The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-04-09
The DUKES Wet DRY
BY LOUISE ROBINSON RHODES.
and never tried to count it. Anyhow,
Bobby always did fires alone unless they were

EsssE 2 SO : 7,3lf
and never tried to count ii. Anyhow,
Bobby always did fires alone unless they were
very big ones.
r. AIter While KNAPP bounded into the room.
! His face was white as chalk His mouth
opened once or twice, but he couldn't speak.
| At last he gasped: We're cut off! The fires
up to the third story jumped to the win
! dow, and there the street was filed with en-
| gfnss and trucks. and we had never heard 8
l thing.
4 Miss Wellington turned pretty white, but
her voice was steady as she asked, Are there
many of US up here?'
/ 1" Three in the telegraph room and four or
| five III the local. said KNAPP. moistening his
/ lips. We didn't think it was serious. and Z
forgot your. being here.
! I'VE all went. down the hall to the local
room The fire was beching from the fourth
istory windows now. and the smoke was get
j ting thick. One of the telegraph men kept
his desk and was actually sending an account
| CT the fire over the Associated Press wire
| We wandered from window toss window for
hours it seemed to me- but, it could not really
have been for many minutes. The smoke was
/ coming in clouds, and we could hear the fire
now.
At last the crowd in the street us. I
4 hope III never hear that sound again. My
I Cod! / wake up sometimes now with that
lloan in my ears, and it nearly drives
/ mad. 1t seemed the essence of human misery
and made us realize what was before US. We
had been stunned before, but then bedlam
{, broke loose. Some 1moaned and cried. Some
4 shreked and sWore. And still the at
the key clicked out his message, giving our
names, we found afterWard. He had pistol
/ lying beside his hand
Knap rushed from one part of the building
to the other, shrieking for help, but even We
could not hear him in the increasing roar OF
the fire. The sixth story was a mass of flames
| and we were on the eighth.
'All at once the little Duke began drag
ging at our sleeves At last we understood
; that she wanted us to follow her. She thought
! she had chance. We followed her, all but
the telegraph man. who shook his head hope
: lessly and held up the revolver.
Il THE Duke han to her room and threw open
J the window. Beyond and extending to the
end Of the building was the art ROOM which
, | had no windows. but was above a corner of
the building not yet reached by the fire.
Pointing to an ornamental stone eornice which
ran some six feet below the window, the Duke
+ motioned along it toward the corner farthest
I from the fire We caught the idea, but it
> seemed a slim chance, and no one moved
Finally the little Duke shrieked, You
towards, follow me! She swung herself care
fully over the sill, and, hanging by her hands,
just touched the cornice with her toes. Get
ting as firm foothold as possible on the mar
row ledge, she steadied herself and moved
to one side, waiting. We let KNAPP out next.
When he was finally Oh the~cornice; he chung
to the wall and refused to move. At last the
Duke seized his hand and began feeling her
way along the wall, gently pulling him after
her KNAPP followed somehow, and the rest
Of us swung out after him In a hurry, for
the floors were quivering and the smoke was
rolling in volumes from the windows below
u.s.. Just as I swung out heard a pistol shot
and knew the telegraph man had taken the
way he thought best.
z..Wesclung to the wall and crept along like
flies. ~ We were fairly steady except KNAPP,
and my heart was in my mouth for fear he
would lurch off and carry the Duke with him.
But his knees stiffened at last, and he did
Eetter,-though he never for a moment let go
the girls hand. The bricks were getting hot
ter and hotter to the touch, and the flames
seemed to be sweeping toward one end OF the
building.
cat last the crowd us through rift
| in the smoke, and a shout went up that
seemed almost to tear us from our perilous
hold. The freanen worked fast, ! suppose.
but it seem ed ages to us, waiting at the cor
ner Of the building. The fireman first up the
. ladder was sobbing like a child, but he hadn' t
lost his nerve for all that. He saw KNAPP 3
condition and knew he would fall If forced
to loose his hold on the Duke, SO he seized
7 them both. The rest of us were soon on the
| ladder, though some we're pretty helpless,
for the bricks were fearfully hot toward the
IA end
~ .'Bily's hauds were cooked through" inter-
70 polated Larry.
:, 1T was good many weeks before some OF
" us were back on The Echo, although the pa
a per was printed next day with borrowed re-
: porters and presses. KNAPP was the first one
N back but you wouldn't have known him for
i the fellow who had bullyragged Us SO. His
hair was white and his face, too. He was SO
" mild he couldn't manage the new men and
st had to betaken off the desk and put on ed-
ID torials.
IA We'll, it all happened five years ago, but
~ the Duke is still! con1nlander-in- chief on The
p Echo concluded Billy.
ut .tBut have a notion she'll some day con-
fine her orders to Billy" Whispered Tom as
ID he rose, stein in hand, to propose the usual
er toast.
Dr. Boys the Duke!''
lg Every man was on his feet in an instant.
g, s'The Duke, God bless her!"
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