Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-04

awake in another moment all the house
! seemed to be awake; doors were opening,
footsteps hurrying 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,
and Cass fled up stairs. The Babel was
great, but the men slept soundly, and some
mightstill be sleeping. One of the younger
men, Dan Earthly, was Just before her,
speeding upward on the same Grand He
| ran up the narrow staircase to the garrets,
and Cas- 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 10 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, confu-
| sion. Every one was escaping. Only,
through the smoke, Jim was coming up.
lie was GREATNESS; he looked at Cas- and
looked beyond her. Cass understood In
a moment, at the first sight of him, two
thoughts had flashed through her mind.
Emily slept in one of the garnet 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 GRAND his face betrayed it.
Before he reached her she spoke.
Go back, Jim. Safe-she's safe. Ems
gone. | saw her 60"
lie 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 mo-
ments 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, sufo-
eating. She went brislxly on, bruising her
self against a jutting angle of the wall and
wooden chest standing in the passage
The door of Emily's room was open. She
entered and called again. But the 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. Gone 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 zone life only"
Only Cas- had failed to escape Why
she had failed remained mystery Strang-
ers who had not known Cass offered an ex-
PLANTATION which to themselves was salts
factory. 1t was a 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 moral-preach sermon
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.-C0rnhM Magazine.