The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-02-04

scowl. AT discretion he stepped back
and turned as if persuaded t. mind his
own business, then swung on his heel,
caught the two in the very act of open
ing the door, and threw himself be-
tween them.
An elbow planted heavily in the pit
OF the stomach Of n disposed OF him
for the time being. A blow from the
shoulder sent the other Keeling to the
gutter. And Alan was in the tene-
ment's bwermost 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 a bracket near
the foot of the stairs.
Sounds of scuffling 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 q
door slammed at the forward end Of
the hall and hear a key turned in its
lock.
N N'ucNNl VI hlCh blOShCu lhC 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, a 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 a hideous mask of
humanity-faCe of man all misshapen,
bruised and swollen and d~istigured
with smears of dried blood and a dirty
bandage round his temples, but none
the less vaguely recognizable.
The words that streamod from it's
distorted lips drove recognition home.
Gee, ~fellers, look't who's here! If
1t amt tn guy what threw me off'n
that girder this mornin'. Stand back
and let me kill tn"
Without the hesitation Of a heart
beat Alan swung heavily for the thugs
jaw. The blow went solidly home.
The man fell like a poled OK.
Pandemonium ensued. Rallying to
their comrade, the rufiians attacked
Alan with one mind and one intent.
Murder would have been done then
and there had it not been for a 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 it's bracket and
crashed to the floor, it's glass we'll
breaking ard l~oosing a food of kero-
sene to receive the burning wick. The
explosion followed instantly. In a
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 vas echoed by a dozen
throats.
The doorway vomited men and
women of the tenement. They choked
it for a time, blocking both egress and
ingress. By the time they broke out
and left the way clear q solid wall Of
flame stood behind it.
Thrice Alan essayed to pass that
barrier Of fire, and thrice it threw him
back. Then, struggling and kicking
to release himself and try again, he
was seized by a brace of able-bodied
policemen and rushed fifty feet from
the house before let go.
Lack of breath checked him momen-
tarily.
He looked up, dashing from his
smarting eyes tears drawn by the
sitting clouds of smoke, and saw
vaguely at the second story window a
woman leaning out and shrieking for
help.
That it was hopeless to attempt the
staircase he well knew. Drawing
aside, he ~endeavored to come to his
sober senses, and cast about for some
more feasible way to effect the rescue
OF his Rose.
The tenement occupied one corner
OF a narrow street. Directly opposite,
a storage warehouse stood upon the
other corner. Before this last was the
common landing stage for truck de-
liveries, protected by a shed-roof.
And, suspended from a timber that
peered out over the caves, a hosting