Evening star., 1909-03-07

show people commenced to take hand. and an
less'n half minute about a dozen of the boys
| llvln here in town clum up over the front of the
stage: and you never see theater comp NY
| busted up quicker n that one was. | dun no
what would of happened if Jake Pryor. the
town marshal, hadn't kept his head and stopped
of chair that he always carried for a club But
Bob had a mighty hard time of it Cesar 5
friend nearly bit his thumb off. and they
thought for awhile that blood poisonin was to
| set in. 'Taint really well yit
That was the last actin we We had here and
if you folks need mob I'd advise you not to
try to hire Bob or Sim. because it makes EN-
both fghtin mad whenever anybody mentions
it to en-
Thank you for this information" said the
A LONG late in the afternoon the rain
- stopped. and we began to feel cheerful
again. The Doc thought it would be good
idea to have rehearsal: and we had just got
fairly started. when Miss Fennimore. who was
practising her Spanish dance, suddenly gave a
scream and, turning toward me- flung her arms
around my neck, yelling:
Save me- Save mel
| AS the same time somebody outside gave the
alarm of fire. Then l noticed that the theater
was filling up with smoke and while l stood
there with our leading lady clinging to me with
good deal more confidence than anybody else
had ever seemed to have in me- flames began
coming up through the floor It's wonderful
how fast a fire can do business in place of that
kind Almost before l could turn around the
whole inside of the theater was blazing: |
| looked around for Clytie: but she was nowhere
in sight. I'll never forget the feeling that came
over me. l knew then that | loved her. Id
often had doubts about it before; but that
ended them.
The other members of the company had be-
gun scrambling to get out the moment the
alarm was given and, catching Miss Fennimore
by the wrist, l made rush for the stage door.
The fire was roaring through the building by
that time, and chunks of blazing scenery were
dropping around us; but We managed to get
through, and as we half tumbled outside the
people who had begun to gather there gave
cheer | looked around for the members OF the
company. and saw all of them except Clyt1e and
the Doc.
"For heavens sake" asked Angel Willie
where's the wizard and Miss Trelawney?"
didn't stop to answer him. but started back
into the building AS did SO about dozen
men made rush for me- and saw that | d have
to beat them to the stage door, or the girl
| loved would be burned alive. Your thoughts
come pretty fast at such a time. too: AS was
flinging people out of my way. | felt sorry for
the Doc He had been decent to me in good
| many ways. and even if Clytie hadn't been IN
there with him. I'd have gone back to save his
| life if could. l had almost reached the door
| when big fellow who wore red helmet and
| had a bandaged hand got IN front OF me.
knew he must be the Roman mob. Somebody
was hanging to my coat tails. making it rather
hard for me to get ahead very fast: but
rushed at Bob Williams with all my might
thinking of the jiu jitsu tricks the Doc had
taught me. and hoping that | would be able to
clear the way by giving the Roman mob jolt
where he wouldn't enjoy it.
With a sudden twist | managed to break
away from whoever it was who was trying to
hold me back and then l lunged at Bob.
landed all right, too. He gave howl that was
not at all pleasant and went down on his knees
But Others had managed by that time to get
within reach of me, and as tried to fight them
off yelled "Clytie, Clytie!" with all my might
| Somebody's arms were thrown around my neck
from behind then, and | was dragged back
There were a dozen men around me, all striking
and grabbing at me. and knew it was too late
to save her. Not caring much what happened
to me if Clytie had to die in that roaring and
cracking place l struck out wherever | could
see nose or chin and was having good deal
of satisfaction in seeing men stagger back or lie
down after | had hit them, when suddenly
bumped something with the back of my head,
and then forgot where was and what was going
on
WHEN woke up was sitting on the side
w walk, across the street from the theater,
and Miss Fennimore
was bending over me.
The roof of the burn
ing building had fallen