The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-23
CHAPTER VI.
THE EVER IMPRACTICAL FEMI-
NINE.


/ of tender years, who, possessed of
petty sense of cause and effect, brought
| an illuminative simplicity to bear upon
the problem Of the rce-pump; and
multitudnous agitation greeted his dis
covery that the engineers had forgot
ten to connect their pipes with the
! river.
This naive omission was fatal to the
second warehouse; the wall burst into
flames below Crailey Gray, who chung
to the top of the ladder, choking, stiff
ed, and dizzily fighting the sparks that
covered him. yet still clutching the
nozzle of the hose line they had passed
to him. When the stream at last leap
ed forth making the nozzle fight in his
grasp, he sent 1t straight up into the
air and let the cataract fall back upon
himself and upon the two men beneath
him on the ladder.
There came a moment of blessed re-
lief; and he looked out over the broad
rosy blur of faces in the street,
| where no one wondered more than he
how the water was to reach the roof.
! Suddenly he started, wiped his eyes
| with his wet sleeve, and peered intent
ly down from under the shading arm.
His rowing glance crossed the smoke
! and flame to rest upon a tall, white fig
ure that stood, full-length above the
heads of the people, upon a pedestal
boys; girls figure, still as noon, en-
! rapt, like the statue of some young
goddess for whom were made these sac
rifcal pyres. Mr.. Gray recognized. his
opportunity.
A blackened and unrecognizable face
peered down from the caves, and the
voice belonging to it said, angrily:
why didn't they send up that line
before they put the water through
it?"
Never mind, Tom" answered Graf
ley, cheerfully, "I'll bring it up"
You can't; I'll come down for it.
Don't be every kind of a fool"
You want a monopoly do you?" And
Crailey, calling to Tappingham Marsh
next below him, to come higher, left
the writhing nozzle in the latter's pos
session, swung himself out upon the
graphing ladder, initiating the chief
gymnastics, and Immediately one hand
grasping the second rung, one knee
crooked over the lowest, leaned head
down and took the nozzle from Marsh.
1t was a heavy weight, and though
Marsh supported the line beneath it,
the great stream hurtling forth made
1t a difficult thing to manage, for it
wriggled, recoiled and struggled as if
1t had been alive Crailey made three
attempts to draw himself up; but the
strain was too much for his grip. and
vi LAlS tllIu attempt MS fingers melt
ed from the rung, and he swung down
fearfully, hanging by his knee, but
still clinging to the nozzle.
/ Give 1t up, Crailey; lit isn't worth
it," Vanrevel called from overhead, not
daring the weight of both on the light
grappling-ladder.
But though Craiey cared no more for
the saving of Robert Carewe's proper
ty than for a butterfly's wing in
China, he could not give up now, any
more than as lad he could have for
borne to turn somersaults when the
prettiest little girl looked out of the
school house window. He passed the
nozzle to Tappingham, caught the sec
ond rung with his left hand, and, once
more hanging head downward, seized
the nozzle; then, with his knee hooked
tight, as the gushing water described a
huge semi-circle upon the smoke and
hot Vapor, he made mad lurch
through the air, while women shrleked
but he landed upright, half-sitting on
the lowest rung. He climbed the Crap
pling-ladder swiftly, in spite of the
weight and contortions of the unman-
ageable beast he carried with him.
Tom leaned far down and took it from
him; and Crailey, passing the caves,
fell, exhausted, upon the roof. Just as
he reached this temporary security, a
lady was borne, fainting, out of the
there.
Word had been passed to the gentle
men of the Engine Company to shut
/ off the water in order to allow the
line to be carried up the ladder and
they received the command at the mo-
ment Tom lifted the nozzle, so that the
stream dried up in his hands. This
was the last straw, and the blackened
singed and SCARED chief, setting the
trumpet to his lips, gave himself en-
tirely to wrath.
1t struck Crailey, even as he lay
coughing and weeping with smoke
that there was something splendid and
| large in the others rage. VanreVe
was ordinarily so steady and cool that
this was worth seeing. this berserkel
gesture; worth hearing, this wonderful
profanity, like Washingtons one fit OF
cursing; and Crailey, knowing Tom
knew, too, that it had not come upor
him because Carewe had a daughter
into whose eyes Tom had looked; MOI
did he rage because he believed that
Crailey's life and his were in the great
err hazard for the lack of every drop OF
water that should have issued from
the empty nozzle. Their lungs were
burdened with smoke, while the intol-
cradle smarting of throat, eyes and
nostrils was like the incision of d
thousand needles in the membranes;
their clothes were luminous with glow
ing circles where the sparks were eat
ing the blaze widened on the wall be-
meath them. and Marsh was shouting
hoarsely that he could no longer hold
his position on the ladder; yet CraileS
knew that none of this was in Toms
mind as he stood, scorched, blistered
and haggard, on the edge of the roof
shaking his fist at the world. 1t was
because his chance of saving the prop
erty of a man he despised was being
endangered.
Crailey stretched forth a hand and
touched his friends knee. Your side
of the conversation is a trife loud
Tom" he said. Miss Carewe is dowr
there. across the street, on a pile OF
boxes"
Tom stopped in the middle of a word
for which he may have received but
half a black stroke from the recording
angel. He wheeled toward the street
and, shielding his nfiaming eyes with
his hand. gazed downward I'm a strick'
en- silence. From that. moment Mr.
VanrcVePs instructions to his followers
were of decorum at which not the
meekest Sunday school scholar dare
have cavilled.
The three men on the long ladder
Marsh, Eugene Madrillon and VIII
! Cummings, found their position unten
able; for the flames. reaching all along
the wall were licking at the laddel
itself, between Marsh and Eugene. 81
can't stand this any longer" gaspec
Tappingham, but / can't leave those
two up there, either"
Not alone" shouted Cummings from
beneath Madrillon. Lets go up."