Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-07-05
A HERO'S CUE
BY SYLVIA TURNER.
.H.w.y.y.y'Y'Y'Y,~11


of accidental coincidence, and certain
excitable reaction, mental, of course,
wherein the hero feels irresistibly i'm
PEELED to act in accordance with the
exigencieS of the moment"
There was silence at the tables
where Mrs. Bardwells paying guests
took their evening meal. But Frances
glanced up with a little laughing
glance at Roland, and Miss Brockway
gave vent to an audible sigh. Opposite
Frances sat Williams, absorbed as u.s.
ual in his own thoughts, and eating too
fast.
"Do you agree with this, Mr.. Will
Hams" asked Miss Brockway, tact
lessly.
YES" said Williams, without par
ley. "No man is hero who sets the
stage and acts part. 1t is purely in
voluntary"
After dinner, as usual, he avoided
the congregation of kindred souls out
on the front steps and in the double
parlors. Roland always joined them,
but Williams went on up to the back
room they shared in common and went
after his engineering books with a GER
tain savage avidity. It was late when
he finished, about II 80. Roland came
up. He spoke Of the new moon and of
Frances dancing.
"Some girls are merely spectacular,
but she has soul and intellect" said
Roland. "She is not exactly what you'd
call beautiful, Tom, but she's tantaliZ-
ing and interesting. Did you know she
was from Kentucky, too?"
Williams nodded his head imperson-
ally
It was far into the night when he
Wakened with the muscles of his throat
taut and singing. When he opened his
eyes he faced gun-metal cOlOred mist.
Making for the window in quick dive,
he opened it wide, drew in the keen
air deeply and turned around to rouse
Roland. Williams wasted no time but
splashed water in his face and told him
to get out in the halls and rouse the
people, while he found the source of
the fire.
ring in an alarm" he called, as he
slapped a Turkish towel out of cold
water and held it around his face and
nostrilS in the doWnrush through the
halls. And from then on until he was
fshed out unconscious from the sub
cellar by the firemen, Williams dropped
out of mortal ken, but Roland dis
covered involuntary heroism. He was
in his pajamas with raincoat thrown
hastily over them, going from door to
door rousing the slumbering boarders.
Also, he went to the corner and turned
in the fire alarm, rather dazedly. And
when he came back he met the full
contingent of Mrs. BardWells house
hold coming downstairs with their most
precious belongings clasped in their
arms. Frances stood out on the front
steps.
"Have you seen Mr.. Williams any
Where?" she asked. "The firemen are
coming, aren't they?"
ooh, yes," Roland assured her, hap
PLY. II have just turned in the alarm.
don't think it's dangerous yet, though.
Only, of course, the smoke. We might
all have been suffocated."
'That's what they are saying" an
sWered Frances. ut was good you
wakened in time"
Now right there was Roland's
chance, and he missed it because the
doctor spied him and hailed him as
hero. So did Miss Brockway, almost
fainting on his shoulder. SO did each
and every one of the survivors, indi-
vidually and severally. He had reused
them and saved their lives. Roland
almost believed it himself.
Then came the engines outside and
the firemen. And Clarence, the colcred
waiter emerged from the basement en-
trance gasping and the bearer of It'd
ings.
"It's a boiler of clothes done got left
on de laundry stove" he explained,
"and Mister Williams he's down dere
in de smoke right by de furnace. He
put de fire out all by hisself"
Two stalWart fremen bore Williams
up OuC VI I11C 1duudl LII llIc SuDCcIld1s
It was a bad anticlimax. He was IN
conscious and blackened, and his hands
were burned and his eyebrows and hair
were singed. And while everyone Wor-
ried and tended to him Frances turned
just once to Roland and asked:
'And you forgot him?"
Frances, just this minute got back
from sending in the alarm
''This minute" Frances eyebrows
raised. "What an instantaneous re-
spouse the department gave you. You
might have told someone that he was
down there, you knoW-there was time
while they were praising the hero"
And when Williams opened his eyes
and said quite anxiously and impul-
sfvely before everyone:
Frances !"
I'm here, Tom" She went over to
the big couch where he lay and gave
him her hands, even with Miss Brock
ways eyes upon them.