The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-03-25
CHAPTER XIV.

memory Of every family at the post.
But for the most unusual though fortu.
nate change in the direction Of the blast
I'll officers row on the northeast front
must have been swept away, as on an
other Well remembered night the quar-
tiers Of the infantry-all of officers row
on the northwest side-had melted away
in a food Of fame some years before.
With tho garrison gone there was nc
fire department, and even had there
been one Of metropolitan proportions 1t
could have accomplished next to moth
ing. The big finder box jointly occu-
pied by Majors Barry and Stannard was
swept away as though in the twinkling
Of an eye. In less than ten minutes Of
The alarm a broad sheet Of fire swept
across the roadway and far out upon the
parade, licking up the fence like row
of matches and clustering the hopeful
young cottonwoods, just budding along
the bordering acequia, while in less
than 20 only mass of glowing embers
lay glazing in the flercely tanning gale,
and every vestige Of the goods and
ohattels had gone to feed the flames.
The marvel was that the inmates got
out at all.
First to discover the fire was Mrs.
Barry, aroused by dense and suffocating
smoke, and sound Of swapping and
cracking in the kitchen. She called
Mary, who sprang from her couch,
rushed to the kitchen door, and, with
an awful shrek, recoiled before the in
slant rush Of the flames into the dining
room. Maynard, still writing in his
room, heard, flew down the stairs,
stumbled over her on the front piazza;
then, bending low, broke through the
dense smoke now pouring through the
little hall, found Mrs. Barry feebly
striving to reach the doorway and bore
her, half suffocated, into the open air;
then, facing fame now as we'll as dead
ening smoke, had dashed up the stairs
and burst into Nathalie's blazing room.
The girl Had managed to reach the
wardrobe and to throw about her the
very wrap she wore the morning she an
swered Maloney's impudent summons,
and then had fallen helpless and half
stifled, unable to open the door. Recls-
less Of himself, Maynard dragged the
blanket from the bed, wrapped it about
the slender and beloved form, lifted her
like child in his strong arms, and, fol-
lowed by the seething tongues of fame,
his hair, eyebrows and mus
taohe, and scorohing the skin Of his
face and hands and neck and ears, had
gone bounding down the row Of blazing
and out into the open air be.
fore he fell, blinded, burned and almost
suffocated, but triumphant. The guard
was there in two minutes, the bands.
men and "doughboys" soon came rush
ng from their quarters Women and
children poured, shrieking, from the
louses nearest, while others less alarm
ID hurried from those farther down the
ow. Warner was at the spot as quick
IS the guard, and under his cool head ,
d direction the rescued ladies were car /
led or led to Mrs. Rays, and then they ,
emit to the hospital for a stretoher for ]
oor Maynard, writhing in terrible
ain, while his sister, swaying to and q
70 from side to side, knelt with clasp. r
d hands, moaning and sobbing and i'm /
loring people to do something for him, /
eaf to his stern admonition of silence, i
nd only oeasing when he sought to q
agger to his feet and leave her. y
Over him presently bent Walters, h
locked and sore distressed. To him h
ION came the little doctor, and through h
lane Of weeping women and children d
ley bore him to the captains quarters n
own the row-Walters would admit of II
)thing less-and there with soft cotton "
i'd sweet oil and soothing lotions, b
18th tender hands and words of bound
IS praise and sympathy, they did their d,
most to comfort and to soothe. When Y
% fire, swept by the gale away from "
Q rest of the row, had burned itself il
It and Walters could hasten to the n
dsido Of the brave young fellow, he n,
most sobbed aloud when he strove to in
swer Maynard's half apologetio m
3roke my arrest, sir, but couldn't b,
lip it." as
Meantime, though suffering shock in
d partial suffocation, Mrs. Barry and W
ss Baird were pronounced uninjured fir
d were being devotedly attended at sn
q Rays. Mary, the housemaid, was to
II in a semihysterical state and re- 20,
ired more waiti-g on than all the di