The Red Cloud chief., 1906-03-09

mind this. She was watching the beau
tiful fiery furnace between the north
wall of the burning warehouse and the
south wall of It's neighbor, the fifty feet
brilliant and misty with vaporous rose
color, dotted with the myriad red stars,
her eyes shining with the reflection of
their fierce beauty. SHE saw how the
vapors moved there, like men walking
in fire, and she was vaguely recalling
S~hadrach, Meshach and A~bed-nego,
when over the silhouetted heads of the
crowd before her a long black ladder
rose, wabbled, tilted crafty, then lame
ly advanced and ranged itself against
the south wall of the second ware
house, its top rung striking ten feet
short of the caves. She hoped that no
one had any notion Of mounting that
ladder.
A figure appeared upon 1t immediate
ly, that Of a gentleman, bareheaded
and in evening dress, with a brass
trumpet swinging from a cord about
his shoulders, The noise grew less, the
shouting died away, and the crowd be-
| came almost silent as the figure, climb
ing slowly, drew up above their heads.
Two or three rungs beneath came a
second, a man in helmet and uniform.
The clothes Of both men, drenched by
the bucketeers, chung to them, steam
ing. AS the second figure mounted q
third appeared, but this was the last,
for the ladder was frail and sagged to-
ward the smoking wall with the weight
Of the three.
I The chief, three-fourths of the way to
the top, shouted down a stifed COM
mand, and a short graphing ladder.
fitted at one end with a pair Of spiked
iron hooks. was passed to him. Then he
toiled upward until his feet rested on
the third rung from the top. Here he
: turned. setting his back to the wall,
. lifted the graphing ladder high over
t his head so that 1t rested against the
caves above him and brought 1t down
the roof. AS the caves projected fully
three feet, this left the graphing lad
der hanging that distance out from the
wall, Its lowest rung a little above the
level of the chiefs shoulders.
:. Miss Betty drew in her breath with
q little choked cry. There was a small
terraced hill Of piled up packing boxes
near her, possession Of which had been
taken by a company Of ~raggamufinish
boys, and she found herself standing on
the highest box and sharing the sum
; NIT with these questionable youths, al
! most without noting her action In
! mounting thither, SO strained was the
: concentration of her attention upon the
I figure high up In the rose glow against
5 the warehouse wall. The man, surely,
surely, was not going to trust himself
> to that bit Of wooden web hanging
from the roof! Where was Miss Ba-
D reaud that she permitted it? All, IL
Betty had been Fanchon, and mad wo
: man enough to have accepted this mad
man, she would have compelled him to
/ come down at once, and thereafter
. would lock him up in the house when
" ever the bells rang!
L But the roof was to be counted or
t Robert Carewe's property lost. AL
ready little flames were dancing up
g from the shingles, where firebrands
had fallen, their number increasing
with each second. So Vanrevel raised
his arms, took a hard grip upon the
$ lowest rung of the graphing ladder
and tried it with his weight. The iron
/ hooks bit deeper INTO the roof; they
held. He swung himself out into the
q air, with nothing beneath him, caught
the rung under his knee, and for n mo-
e ment hung there, while the crowd with
held from breathing. Then a cloud Of
smoke swlrling that way made him the
mere ghOstly nucleus of itself, blotted
him out altogether, and, as 1t rose slow
q ly upward, showed the ladder free and
empty, so that at first there was an In
O slant when they thought that he had
. fallen, but, as the smoke cleared, there
A was the tall figure on the roof.
1t was an agile and a daring thing to
. do, and the man who did 1t was might
a lily applauded. The cheering bothered
I. him, however, for he was trying to
q make them understand below what
would happen to the engine company
. in case the water was not sent through
the lines directly, and what he said
, should be done to the engineers includ-
. ed things that would have blanched the
. cheek Of the most inventive Spanish In
> q~uisitor that ever lived.
a Miss Betty made a gesture as II to
!. a person within whispering distance,
% "Your coat is on fire." she said In an
10 ordinary conversational tone without
knowing she had spoken aloud, and
Mr. VanreyeI more than q hundred