Newport daily independent., 1903-04-07

l laced the court between the wings or the building, with a sheer drop of nearly 40 feet.
 Utterly impossible, said l." | Then l noticed for the first time a certain waxiness in the texture of the skin over his forehead, and sunken depth to his eyes.
 Has the dream re-appeared?" l asked.
 Frequently"
 "The trouble with you, Dawley," unused aloud, lis that you are too much alone"
 'I have no friends" he said, in a calm, dispassionate tone, such as one might use in speaking of some trivial matter of business.
 You should make them," I said, with emphasis.
 q am over the Divide, The answered. My course of life will not change very readily, I fear.'
 Then he deliberately and pointedly changed the topic, and 1 did not recur to it again at any time. As 1 say, he was 20 years my senior, and we had little in common. I had many friends and many interests, and Dawley and his oddities formed an unimportant episode.
 But it was only a week after this | conversation that the terrible event took place, which every newspaper reader in the city will remember.
 It was at two in the morning that I awolle suddenly from a profound slumber, with the consciousness that some one had run past my door, screaming.
 I sprang out of bed, and as I did so heard the crash of breaking glass in l the court below, and saw a brilliant red gleam through the blinds at the window. I looked out; the kitchen and dining-room in the rear of the hotel had already burst into flame, and a great volume of smoke poured out of the lower windows of the east wing.
 1 My own room was on the second 1 floor, in the center of the building, and I saw that there was plenty of time for me to escape, and to help others in that vicinity. l jumped into bath-robe and slippers, and, rolling my clothes into a bundle un- der my arm, ran out into the hall I hammered at each door that I passed and yelled in a frenzy of eX- citement and horror. The place was rapidly filling with smoke and the light grew brighter. Presently 1 no ticcd that my clothes were gone. l had dropped them while helping a woman who seemed to be unable to walk through pure terror. The man who had first reused me had gone up to the fourth floor, and the people were pouring down the stairways, in their night-robes, or wrapped in blankets, some carrying children-of which, thank Heaven, there were few in the house-others bird cages and some dragging trunks, bang, bang, over the steps.
 I had several good friends in the hotel, and now that the alarm seemed to be generally given, l ran to their assistance; but I did not think of Dawley, nor did l at any time at tempt to get over into the east wing of the building. It was on that side that the flames were tiercest and the elevator shaft and stairway be- tween that wing and the main build ing were roaring like a furnace. Suddenly the halls began to fill with firemen in long coats and helmets, some with axes and others dragging up hose.
 There seemed to be nothing more for me to do, so 1 ran down the main stairway and out into the street, where great crowd was assembled. l noticed that their faces were turned toward the east wing, and as I in- stinctively glanced in that direction I remembered Dawley and the man of his fearsome dream.
 The man was on his way-a huge bulk of a fireman, running up the long ladder that he'd been hoisted from the wagon and now rested against the wall, just below the win dow of Dawleys room.
 But was it possible that he still slept, through all this uproar and the glare of the flame, and the odor of burning wood? Surely, he must be asleep, else he would have appeared at the window. Then, it suddenly flashed into my mind what was the meaning of the white skin and sunk en eyes--a narcotic! Without doubt, he was still sleeping.
 The fireman made his way through the heat to the top of the ladder, and swung into the open window. Streams of water played upon the flames beneath him, to protect his retreat. Two other men ran up the ladder, and had just reached the top, when he returned to the window car rying a human figure wrapped in blanket. The others assisted him, and they made their way slowly down the ladder again.
 overcome by the smoke" said