The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-01-22
A CHANGE OF PROFESSION :. . By Harvey J. O'FTicgins


| Hanrahan's conversation all "hot air
an free silver" and had quarreled
with him about this wearisome en-
thusiasm for politics They continued
stoidly at their work, now, in the
silence of mutual Indifference The
Threatened TO tear the nozzle from
their hands. and they raised the hose
to their shoulders to bend it in a
swan s. neck arch that sent the water
/ Kissing down the bricks.
They were busted SO. when they saw
bluish-green flame flash in the red
of the fire in the roof below, and
belch of smoke rolled up TO them on
the burst and echo of an explosion Be
fore it reached them they heard an
other roar beneath it; the cloud of
smoke was split with flame. and they
leaped back from the parapet as il
from the crater OF a volcano, and threw
themselves on their faces, as the burn
ing gases, freed by the collapse of the
roof-1aring 200 feet in the air and
licking up the side of the Mansard
building, TO break every window glass
in its upper ten stories and ignite
every window curtain, window sash
and trim" in it's north wall-rolled
over them in a heat that nipped their
ears like frostbite and was gone.
German pinned down the pipe that
was threshing about on the roof and
staggered back to the parapet with
II. The beat Of heat was unendura BILE,
and he could see nothing for the
smoke that blinded him with tears.
He did not know that the gale was
carrying a solid tongue of fire into the
hidden airshaft. and that every win
dow on that shaft was already srit-
ting flames. He could just see that the
woodwork of the window below him
was a FIRE and he called Hanrahan to
train the pipe on IL with him. They
doused il black at once, and scattered
the smoke. to see another blaze below.
Then suddenly the stream from their
hose Weakened and fell short IT was
plain that the crews were using the
water on the lower floors.
Were wanted down below, l guess"
Hanrahan said. Were no good up
here now
German nodded. They shut off the
nozzle and turned to drag the line to
the door of the stairs.
They were too late. German saw the
blaze in the airshaft and cried out an
oath. That shaft he knew, lit the stair
way from the ground up, and cut them
off from the elevator shaft I'm the center
of the building. They dropped the line
and ran to the door Smoke was pour
ing from it. and flame was behind the
smoke. German ran back for the hose,
turned the neck-guard of the helmet
over his face and, with the water to
open the way for him, fought down
three steps into a blaze that could not
broken windows of the airshaft.
brought up a smother of heat and
smoke against which his pipe was use
less He was lighting a prairie fire
with the stream of an extinguisher.
Hanrahan pitched forward on his
shoulders. German braced himself
against the weight, turned to catch him
under the armpits and carried him up,
himself half suffocated, to lay him on
the roof. They were greeted by the
fierce purring of the flames. Hanrahan
groaned.
"Y'alI right?'' German asked him.
He rolled his eyes Let's get down
out of this he gasped.
German Strengthened up and looked
around him. The doorway was the
only entrance to the roof. He walked
back, TO kick the useless hose down the
staircase and shut the tin sheathed
door on the blaze below. He went TO
the stone railing that surrnounted the
cornice on the front Of the building
The coping overhung the lower win
dows in a sheer drop to the street. He
hurried to the south wall. The windows
there were twelve feet down, and there
was no pipe-no foothold. He went to
the back of the roof and found another
coping.
He turned TO see Hanrahan running
from parapet to parapet, now hidden in
a cloud Of whirling SMOKE, now black
in the red glow of wind blown flames
He saw him lean over the marble rail-
ing that surmounted the cornice on the
front of the building. and put his hands
in trumpet to his mouth. the voice
was lost in the roar of the wind. He
saw him take off his helmet and try
70 throw it down into the street: and
the gale snatched it from his hand
tossed 1t aloft and blew it away to the
south with the smoke of the flying en-
bers.
He cap,a ruprjre- hacl- % f,,.
Let's get down." he painted. Lets