Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-22
CHAPTER 1v.-1N DEADLY PERIL.

CHAPTER Iv.-IN DEADLY PERIL.
When Richard HARDWOOD called out for
help to extinguish the fire, Mark Eliot
was one of the first to spring forward and
follow the mill owner as he rushed to-
wards the room in which the fire was
raging.
Rushing away towards the engine house
at the head of the gang of men who had
at once responded to their masters ap-
peal, Mark, on reaching that place,
seized hold of a bucket, his companions
did likewise, and back they all tore at
full speed to aid in the work of extin-
gushing the flames.
Up the steep stone steps, which were
now heavily Uttered with clogs, shawls,
stockings, and many other tattered rem
nants of clothing, as evidence of the
fierce struggle that had taken place upon
them, Mark and the others sped and in
less time than it takes to chronicle the
matter, they were inside the fourth story
and were scattering the water they had
brought upon the brightly blazing mass.
Richard HARDWOOD was in the room now,
and directing the men in a loud and ex-
cited manner as to where they should
draw the water. The overlooker, Harry
johnson. was also there still playing two
thin streams of water on the fire.
But neither those weak squirting jets
which came from the hose pipes, nor the
few gallons the bucksts contained, had
the least appreciable affect upon that
white, Kissing, leaping mass of flames.
The fire had now spread right across the
north end of the room, and the whole of
the mule frames there were ablaze. The
floor of the room was also on fire in that
part, and the climbing tongues of light as
they rushed upward threatened every
moment to set the roof aflame.
Up and down Richard Harwood ran,
continually crying, ''More waterl more
waterl' and up and down the narrow,
steep and slippery stairways the men
toiled with empty buckets and full ones.
But every one there knew that the fire
was gaining ground each minute, and
that it was practically useless to fight the
flames with such means as they had at
their command.
Still the men worked on bravely, al
though despalringly, and inch by iuch
the steadily increasing conflagration
drove them backward and backward,
until half the length of the long room
Is
fire fiend.
And in addition to this, the roofuwas
now fairly ablaze, and also the floor be-
meath. IN little while, unless the fire
engines of the town came speedily, there
would be three of the stories of the mill
a1ame instead of one.
Word had been sent nearly half an
hour ago to the fire station at Warning
ham for help, and the engines ought to
have been at hand by this time, but
although HARDWOOD glanced through the
windows frequently in the direction of
Mitigate, he could discern no sign of their
approach.
By this time the men were tired of
rushing up and down the steps and fight
ing so forlorn battle. Had there been
the slightest chance of mastering the
flames with their deplorable resources
they would have worked on ungrudg-
ingly, cheerily. But it was nonsense,
they told themselves, to struggle further,
and many of them unwittiugly echoed
the overlooker's utterance, ''We NIT as
wesl spit on It.
Suddenly there went up q loud cry
from the great crowd gathered in the
factory yard, and Richard Harwood and
Mark Eliot and those about them paused
in their fruitless work and listened.
1.-THE fire engines! The fire enginesi''
rolled upward to their ears, and rushing
to the windows they were in time to see
the brigade of the town with three en-
gines dash through the crowd and come
to standstil just beneath them.
Bidding the others cease their vain
endeavors, HARDWOOD left the burning
room and the men followed him down
the stairs INTO the factory yard. Whether
the fire engines had come or not the op-
eratives could not have fought the flames
much longer, for they were quite worn
out now, and the fire had forced them
back step by step until there was scarcely
standing ground inside the room.
care the people ali out of the mills?''
the chief of the fire brigade asked the
mill-owner as the latter drew near.
''Long ago., HARDWOOD replied, and
then he suggested that one of the three
engines should be taken round to the
further side of the burning building,
while the other two should remain where
they were.
This suggestion was at once acted
upon, and in couple of minutes the
numbering machines had taken up their
respective positions, the horses were I'M
tackled aud taken out of the way, the
hosepipes were thrown into the great
lodge of water which stood in the mill
yard, and three thick streams were be-
ing poured through the windows of the
fourth story right into the center of the
great mass of vivid red and white flames.
Some of the operatives had also con-
neotsd hose to the donkey engine, and |
this jet of water was also turned upon |
the great white heart of the fire.
The sturdy fremen and their leader
had shaken their heads in an ominous |
way on their arrival, when they per-
ceived how great hold upon the mill |
the FIRE had obtained. but notwithstRnd-