The San Francisco call., 1899-07-30

of an important message which one Of
the landlady's friends had left with her
during the afternoon while tnat laay
was absent, and asked her daughter to
go to her room, in another part OF the
house, and deliver 1t.
Like the dutiful girl that she is, the
senorita twisted up her hair again,
stTck her little feet back into their dis
carded slippers and SKINNED through
the deserted halls like swallow on her
errand of obedience. The 'landlaoy,
being conversationally inclined in spite
of the lateness-for that house-of the
hour, kept her for a time taxing Oh
various happenings, and fully nfteen
minutes elapsed between her departure
from her mothers room and her return
to 1t.
The sight which met. her eyes When
she opened the door that she had closed
bahind her so brief a space before, with
no thought that she was shutting IN the
grim Angel Of Tragedy behind 1t, was
enough to daunt the braVest soul.
She had left her mother sitting IN
low rocker beside the open bed, Whlcn
was arranged for the night brusnlng
ont her hair by the mellow light or
large porcelain lamp that sat On Stano
close at hand. 1t had been pleasant
picture of quiet contentment arter
well-spent day. a..
room plunged in darkness, save for
lurid and crater-like glow on the moor
IN one corner. The dim light from the
hall, together with this smoky glare'
made visible an overturned ight sIaHu'
a porcelain lamp shade broken into pltS
on the carpet, her mothers day gar
ments hanging neatly over chalrpack
and a closed folding bed standlng
straight and tall in the center OF the
room. .z ~
For one instant the senorita stood on
the threshold as If turned TO stone
what had happened? Why was the
table thrown over and the shade
broken? And where was her mother!
Another instant and her keen
woman's brain made the situation IA
tally clear to her.
Impatient of her delay. the mother haa
finished her preparations for the night
and retired The folding bed, imper-
fectly balanced, vibrating under her
suddenly imposed weight had SWlIlly
and silently closed of its own Voitloh'
making her a helpless captive in a
smothering confusion of pillows ana
blankets.
In rising from the horizontal to the
perpendicular a corner of the bed had
struck the stand and knocked 1t and It's
dangerous burden over. That was the
lamp, a half-gallon reservoir of eXplo-
sive fluid, fiaring over there in the cor
ner. And her mother was a suffocatIng
perhaps a suffocated-prtsoner In that
treacherous piece of mechanism before
her.
one step the senitora made toward
the place where her mother was being
tortured-it might be unto death. And
then
The flames in the corner shot up
higher. The lamp was lying on its
side; the carpet was already blazing in
little Pickering cones where scattering
drops of oil had fallen
If the lamp exploded there the fire
would 90 with leaps like a racehOrse
through that ole house, where every bit
of wood was as dry as tinder. There
would be no possibility of stopping it,
and the house was full of tired people
sleeping the first sound, heavy sleep of
the night
They were on the floors above and in
the rooms IT the back and below-men.
women and children. The house was
high, the stairs winding, the back part
a veritable catacomb of small rooms
and blind passages.
She could rescue her mother and es-
cape with her through the window.