The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1916-06-02

res. Mrs. Tweedy is ringing the bell
go desperately l must GO"
He watched her cross the fields until
she disappeared in the shadowy orch
ard.
That night Daffy Daniel startled
Pond village folks by coming to prayer
meeting, a place he had avoided for
| twenty years.
Perhaps he hoped the schoolteacher
would be there. Perhaps it was
sudden whim. Anyway, old friends
nodded at him, and women smiled, and
the minister shook hands and called
him "Mr. Ford"
Miss Blake did not go to prayer meet
ing. She sat alone In the sitting room
and corrected exercises until the
Tweedys came home from the church.
Mrs. Tweedy was filed with mild ex-
element.
"Daffy Daniel was at meetingr' she
announced as she sank into a chair.
"Is that an unusual event?" smiled
| Miss Blake.
"Once in twenty years. Kinder I'M
Its queerr' calculated Mrs. Tweedy,
and then she went on to tell about the
forthcoming fair and carnival which
was to be held in Firemen's hall.
"And the decorations are all Grape
paper and pink cheesecloth," ended
Mrs. Tweedy. Suppose 1t got afire?"
THAT would be dreadful" shuddered
lob 30 h,,
That night the schoolteacher dream
ed that she attended the carnival in
Firemen's hall and that suddenly the
whole place was ablaze. Some one
picked her up and bore her through
! fire and smoke to cool safety.
And she opened her eyes and saw
that her heroic rescuer was Daffy Dan
| ieL
"Why," she had said to him in wild
surprise, you are a man!'
And he had answered.
"a man asleep. You have awakened
me-"
She continued to think of Daniel
Ford far more often than was neces-
sary or required by mere pity for his
| lonely condition.
She knew now that many of his &C.
centricities were due to his habit of
living alone with his grief. She knew
that through systematic reading he had
educated himself above his neighbors
Daffy Daniel was gentleman and
scholar, and the attitude Of his neigh
bOrs was incomprehensible.
The night of the carnival!
Firemen's hall was a bower of beau
ty, according to the Pondpoint Bugle.
blowers, festoons and fair femininity
crowded the foors,' it said enthusiast
t1cally before it went on to describe
the tragedy that followed.
In the middle of the festivities some
one cried Fire.
There was a stampede for the single
exit, but man impeded the way, a big
man with arms stretched across the
! doorway, who cried authoritatively:
Zone at time, one at a time! Wo-
men and children first!"
The man was Daffy Daniel, who had
not attended a festival in twenty years.
While the fremen threw a feeble
stream on the fiimsy wooden structure
Daniel Ford kept the crowd from panic
until there remained a mere handful
Of people, who, frightened at the vol
umes of smoke pouring up the stairs
declined to go and huddled near the
windows.
Among these Frances Blake fingered,
encouraging, soothing and helping one
and another.
Then Daniel Ford suddenly broke
loose upon them, grasped a woman In
his arms and rushed down the burning
stairs to safety.
Again and again he made the peril
GUS journey, until the room was in
flames and there remained only the
| schoolteacher, pale and calm.
"You?" he groaned. 81 must save
your
You have saved twenty lives or
more, Daniel Ford" she smiled at him.
THANK Godr' he said reverently,
those will atone for the lives could
not save twenty years ago."
AS he spoke the burning stairs fell
with crash.
A cry of horror went up from the
waiting crowd.
Daniel Ford caught Frances in his
arms even as she had dreamed.
There is one chance. VIII you trust
me?"
yes" she said.
A large window opened on the roof
Of the square entrance porch. The
corner of the porch jutted against the
trunk of huge tree.
Daniel stepped from the window to
the roof and swung himself among the
branches of the tree. Frances held in
one strong arm.
The crowd cheered wildly, and a
hundred hands leaped up to help him
as he slid down to the ground.
BIZ he gave the girl to no other
hands. He stood there, dazed. A
scorched, blackened figure, with the
| fire of manhood in his eyes.
Three cheers for Daniel Ford!''
yelled his neighbors, and as they gave
It he knew that with the acclaim were
the love and admiration of his friends.
Never again would they call him
\