The Washington times., 1901-10-27

to avoid being heard by three women wht
were coming out of the room behind him
'and if you choose to go further, do not
l had no business to bring you here. JUS
listen to the noise downstairs"
! Her eyes had been laughing defantly
into his but a woman had screamed shril-
ly. and she was looking down over the
banisters to the frst-fioor landing. He
looked too, for a fraction of a second
only.
My Godr' he exclaimed. breathlessly.
Come quick; don't be frightened, but be
quick
| But others had seen what he had caught
glimpse of. The three women, who had
left the horror-chamber of waxen etigies
| chattering ard staggering, and gone half
| way down the stairs toward the first floor,
were stumbling upward from a chamber
| of horror, in the doorway of which doz-
en- frantic men and women were fighting
for life Over the heads of these cloud
| of smoke was rolling out, blaeker and
| denser every moment.
John Turner had no need to hear the
hiss and crackle of flames behind the in
articulate howls of men and women. He
had no need to learn, as coroner's jury
did later on, from a strong man who had
climbed over the heads of the others and
survived, that a lad. believed to have
been drunk had lit cigarette and drop
ped the match on the muslin of the royal
bride in the wedding group in the first
floor room. He knew that there was fire
fire among the wax heads and arms and
old dried clothes and wooden dummies,
and that it was below him.
We're in tight place, but it, all right
if you'll only be quick he said. grip
ping her arm and giving her little
SHAKE
Then, even as he spoke, he realized that
Kittys easy self-possession was On the
surface only, and that she was clinging
to him. screaming and entreating him to
save her. while she made it almost i'm
possible for him to do so. Down the flight
on which they stood he staggered with
her in his arms; down a few steps Of the
next flight he was able to drag her, after
lifting her over the turnstile on the land |
ing as the quickest way TO get her past |
it. There the smoke yanquIshed him: Ahs /
could see red flames shooting out into it |
below him, and he dragged her back to
meet the crowd surgins down from the
second and third floors.
And then. as he fought in dogsed silence
not to be overcome, the whole truth was
thing came upon him in a flash. He was
there with Kitty. Kitty. of whom his wife |
was jealous. He was going to vanish into
with kitty-Whom he Ioathed
as she lay at his feet on the stairs-and
his wife would never know. In one flash
Of complete consciousness and self-com-
Inand. he even remembered the bundle of
banknotes In his pocket the notes which
she would think he had plotted to take
with him in his flight. If he could throw
them in his pocketbOok from anywhere
INTO the street, they might perhaps be
found by an honest man and help Mabel |
10 live, and the thought followed that, If
he could throw himself with them. he at
east must be picked up and identified.
lie rose from where he had crouched for
few moments over Kitty. clinging with
Ter to the stairs and trying to shelter her
rom the feet of those that leaped and
ell over them both; and he tried to move
Ter, but she, at all events. had passed. IN