. ”

“ These he waved in the air to amuse the woman with the flying sparks, as they passed along, she still screaming at each successive sparkle, until suddenly a bright flame shot up and, by accident, like many other valuable discoveries, a torch was invented. By its light they easily made their way to the rocky platform in front of the cave sheltered by the overhanging rock, and when Longhead cast down the torch Broken Tooth placed the ends of the burning sticks together as she had seen him do, and again the flame shot up. ”

“ Not only does the torch stay lighted, but it retains much of its efficiency as a cutting tool, and some instances have been recorded where cutting has been accomplished at a depth of thirty feet under the sea. It is true that the water conducts a large part of the heat away very rapidly, but to facilitate such operations, an air line is brought down which ejects air under the torch and clears the water away to some extent, but this is not necessary. ”

“ The corpse lay long and white and horrid under the [26] beating moon and the flare of torch. As the acolytes reached the ground the rest of the company rushed simultaneously forward, and with a hideous yell flung their torches at the pyre. There was the hiss of tar, the leap of one great flame, an angry crackling. A moment more and the forest would be more vividly alight than it had ever been at noonday. Clive, feeling as uncomfortable as an eavesdropper, but too fascinated to retreat, stepped behind a large redwood. ”