The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-03-17

noises, to boot-as though the intruders
were moving furniture about. Then all
sounds ceased.
Of a sudden, simultaneously, Patria
and Parr turned startled faces toward
the vault door.
Round it's edges thin wells of smoke
were seeping into the chamber.
"They have fired the house"
The strained, frightened whisper was
Patria's. Mechanically Parr nodded.
Already the atmosphere in the vault
was oppressiye-so impregnated with
smoke it was difficult to breathe, so
warm that perspiration beaded brows
and hands.
Another five minutes: he heard a lit
tie choking cough, and turned to Pat
ria. She was on her feet, swaying,
eyes blank, hands plucking feebly at
the throat of her waist. AS she turned,
the light died out from her face and
she slipped slackly forward upon the
table.
Half-maddened, Parr put a shoulder
with his weight behind it against the
vault door. 1t swung QUITO admit a
sitting cloud of bitter smoke together
with a blast of heated air that might
have come from a furnaces nav.
Tugging the door shut again, he
turned and began rapidly to circle the
walls, hoping against hope to discover
somewhere another exit.
In his haste he tripped over the
broken box of coin and fell against the
framed portrait of the first John Chan.
ming. Its aged cord parted and the
portrait fell with a crash, exposing the
inner face of a stou door of steel.
Plucking frantically at its bars and
bolts, Parr succeeded in dislodging
them. The door swung out. A gust of
damp, cold air invaded the vault. Be-
yond the opening little was visible-a
Shiny brick flooring between arched
walls of brick fading into blackness-
nothing more.
Stepping back, Parr gathered the in
sensible girl up in his arms and stum'
bled out into the underground passage.
Once beyond the threshold he put his
back against the door and swung it
into place. Then he Numbered blindly
IN.
Twenty PAGES through inky murk.
. . He stubbed his toes against a
step, and gently putting down his bur-
den, found and struck a match.
The brief-lived flame discovered a
short flight of stone steps ascending to
a fiat roof. At the top was Nc sign Of
any doorway or fastening. Yet some
way of escape must be therel He ran
up the steps, crouched on the top.
most, placed his shoulders against that
flat roof of stone, and heaved nightly
and heaved and heaved. 80.
Grudgingly, half-inch by half-inch,
the stone yielded; then more rapidly;
in the end one tremendous final effort
overturned it, and Parr sprawled out
of the opening into fresh air and morn
ing sunlight.
He picked himself up to realize a
walled garden in the rear of the resi-
dence whose every window spouted
smoke and flame. Then he hurried
back to Patria, took her once again in
his arms, and bore her to the upper
world.
She recovered swiftly. Two min
utes more, and they stood in a quiet
news on the far side of the walled
garden. And there, for a little, they
Observation-Disclosures turning instinctively
to Parr for counsel, Parr struggling
to regain his poise.
At length, consulting his watch, he
announced:
1.-THE first thing to do, of course, is to
see about safeguarding that treasure.
It's safe enough for the time being;
and 1 know where to find the right
men to stand guard over it after the
firemen and police have gone. Later,
We'll see about transferring it-but
there's plenty of time for that no bank
opens it's vaults before ten o'clock.
She nodded assent, and tucked a con-
fident arm within his as they turned
toward the nearer corner.
(END OF SECOND EPISODE-)