Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-02-16

o" ~ UNIV water not upon the
flames, but upon the ladder men.
Miss Carewe stood in the crowd upon
the opposite side of the broad street.
Even there her cheeks were uncom-
rortably hot, and sometimes she had to
brush a spark from her shoulder.
though she was too much excited to
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
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nepo.
when over the silhouetted heads of the
crowd before her long black ladder
rose, wabbled, tilted crafty, then lame
~ 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
~, that of gentleman, bareheaded
and in evening dress, with brass
trumpet swinging from 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, 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.
The chief, three fourths of the way to
the top, shouted down stifed COM
mand. and short graphing ladder,
fitted at one end with 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
his head SO that it rested against the
caves above him and brought Il down
sharply, fastening the spiked hooks In
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 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 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
figure high up in the rose glow against
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-
reaud that she permitted it? All, If
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!
But the roof was to be mounted or
Robert Carewe's property lost. Al
ready little flames were dancing up
from the shingles, where drebrands
had fallen, their number increasing
with each second. So Vanrevel raised
his arms, took 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
air, with nothing beneath him, caught
the rung under his knee, and for mo-
ment hung there, while the crowd with
held from breathing. Then cloud of
smoke swirling that way made him the
mere ghostly nucleus Of itself, blotted
him out altogether, and, as 1t rose slow
ly upward, showed the ladder free and
empty, SO that at first there was an in
slant when they thought that he had
fallen, but, as the smoke cleared, there
was the tall figure on the roof.
It was an agile and daring thing to
do, and the man who did it was might
lily applauded. The cheering bothered
him, however, for he was trying to
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
anisitor that ever lived.