The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-27
THE ADVERTISERS # # M
 .as .s DAILY SHORT STORY.SJ
Copy right. 1900. by Daily Story Publishing Co.,,

stayed In his arms, her face a color of rose. trembling little, but also a lit- tie pleased, and when he released her. she had promised.
 Much fiuttcred. yet feeling a little proud that she had received the affec- ton of su Liz and strong and talented a man. she walked by his side on their way back to the hotel while he painted vivldly the happiness ot their future. Cammaek was treadipg on air. He saw himself not yet thirty with a loving, trusting, beautiful wife andthe master of millions. Considering her status in the social and commercial word, the maid was singularly unsophisticated, and she did not think of her money. It was for herself she was to be we'd ded. of that she was sure. She kissed him shyly before going to her loom and decided that she would wait until the morrow before acquainting her aunt with the tremendous thing that had happened.
 Cammack sat up late. writing. He owned many accounts in New York, sons: large. some email. His daily mail was replete with duns. They irked him and he was glad to be able to set the uneasy minds of his creditors at rest. To each of them he wrote of his en- gagement, stating that the marriage would ocur in the fall and demanding respite. There was an independent tone in the letters that had been for eign to him for a long time. Indeed, he felt independent and thought of how the name. Ralph Cammack" would look at the bottom of a check for million or so.
 It was beyond midnight when he closed his eyes in heavy slumber. Two hours afterward he dreamed that there was storm at sea and he could hear the breakers pounding on the sand. So steady and loud was the pounding that he awoke and sat up. The room was pitch dark. He twisted the button near the head of the bed and the three elec- tric bulbs showed red and dinly. The room was swirling in black smoke and he coughed violently. Louder grew the surf beating and he knew 1t then to be the roaring of flame.
 He sprang from bed in an extremity of terror. He was thrown % the floor by striking heavy armchair and that added to his bewilderment. The heat was great. Not stopping for slippers or shoes, he leaped to his door threw it open. rushed into the hallway and charged blindly to his right. Instinct lively he made for the elevator. Reach ing an intersecting passage fifty feet further on and turning the corner he was confronted by a mass of fire sweeping toward him. It's red tongues leaped to the ceiling and seemed to dart at him.
 He wheeled in a frenzy of fear and ran back, making for stairway which he knew led downward from the far end of his hall. The smoke was thicker than ever and he breathed in gasps. Behind him the fire roared and he could hear outside the shouts of gath ering people. High over it all rose woman's scream in another part of the great wooden building. which was lit- eraly crumbling in the firece onslaught.
 He stumbled over soraething soft which felt like a body. rose and hur- ried on. Where now were his aggres- siveness, his pugnacity. his courage? The man was simply trapped animal. hunting a way to escape. He had no thought of his bride to be. no though of anything, in fact. The instinct of self-preservation was working. Not once did any memory come to him Of a slight form ali too weak to battle for itself ill that mad time.
 Near the head of the stairs-he oould see faintly the opening which led to possible SaTGCy-he ran Into woman clad only Tn a dressing gown under which were bare feet. He had ap- preached others and dodged them had run over more than one. This woman threw her arms about his neck with the rigid clasp of the death-fear.
 Save! Save!" she creamed.
 Cammack endeavored to push her off, but she clunE. Then he did an in- credible thing. He raised his clenched hand and struck her brutally, power fully. one. twice in the face. At the second blow her hold relaxed and she sank to the floor without a sound.
 Out of the somber smoke not a yard away peered a pale face with large brown eyes. These eyes were 'iistended in horror, ablaze with indignation. One small white hand was raised and shook in the heavy air.
 Coward! Coward!' a voice said.
 It was Miss May. He turned. stared at her stupidly and took a step toward her. She waved him back.
 "Go. you dog!' was all she said.
 As he stood motionless and silent, she stepped lightly past him and went swooning aunt by the arm. He fol- lowed her dumbly.
 In a little Arizona town is a shabby man who tries to practice law. His meager earnings go mostly for mescai, the fiery liquor of the frontier. When 1t Is in his brain he babbles of a time when he was the possessor of millions