The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1915-01-04
THE DAILY MOSCOW IDAHO MONDAY JANUARY 1915

An elbow planted heavily in the pi
OF the stomach Of one disposed ofshin
for the time being. A blow from the
shoulder sent the other Keeling to the
gutter. And Alan was in the tene
ment's lowermost hall-a foul and
evil-odored place, dark as a pit the
instant the door was closed, Its murk
relieved only by the flame of a kero-
sene lamp smoking in bracket near
the foot of the stairs
Sounds of scuff1ing of feet were au-
dible on the first landing. Alan ad-
dressed himself impetuously to the
staircase, gaming its top in half a
dozen leaps, and only in time to see a
door slammed at the forward end of
the hall and hear a key turned in it's
look.
A cluster of men blocked the way.
He didn't pause to wait for it to be
| cleared, but threw himself headlong
| into their midst, and by dint of the
surprise had gained the closed door
before they recovered and sought to
stay him.
Indifferent to them all, he shook the
knob and shouted: "Rose Rose"
Her cry came back to him, muf-
fed scream; Alan! Help! Help!"
Backing away with a mad idea of
throwing himself bodily against the
door and breaking it down, he was sud-
denly confronted by hideous mask Of
II q y,if 70 of Ill
bruised and w~llen and disfgured
with smears of dried blood and dirty
bandage round his temples, but none
the less vaguely recognizable
The words that streamed from it's
distorted lips drove recognition home.
Gee, fellers, look't who's here! If
it amt tn guy what threw me off,
that girder this mornin' Stand back
and let me kill TIL"
Without the hesitation of a heart
beat Alan swung heavily for the thugs
jaw. The blow went solidly home.
The man fell like poled OK
Pandemonium ensued. Rallying to
their comrade, the ruffians attacked
Alan with one mind and one intent
Murder would have been done then
and there had it not been for rotten
banister-rail, which gave way, precipi-
tating the lot to the ground floor of
the hallway
simultaneously the lamp on the wall
was struck from its bracket and
crashed to the floor, its glass we'll
hroo jv0 0f
sene to receive the burning wick. The
explosion followed instantly. In
trice the hallway was a lake of burn
ing oil, and hungry flames were lick
ing up the rotting wallpaper and eat
ing into decayed baseboards and stair
treads.
Still fighting like a mailman, con-
testing every foot Of the way, Alan
was borne down the hall and out of |
the front door. A scream of "Fire!"
greeted him as he reeled out into the |
open. 1t was echoed by a dozen
throats.
The doorway vomited men and |
of the tenement. They choked |
It for time, blocking both egress and
ngress. BY the time they broke out
and left the way clear solid wall Of
flame stood behind it.
Thrice Alan essayed to pass that
barrier of fire, and thrice 1t threw him
back. Then, struggling and kicking
% release himself and try again, he
vas seized by brace of able-bodied
policemen and rushed fifty feet from
he house before let go.
Lack of breath checked him momen-
arily.
He looked up, dashing from his
eyes tears drawn by the
sitting clouds OF smoke, and saw
'aguely at the second story window
woman leaning out and shrieking for
lelp.
That it was hopeless to attempt the
taircase he well knew. Drawing
side, he endeavored to come to his 6
ober senses, and cast about for some /
nore feasible way to effect the rescue
f his Rose E
The tenement occupied one corner
t a narrow street. Directly opposite,
storage warehouse stood upon the
Their corner. Before this last was the
ommon landing stage for truck de-
veries, protected by a shed-roof
nd, suspended from a timber that
eered out over the caves, a hosting