chancy

— In winter steam contributes a fairly high proportion of its tractive effort, say 15 per cent, to heating the train. Diesels have at the moment separate oil-fired boilers which are somewhat chancy affairs, and only electric locomotives grab unlimited power for heating which does not affect their punctuality.

— His haggard gaze swept this way and that, seeking possible succour where reason told him there could be no succour; and then as his vision pieced together this outjutting architectural feature and that into a coherent picture of his immediate surroundings he knew where he was. The one bit of chancy luck in a sequence of direful catastrophes had brought him here[Pg 49] to this very spot. Why, this must be West Ninth Street; it had to be, it was—oh joy, it was!.