Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-04-02

people wer smiling and bowling to
each other from box to box Of the
Metropolitan. In the midst of the
cheerful hustle preparatory to depart
ure there suddenly rang out the heart.
stopping cry of "Fire!" Young fel.
lows leaning debonairly over well.
gowned women Strengthened them
selves abruptly with blanched faces.
Countenances of men of the world,
grown immobile from thirty years of
repression, revealed as by a veil
snatched aside a raw, livid agony of
fear Laughter fed the red, curving
lips of famous beauties and robbed
them of their sparkling charm For
just a heartbeat, an awful shudder
ing silence held the house entranced
Then scream rang out-and another
and an other. The audience got to
its feet in mad terror. With the wild
beast instinct of selfpreservation men
trod down dainty women, who stood
between them and escape. 1t was all
dreadful horrible, impossible, yet
true.
For what followed Bremerton could
never afterwards account. He was
exchanging some banter with Carol
at the moment Of the panic and Mrs.
Delaine was smiling at them both
from the background. At the first
cry there came a fierce contraction of
his heart Everything slipped his
mind except a blind, unreasoning ter.
ror A ghastly fear took him by the
throat He was no longe a civilized
man, but a trapped beast, sitting for
air, and with the primeval instinct he
flung aside Mrs. Delaine and bolted
from the box. Once in the aisel he
fought madly for his own hand to
win a way to safety
How long this madness lasted he
could not tell. When at last he came
to sanity he was in the cool night air,
hatless, without his overcoat, still in
the beady perspiration his terror had
brought out.
He saw himself again a quivering mass
of fear, flying from the death which
he had left the woman he loved to
meet alone. A wave of abject humili-
alton skivered through him. He could
still see Carol Delane's first instinct
I've look of appeal to him in that mo
ment of pulsing fear, and he cursed
himself for a miserable coward that
he had not responded to It, In his
heart he knew that he had forfeited
not only any claim he might have
established to the girl he loved, but
also the friendship Of his eliminates
and his own selfrespect.
Slowly he made his way back into
the theater. Fortunately the fire had
been smothered and the stampede
stopped in time to avoid the terrible
catastrophe which had been threat.
enen. A few women had been seri.
ously hurt, but there were fortunately
no casualties, AS he passed in people
were still gathered in excited groups,
discussing how it had happened. He
found the Delaines in the box where
he had left them, and Alkire was help
ing them into their wraps. Bremerton
remembered that he had seen Alkire
in the parquet during the performance.
Mrs. Delaine turned ON the young
man a white face Of scorn. One
sentence of contemptuOus irony fell
from her lips before she could repress
II.
II suppose you have been calling
the carriage for us, Mr.. Bremerton." "
The boy attempted no apologies and
no explanations. He knew that his
crime was without palliation. Elk.
cuses were the one degree Of infamy
to which he could not stoop. He had
shown the white feather; he had been
proved a poltroon OF the worst Sort
at least he would have the spirit
enough to accept the punishment OF
his condemnation without whining,
And the extent of that punishment
was already beginning to come home
to him. Jim Alkire, who had flown Ia
help the Delaine's at his desertion
felt Bobs degradation so keenly that
he could not look him in the face. He
seemel to feel something indecent in
the nakedness of the young mans ter
ror. When he was forced to speak d.
rectly to him there was in his voice
studied gentleness, as though he were
talking to a child in delirium- And
Carol-the hopelessness in her face
cut him to the quick. He did not need
to be told now that she had loved him
The pain of his self-proseryation stared
ont ~ her beVOnd cOncealment or de