Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-06

room up and down, up and down. Fl
would cut his visit still shorter and leav
carly in the r"orning tie day after Christ
mas Day. He would volunteer for tn
Egyptian army and get killed in the Soudan
Or nc would offer to carry dispatches Z
Emin and De caught by dervishes and put t
death by torture, which would be very mic
and very agreeable; but neither Nina no
her guardian should ever hear of his hope
less passion.
| Let US leave this young man, who Is verl
bad company, and making a great ass o.
| himself. and come up stairs. Up. up, up
past the second story, along this little pas
sage, up the old corzscrew stairs to the LITTLE
| turret room. Hush! tread gently, for the
occupant of this room has had the sense tC
| go to sleep, like prudent girl who wants
TO look her best in the morning. Light the
candle ard we will see how Miss Nina has
been amusing herself before she went tC
bed. Her sketch book and pencils are
| scattered about on the dressing table, sc
she must have been drawing; and, to judge
by the litter in the fender, she seems to
| have torn her drawing up into very little
| pieces and burned most of them. Luckily,
/ was looking over her shoulder all the
time, so l can tell you what she drew. First,
she drew young man on horseback; then
she turned the paper over and drew an
othor young man in knickerbockers and
Norfolk jacket, with gun on his shoul-
der. Then, takirg fresh piece of paper,
she drew third, in a patrol jacket and
regulation boots, with a drawn sword in his
right hand, which with his left he seemed to
be franticaliy calling to some one behind
him to come on. OH of course, we can see
it all now. They are all meant for the same
person, and that person is Harry Melville;
but he's not nearly so tall or so well proper
toned as you have drawn him, Miss Darl-
ington; he's not, really.
Just now she is dreaming, dreaming that
she is looking at Millais' famous picture
"Yes." She wonders why she never before
appreciated it so much, and sits down in
front of it. Soon she wonders what makes
the place so terribly hot. Then she fancies
that every one who passes is looking at her,
and is even certain that people at the end of
the room are pointing at her. Then she saw
some one pointing her out to an attendant,
who forthwith accosted her: "Beg pardon,
Miss, but you're sitting on the stove. It's
made just like bench; but it's stove, and
my horders are positive no one sits on the
stove"
Nina thought that this was really too bad,
and fairly lost her temper. ats not right"
she said, Ito make the stoves so like the
seats if you don't want people to sit on
them; but knew what it was, and came
here because was coldm s'Oh" 'And Pm
going to stay here as long as l choose"
And disdaining further argument, she tooik
out her catalogue and pretended to be ell
crossed in its perusal.
Very soon she could feel the heat under
her beyond doubt, and most unpleasantly.
But so obstinate are young ladies in Dream
land lin practical life they are ''tirm') that
she determined to stay where she was
for full five minutes by the clock. Three
the actual heat was not so great,
but the fire underneath her was beginning to
smoke. Then she thought that all the by
and among them all the people she
diSliked, were saying that she would never
stay there another two minutes. Four
it was worse. Four minutes and
a half-four minutes fifty seconds; it was
last! and she woke up with a
start.
What a terrible smell of smoke; her
dream had been founded on fact The house
must be on fire. Lighting a candle, she
ran to the door and looked down the wind
ing stair, when suddenly some one threw
open the door at the bottom oft and great
curling cloud of blue smoke, but showing
flames behind, rushed up through it, caus-
ing Nina to drop her candle and run cough
ing and trembling back to her room.
The Colonel's meerschaum was a big pipe,
and he had forgotten to knock out the ashes,
so that, though it had been in his pocket
for nearly five minutes il was still Just
alight when he dropped it. When it hit the
stove it snapped in two. The stem fell into
the CRATE. but the bowl, after rolling along
the oil cloth, ultimately fetched up" be-
hind the umbrella stand. Here, am sorry
to say, Mary, the under housemaid. was in
the habit of keeping little bundle of woolen
and chamOis cloths, greatly besmeared with
beeswaX and turpentine, together with a
lump of the former and a bottle of the latter
materials which she used for cleaning the
front staircase and the polished woodwork
in the hall. Some lighted ash fell on these
cloths and soon begat slow and smolder-
ing fire. However, as there was very little
draught in the hall, and the umbrella stand
stood on slab of polished granite, all might
yet have been we'll; but it was fated other
wise.
When the rags had been smoldering
quietly for about half an hour, and seemed
in fair way to burn themselves out, big
rat, taking constitutional in the vicinity,
by the smell of burning beeswax,
came to see what was the matter Natur-
ally burning his nose, he whisked away in
great wrath, and so upset the turpentine
bottle, to which there was no cork. In an
instant the floor for yard round was
covered with burning spirit. There was
nothing to stop the flames, which caught
first the umbrellas, then the hall table and
the woodwork of the stairs, and then the
wainscoting, and any thing and every thing
that there was to catch.
Harry Melville was the first to give the
alarm. but too late for the slightest hope of
the flames. In fact, when
once large house, dry and airy and largely
fitted with woodwork, has fairly caught fire
a dozen engines can not put it out before it
is thoroughly gutted from basement to attic.
The front staircase would soon be impassa-
BILE, so that when the guests were reused
the only thing to do was to lose no time in
saving the women and themselves. When
Harry saw this his first thought was for
Nina. and he tore up stairs with the flames
literally at his heels. 1t was he who opened
the door at the bottom of the corkscrew
stair, admitting the volumes of hot smoke
as they rolled fiercely upward. He saw her.
candle in hand, when she fell back, blinded
and coughing; the next moment he had her
in his arms. He thought that there was
still time to make dash for it down the
fiery stairs; it was the only chance to save
her life. One moment to wrap a blanket
round his darling as aprotection against the
hungry flames, and then for, the rush.
Whether he lived or died afterward did not
matter if he could only struggle on to the
bottom, where other hands would be ready
to take charge of his precious burden. That
moments delay sarad hnth tho;. L.. e