Catoctin clarion., 1917-03-22
A HErO's CUE
BY SYLVIA TURNER.
.y.y"y.y.y.y.y.~.y.y.y.y.N.NxN.H.x.M.

the dinner table, 'is largely matter
Of accidental coincidence, and certain
excitable reaction, mental, of course,
wherein the hero feels irresistibly inn
PEELED to act in accordance with the
exigencies Of the moment"
There was silence at the tables
where Mrs. Bardwell's paying guests
took their evening meal. But Frances
glanced up with 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
liams?" asked Miss BrOckway, tact
lessly.
yes" said Williams, without par
ley. mo 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 GER
tain savage avidity. 1t 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.
1t was far into the night when he
wakened with the muscles Of his throat
taut and stinging. When he opened his
eyes he faced gun-metal cOlored mist.
Making for the window In quick dive,
he opened 1t 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 ire.
"Ring in an alarm" he called, as he
elapped Turkish towel out of cold
water and held 1t around his face and
nostris In the downrush through the
halls. And from then on until he was
fished 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. Bardwell's house
precious belongings clasped in their
arms. Frances stood out on the front
steps.
"Have you seen Mr.. Williams any
where?' she asked. "The tiremen are
coming aren't they?"
"Oh, yes," Roland assured her. hap
ply. 81 have just turned in the alarm.
l 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. 1T was good you
wakened in time"
Now right there was Roland's
chance, and he missed 1t because the
doctor spied him and hailed him as a
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 colored
waiter, emerged from the basement en-
trance gasping and the bearer Of It'd.
ings.
"Its 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 firemen bore Williams
up out Of the laundry in the subcellar.
1t was bad anticlimax. He was un-
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-
sponse the department gave you. You
might have told someone that he was
down there, you know-there was time
while they were praislng the hero"
And when Williams opened his eyes
and said quite anxiously and impul-
sively before everyone:
"Frances!"
"Tm here, Tom" She went over to
the big couch where he lay and gave
him her hands, even with Mics Brock
ways eyes upon them.
Everybody safer"
Everyone" she assured him.
'It was only that blamed laundry
stove" he muttered, "but the smoke
got me by the throat"
The doctor turned around and softly
left the parlor. After him went Miss
Brockway and Mrs. Bardwell, and the
rest, last Of all Roland, and left the
two from Kentucky alone.
The ex-hero was silent, and in the
front parlor there was silence, too, un-
til Frances came out with little hap
by smile on her face and wee smudge
of black on her cheek.
NConYrieht. 1917 hY the McClure Nawsna.