The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-08-16

Captain had Seen--77 shr1eked and walled
and beloved. The child stood stock-stil,
petrifed with terror. The grays saw moth
ing, heard only the whistle screaming to
them for more speed.
Patrick had not seen it like this. His
theory had presented itself for test. If he
swerved foot to the night, there were the
pillars-iron. If he kept on, he must
crush the child-fesh. Which should it
be? Behind him the Captain was cursing
foan1ily.
Turn Quit Turn!" he yelled through the
shattering din of the Whistles wild terror.
"Turn out! Quick! For Gods sake,
turn" yelled the black, hay dots in the
trolley car windows.
Red-headed, fresh-faced, blue-eyed Pat
rick ceased to be boy in that instant. His
face blanched to gray. Devil Morgan's
sad brown eyes peered at him remorselessly
out of the wild past
It was an agonizing moment of ipdecision.
He had never supposed it would be like
this. His duty to his helpless mates, to the
public, to himself, swept by in lightning
review. The thought of the fire far ahead
shot after them. His duty-he squared
himself, the powerful muscles in his Shout
ders and arms frightened
raced parallel in his whirling brain. He
knew how he should decide-yet he hest
tated. The agony unnerved him. Only a
second more remained. Every instant the
laundering team came nearer the motion
less figure of the child before him.
Patrick was beyond reason; hi actions
had resolved themselves mercifully into the
primitive. Surging up in him at the last
yard of distance, Just as the child found
tongue in heart-rending cry of more than
human despair, came the intuitive spirit of
Man.
Once more IT, kissing and shrieking and
belching fire, hurled herself into the iron
passed by the flesh.
It was his profane, tire-scarred, kindly old
martinez of a Captain who stood fldgeting
with his clumsy helmet at the white bedside
as P; trick opened his eyes some hours later
in the Mercy Hospital. The veterans face
was anxious, his bristling mustache thrust
ing out hedgewise as he bent above the still
figure on the cot.
Patrick stared at him from an immeas-
urable distance, through veil of haze that
softened and blurred the familiar features.
"Wha-7 What happened7" he whis-
pered weakly, wincing at the pain his
Cracked lids SHOL through ILL., DICK
draught i. ?"
"Sh, now-you mustn't talk. Every
things all right" the nurse replied. And
the inferno, who had patched him up with
swift skill, added: "Only couple of cracked
ribs, my man. You'll be back on the job
in a day or So"
"But what happened-foor go DOWN."
persisted the wounded fireman in feeble
"Course you don't, lad," broke in the
Captain grimly. Nobody does-but they
all do it, just the same. I'm proud O. vel"
Patrick sighed his annoyance and frowned.
It was all puzzle. He knew he was in the
hospital-that much was clear But how
or why, he could not imagine. Memory ran
back to the morning, to afternoon, to the
little fiat in Harlem-and ceased. Why
couldn't they be decent and tell him?
The surgeon saw his trouble and whis-
pered to the Captain: cit may do him
good; you had better explain. This sus-
pense isn't doing him good now. Tell
him.
The veteran nodded, and told him, bit by
bit, helping out his paralyzed memory with
a rapid patchwork of narrative that brought
intelligence back into the blank eyes. When
he had finished, and the three stood quietly
by the bedside, Patrick closed his eyes, his
face set rigidly in lines whose pain was not
mere agony of the body. The watchers
stepped little closer. Slowly he looked
out at them again, and his lips moved
They bent forward.
II didn't understand when said !
wouldn't do it," he muttered, in scarcely
audible accents. And after pause for the
breath, whose coming and going tortured
him but family in comparison with his
thoughts: "My God! Suppose it had been
81 knew, lad! / knew" exclaimed the
Captain, bending down and pushing some
thing indistinct into the range of his vision.
II knew we was man, boy. Here's the
kid
Patrick opened his eyes again languidly,
too exhausted to wish for sight Of the life
he had saved-sat bolt upright, regardless
of pain and plaster cast
"Mary! My Mary-Godi"