The Topeka state journal., 1918-12-09
EVENING STORY
Hero Mine.
BY r. RAY BAKER.


been willing to go thru water. pro-
vided 1t was not too deep; and also
thru blood, as long as it was not Of |
their own or of their shedding; but as
to fire and iron-well. the former was
a little too much to expect and the
latter was, difficult.
II Verna had waited a few years |
she would have experienced no dif-
ficulty in finding a hero for herself. |
They are plentiful nowadays. but they |
were scarce when Verna was twenty
one and the "pretty stenog'' In Jones & |
Jones's real estate office on the fourth |
floor of the Ashton building.
Somehow Verna figured that Dan |
Williams was destined to be the man. |
He was fireman in the station house |
three blocks down the street, and he |
clung rather heroically. she thought. |
to the red juggernaut that roared and |
sceeched past the Ashton on an aver |
age of at least four times a day. There
was man who would at least go thru |
fire, and certainly thru water, and |
probably meet the other requirements. |
He was a strapping blond young man, |
with strength ripping thru every |
hero worshiper to look at. |
Some day he'll prove to be my
hero" she had decided on the day
Dan followed his pet maltese cat in
across the street to the Pomeroy resi-
dence. where Verna happened to be
seated on the porch reading Brave
Men Have Met
and since then Dan had wooed Verna
thru the fourth floor window every
week day and in the parlor of her
home every night he got time off.
When the siren Of the ladder truck
gave vent to its mournful shrek Verna
always would look up from her type
writer and exchange a wave of the
hand with Dan as the red demon
dashed past.
But Dan was not the only one who
~ooed Verna thru the window. Ben
Vincent rode past the Ashton build
ing twelve times a day. His pace
was not so swift as his rivals, how
ever, because his vehicle was a street
window he always stood on the rear
platform and waved one of his hands
while the other rang up fares.
Verna liked Ben fully as well as
offered few heroic possibilities. He
had dark hair and eyes and his face
was attractive, but he failed to come
up to the fireman's shoulder and
there was no noticeable bulge just
His acquaintance she had formed
when she moved to a residence in the
suburbs and was obliged to use a
trolley car twice each day.
Ben's dark complexion was another
handicap. Verna had hair that she
liked to hear called raven locks and
her eyes were of a similar hue; and
she Shad read that a person should
marry an opposite.
That's the way things stood when
the rivals met one night a. half block
from the Pomeroy home. The con-
ductor had been calling on Verna and
the fireman knew 1t and. was waiting
12E ahim' They both ehAppepeds to be
ask her for an enRp cement
"Pve been waiting for you an hour"
Dan announced as he stepped out
from the tree against which he had
been been leaning: leaning. You s,u have been in
long, can't stand for that"
Ben had no relish for a fight-not
with those six feet of Inuscle-so he
| kept his temper in leash.
Sorry I don't please you." he re-
piled with sarcasm-sprinkled GOODNESS
| II didn't know Miss Pomeroy and you
were engaged"
The fireman knitted his brows into
a savage scowl and looked disdainful-
| ly down at the pebble in his highway
| Of love. +--z-@H
well, we aren't" he declared.
| There is no engagement yet, but
| there is going to be. She wants a
man. and I'm it-see? She isn't go
| ing to tie up with a shrimp like you,
SO you better make yourself scarce
around her. I'm just warning you.
that's ALL,
About this time Fate decided to
tor went to sleep in the basement of
the Ashton building late one after
| noon and a cigarette dropped from
MS mouth into a barrel of excelsior
The Ashton was a frame relic of past
| arcnltectural grandeur and the flames
| ate into it as a famished lion eats
| into a chunk OF red beefsteak
! The 1anitor awoke, choked with
smoke, and staggered to safety. The
occupants of the building dashed
pellmell to the street by means of .he
stairway and the meager fire escape
facilities. The elevator boy deserted
his post and fled with the rest.
| Verna's bosses were playing golf
and she was alone in the office clean
ing up a pile of work. She had her.
! self some of the qualities that heroes
and heroines are made of. So she re-
mained in the office and put valuable
papers in the safe while fire crept up
the outside and inside Of the building
and smoke seeped thru the floors.
l There's lots of time she told her.
self, and kept rummaging for one very
important document she had BEEN un-
able to locate. She finally discovered
it on a file on the Junior partners
| desk. Tossing it into the safe, she
slammed the iron door, turned the
knob and hurried into her coat and
hat.
AS she opened the Office door a
| wave Of heat and smoke rolled in
upon her. She coughed and drew
| back for a moment, then dashed for
4 the stairway. But the flames had
been there first and there was no
stairway. By this time she was really
excited. She ran to the elevator en-
trance and pushed frantically and
vainly on the bell. Bamed, she stood
| in a daze in the midst of sitting
i fumes which were becoming more
/ dense with every minutes that passed.
Dan will save me!' she cried, and
she struggled to her feet and ran back