Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-01-29

OF tho wind, came strange sound ~ o.
glass loudly cracking In some room be
low. Cass sprang out OF bed aud ran
ont upon the landing. The mir that met
her seemed hot and sitting. At that
moment the clouds rolled back and the
moonlight streamed in through the stair.
case window, and she saw that staircase
and passages were filed with smoke,
which came up in dense volumes from
some room below. Crying loudly the
alarm of "Fire J" she ran back TO her
mother to awaken her. Her mother was
awake in another moment ali the house
seemed to be awake doors we're open
ing, footsteps lurrying through the
passages, friends calling to friends, those
who slept below calling Justify the alarm
TO those who slept above.
A moments pause in her mothers
room. aud Cass fed up stairs. The
Babel was great, but the men slept
soundly, and some might still be sleep
ing. One OF the younger men, Dan
Earthly. was Just before her, speeding
upward on the same errand. He ran up
the narrow staircase to the garrets, and
Cass passed hurriedly from door to door
on the floor below. The doors were
open no one answered when she called.
She heard Dan Earthy's voice above and
heard him descending again. The open
doors seemed to shut out the moonlight
she had to grope her way back through
the passage to the stairs
On the landing and the stairs below,
as she ran down, all was noise, rush,
confusion. Every one was escaping.
Only, through the smoke, Jim was COM
| ing up. lie was breathless he looked
at Cass and looked beyond her. Cass
understood. In o moment, at TIE first
sight of him, two thoughts had flashed
through her mind. Emily slept in one
of the garrett rooms Jim had not seen
her. Dan Earthly must have passed her
! door and overlooked it his call had not
aroused her. and Jim was daring danger
to awaken her. There was peril in the
errand his face betrayed it. Before be
reached her she spoke.
600 back, jim. Safe-she's safe.
| Ems gone. [ saw her go.
He turned at once. There was little
lad belonging to one of the watermen on
the landing Just below him. He caught
the child in his arms and ran down with
him through the smoke. Without n
moments pause Cass turned, too, and
ran back to the topmost story TO Emily's
room.
The moon was hidden again behind
the clouds, and the passages were dark.
| Cass called as she mounted the steep
stairs, but there was no answer from
above. The smoke that assembled with
her seemed denser than ever-stifling,
! binding, suffOcating. She went briskly
on, bruising herself against a iutting
angle of the wall and a wooden chest
standing in the passage. The door of
Emily's room was open. She entered
and called again. But tho room was
empty. Emily was gone. She had
been sleeping lightly, had been the first
to hear the alarm, the first OF all to
escape. Cass looked around and turned
again to retreat.
Two houses were destroyed in that fire
in 1860. And one life was lost. zone
life only" said the local papers next day.
The houses had been so old, the alarm
so late, the spread of the fire so rapid
after the alarm, that there seemed almost
room for congratulation in that lone
lie only"
Only Cass had failed to escape. Why
she had failed remained mystery.
Strangers who bad not known Cass Of
fered an explanation which to them
selves was satisfactory. 1t was simple
matter enough. She had not estimated
the danger and had gone back to her
room to save some bit Of finery-some
favorite necklace, or bonnet, or gown.
Draw a moral-preach q sernOn-let the
Vanity OF Woman be the text
The boatmen derided the conjecture.
They had known Cass better. Only one
Of them leaned to the strangers theory.
That was jim.