, 1897-12-18
ENVOY.
SAVED THE CANARY.

. L .
On the evening of the alarm of fire al
the florists place, three doors from Tic
Alfalfa European hotel. Doc Iicrmc
told of his singular experience at Il frg
in tie town Of CrC"hvville.
THE first time | ever visited in eros.
byville onc Of my friends invited ne &c
go to a shooting match. and after
got out there | was asked to enter the
contest. Well, | went in and | happened
to get Il rife that sighted Just right for
me, and l won. A man who had been
introduced to me as Captain .IaynCs
made the next highest score. 1t seemed
to me that the other contestants took
their defeat good naturally. but on the
way home my friend told me to look
out for this Captain .~Iayncs. he was n
hotheaded kcntuckian, and it seems
that this was tic first time lie had been
defeated i'll Il YEAR or so. and it worried
him a good deal My frIgnd told me
that he had taken a dislike to me and
would probably try to pick n quarrel
with me at the first opportunity.
well. that same afternoon invited
all the men who had lCcn at the shoot
ing match to cUmc over to the tavern.
1t was customary for the winner Of the
match to stand treat to the others Cap.
tain Jayncs anne III rather late, while
we were all sitting around and talking.
l arose and asked him to Join the party.
He bowed very coldly and said that he
was not in the hnlit Of drinking with
strangers. Well, / was pretty hot blood
ed i'll my younger days. | said: Very
well, captain. ] withdraw the invita-
ton. l made the mistake of supposing
hat you would feel at home i'll u con-
pany of gentlemen. ] knew what to ex-
pect when | said that He started to
draw n knife, but before he could lift it
l had hold of him. They pulled sapart
and tried to quiet him, but he went
away raving mad. They all said that
he would kill me the first time we met,
but he must have cooled down when he
had time 20 think it over. | saw him
often after ~that-rasscd him on the
street. He never made a move, but l
knew that he hated me and would be
glad of n chance to do me an INJURY.
1.-The captain house was right on
the bank of the Green river and stood
near his mill. 1t was an old fashioned
two story house. very broad and well
built and thickly surrounded by trees.
1t was considered the best house in
C%rosbyvillc. The captain was the
wealthiest and one of the most prom
inent citizens of the town. He VAS Il
widower and had two childrcn-a boy
of IA or so and Il young lady named
Elizabeth. She was Il very beautiful girl
very charming ! had met her several
times, but, Of course, | had never be-
come well acquainted with her on ac-
count of my ieud with her father,
well, to make a long story short,
the whole town was aroused by an alarm
of fire one night, and when We turned
out the .Jayues mill was one mass of
flames. 1t W an old style structure,
with n framework of heavy logs, and it
made a fearful blaze. The wind was
blowing the flames toward the house.
Every one saw that it was of no use to
try to save the mill, so we turned in to
defend the house-got up on the roof
and passed buckets and put out wet
blankets to catch the sparks, but it was
no use. The men were driven off the
roof, and the water dried as fast as it
was thrown OH. All at once II Whole
side of the house seemed to spring into
a flame. There was II general shout, and
everybody retreated to II safe distance.
Tl.. ..,l,,, ~f th, family aud thn
neighbors had been removing the house
hold goods. Just as the house caught
fire and all the men were getting out OF
it as fast as they could | heard Eliza
beth .Iayncs cry out. The canaryN Then
all ran back into the house, with every
one calling to her to stop. ldldn hest
tate a moment. but ran after. She ran
through that terrific heat and dense
smoke right up the stairway. and fol-
lowed. | caught her hy the arm ut the
top of tho stairs and told her to come
back. She was hysterical and excited.
She said she wouldn't leave until she
got the bird. In spite of all ] could do
she pulled away from me and ran to
the front room-her bedroom. ! be-
lieve-and felt her way to where the
bird was hanging, Gentlemen, it was
never hotter il any bake oven than
it was in that .oon. AS scon us she got
the bird cage | dragged her back through
the hall.
1.-The smoke was not so thick now, be-
cause the fire had got Il free draft
through the house and was making q
fearful roar and spreading rapidly.
When we reached the stairway, the
whole lower end of it was ablazc. l
dragged the girl away to the front win
dow, but by that time the whole veran-
da was on fire. The crowd outside saw
MS and shouted something, / couldn't
tell what. l saw that there was no es-
cape over that burning veranda. When
the people outside began to shout, the
girl tainted. l threw her across my
shoulder and started for the rear of the
house, because l knew that was my
only salvation The whole stairway was
ablaze by that time. and flames were
creeping up through the floor closed
NV iips tightly, and in about four leaps
reached q bas X window Outside there