The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-02-21
THE LADDER
BY CHARLES G. ID. ROBERTS
Copyrighted, 1914, by the News
paper Enterprise Association.)
By CHARLES C. d. ROBERTS

was on fire. The old fire-hose.
brought hurriedly from the mill.
had burst under the first strain.
The flames were having it all
their own way.
But suddenly groan of horror
went up, and the calm of the
crowd broke into tumult. A
child's form had appeared in the
top-most window at the right.
Men raced for ladders. But one
tall figure, in shirt-sleeves and
top-boots, had dashed straight for
the front door.
IT'S Mart Block" went the
word among the crowd. "If any
body kin, he'll git through"
A ladder was thrust into place,
held almost perpendicular by the
men at its foot. 1t did not quite
reach the window sill, but no one
doubted that Block could get to it
with his burden. Nevertheless,
he seemed to hesitate.
Come up and get her, some
one!" shouted Block. A river
man was halfway up the ladder
before the sentence had passed
his lips. Block reached out, put
the child into his hands, and
watched her being carried down
to safety.
But he made no motion to fol-
low. A light flashed into the
room behind him. He turned and
looked at it. Was he mad? Sud
denly he shouted:
"A rope! Fling me rope!"
In a moment a coil came cir
cling up to him. Block seized it
and made 1t fast to the bedstead
in the room. Then he slipped
out from the window and, to the
speeches. bewilderment of the
crowd, same swiftly down the
rope hand over hand, ignoring
the very existence of the ladder
beside him.
An hour later Martin Block,
his scorched face and hands shin
ing with sweet oil, was sitting in
the back room of the Mills store.
The storekeeper, Sandy MacNutt,
was there, and big Steve Corri-
gan and Jim Sayres, the river
boss.
/ Martini" drawled Sayres,
what did w do it for?"
| do what for?" asked Block
batter a pause.
Il Sayres grunted impatiently.
/ s"I was afraid to come down
the ladder" answered Block
quietly.
An incredulous laugh greeter
this unexpected statement.
Its true, so help mel" per-
sisted Block. Boys, it was just
something I couldn't do. I'd
have jumped out sooner. I'm
scared of ladder!
"Once upon a time l was just
about ten years younger than l
am now, and more than ten years
foolisher, down at Progresso, on
the Gulf of Mexico, l hadn't been
overly lucky but I'd found
enough gold to give me the taste
for 1t. And just now my head
was buzzing with fool yarns Of
buried treasure. When one gets
that bee in his brain, he's ready
for most any kind of nonsense
that's put up to him.
81 was sitting alone in front of
a little posada, looking out over
the hot Singing water, all streak
ed blue and green so lovely one
never gets tired staring at it,
when up came a couple of hard
customers. l knew they we're bad
ones all right. knew there was
lots of rope looking for the both
of them up along New Mexico
and Arizona, where the climate
had got unhealthy for them.
lone of the two, and 'greas-
er'-Antonio, he called himself,
never seemed to need any
more name that that. The other
was mostly American, with a
dash of everything else you can
think. He was not bad looking,
except for his mouth, which was
Just a kind of hard-edged cash
across his face. The name he
answered to was Badly
"Well, was glad to see them,
and they came right to business.
at was mans job, all right,
tina. they were putting up to me.
And It was a rank one, too; but
I'm ashamed to say that, desper-
ate as / was and seeing yellow
and In a land where right and
wrong seemed to get mixed up at
every turn, the rankness OF IT
| Just didn't strike me.
"You fellows have never heard,
likely, of little tribe called the
'Quetzals, down in Yucatan. No,
of course not. But every one
down around Mexico and Central
America way has heard of them
and their treasure. They're so
rich that they are able to pay the
government we'll to let them
Il alone. Where they keep their
gold, everybody knew well enough
was somewhere up among the tre-
mendous mountain cliffs. But 1t
had never been considered
healthy to try to find out any
thing more about it than that.
"Well, I'm not going to tell you
about that journey into the in
terror in the heat. It was bad
enough to make another story,
but I'll cut 1t all out. We kept
we'll clear of the trail, you'd bet
ter believe, and worked higher
ora h,uhor osn,fuo IN anna dowu