Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-28
=: Hunting a Husband =:
BY VIRGINIA TERHUNE VAN DE WATER

physician above the roaring of the
fire.
I'm an inside ROOM" gasped the
Westerner. And the living room this
side of it is in a blaze. We can't
reach them,"
A man dashed past them as he spoke,
and sprang up the steps. He was
wrapped in a blanket. and his face was
hidden in shadow. For q moment he
was seen in the fiicekering light OF the
doorway which had burst into sudden
fame. Then the smoke belched forth
and erased him.
HE WENT I'M" exclaimed the ply
stefan. God! but he's got nerve!"
'He didn't" shouted Lacy. "He
jumped from the porch just as the
smoke struck him! l saw him."
He reeled and would have fallen had
not his companion caught him. 1t was
then the physician saw, by the red
glare, that the young mans face was
blackened by the smoke, and his hands
torn and bleeding. He saw, also, that
he was almost fainting, and that he
was too weak to stand Throwing his
arm about the slender form, he dragged
him from in front of the veranda to
the turf at one side. Then, telling a
bystander to Took out for that chap"
he ran around to the back of the
bungalow. The flames were not as
strong there as in front, and, with a
sudden hope, he caught up a stick and
crashed in the glass of the kitchen
window But the fierce heat of the
room needed only the draught created
by the browen window to burst into
flames, and by the time he had thrust
his hand through the broken pane,
unlocked the sash and raised it. the
room was on fire.
It's hopeless!" he muttered. Utter
ly hopeless!"
lie could not reach the children in
the little room in the center of the
house, and he turned to hurry back to
their mother When he reached her she
was still feebly resisting the kindly
hands that were trying to draw her
away.
Put her into my carr directed the
physician. "Tll take her back to Mrs
Robbins. This is no place for her. She
viii kill herself if she stays"
Maynard, the Hero.
But even as he spoke he saw that
Beatrice Minor did not hear him. En-
hausted in mind and body. she had al
most swooned and she allowed her
self to be lifted again into the auto
mobile, where she lay, limp and silent.
The fire engine from the village had
arrived and was pouring a small and
Intellectual stream of water upon the
western side of the house. which was,
by now, a mass of bright, cracking
fire.
An awed crowd had assembled and
gazed silently at the doomed building.
There was little noise save for the
deep, throaty roar of the flame, and an
occasional order shouted by one of the
volunteer firemen. There was some
thing appalling in the horrible certain
ty with which the fire did its work.
People had stopped talking and were
looking on aghast
Then suddenly a sound, part cheer,
part groan, went up from the crowd.
For out through the blazing doorway,
a man reeled. His face could not be
seen, for it was pressed to a bundle
that he carried in his arms. He stag
gered to the end of the smoking porch
and stood at the head of the steps,
swaying perilously His head was hair
less and little bright patches of fire
smouldered in the rags that had been
his clothing. His face when he lifted
it from the huge bundle he carried
was contorted. terrible.
A dozen men sprang forward and
into the outstretChed arms of the fore
most he laid his burden. Then before
they could catch him, Paul Maynard
tottered and fell and lay very stills the
light from the burning house playing
| redly on his scared face.