Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-10-07


dropped on her knees beside her and
| looked closely into her face.
where is Dick?7 she demanded,
sharply "Whcre is hep
Mrs. Holcombe took the girls
hands in convulsive grasp.
"Isn't he here. she asked. wildly.
81 do not know. This is the first
| have known anything. Charlotte, he
cannot be in there! Oh, Dick, my
boy, my boyl'
Still on her knees, Charlotte
leaned forward and peered with a
dreadful fascination at the burning
car. From one end of it woman's
hand and arm stuck rigidly up from
the wreckage, the body crushed and
lost to sight beneath heavy timbers
and iron. The Pickering light played
on it, showing chaos behind and
around.
"Charlottep Mrs. Holcombe
pressed the girl close to her, SO that
her fine gray hair lay against Char
lotte's brown locks. She was CULVER
ing violently, this stately old lady
who seemed ever to live in an unruf-
fled calm. Once / was unkind to you.
God is furnishing me for that. Char
lotte forgive me, and help me find my
boyI"
Gle isn't in there! He can't be in
thereW Charlotte chung to her for
moment, and broke away OTTO runup
and down the length Of the car again,
peering into every crack and space.
She even crept cautiously over the
wreckage, shuddering at the sound
of faint groans beneath, until the
heat Of the flames at the far end drove
her back again, frantic with appre-
hension.
A half-insane idea came to her that
the man who had helped her out could
find him. He was hurt, but he had
known how to save himself and her;
surely he would help find Dick She
flew back toward the car she had left,
peering into the faces of the excit-
ed men who were tearing at the
wreckage to rescue those beneath.
She noticed vaguely that the flames
had made great Roadway on that car
since she had left it. There was only
a quarter of its length now where
men could work, and the number Of
rescuers was pitifully small in com
parison with those who moaned and
shrieked for help.
Through the half darkness Char.
lotte stumbled on sobbing now as she
looked into face after face and failed
to find the stranger who had helped
her through.
AT the end Of the burning car a big
man worked like a demon lgrasping
hot timbers with his bare hands and
prying up great weights with the
strength of men and angels. There
we're two men helping him and now
and then they shot a look of wonder
ing pity at his face. His hands were
black with SCOT and bleeding, his
clothes were torn, and in the yellow
lights of the flames his face showed
haggard and set. Some poor crea-
ture below, hot with the approaching
| fire and half-crushed cried out with
renewed vigor as blessed relief came
so near The big man bent over the
opening his own hands had made.
"Charlotte~ he called, anxiously
"Charlottep
con, DickW
Not from the horror beneath, but
from the good, firm ground beside
him, Charlotte's fingers clutched al
2 his arm. The other men looked al
each other and turned their heads
as they bent down and carefully lift
ed a half dead woman from the hor
ror which had hemmed her in.
Charlotte did not see them. He
: face was buried in Dicks shoulder
| and he held her close to him, regard
less of his lacerated hands.
81 thought you were in there" HI
whispered, huskily, Gin that burning
car. / got my mother out unhurt
but before she came to herself / saw
the fire here, and | laid her in SAT-
S place and came down for you. Char
lotte, dear little girlr'
: A few moments later a half
y crazed woman, kneeling beside tn
e wreckage with disordered gray hal
a and Straining eyes, saw these two com
: ing swiftly toward her.
n My sonW she cried, eagerly, sob
. him cr for sr1o6,,o ce md c ha liftod ba