News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-03-23
How Halloran
Made Good
By HAZEL SMITH
20 1921. Western Newspaper Union.)

had hardly ceased to echo through
the quarters of the sleeping firemen
when Halloran had sprung to his feet,
his eyes still closed with sleep, found
rle thick pole and slid down to the
stable, first of his companions. 1t WAS
not his first fire. but it was his first
big one. Everybody knew that it was
Il big one. Why, whole block of
tenements was burning on the East
side
He was at his post upon the car
now, holding on grimly as the vehicle
swung from side to side.
Hallorans mind went working back
during that wild journey. He had
been a fireman only six weeks. He
was an ex-convict. Nobody knew that
nobody except Chief Porter. And
Porter had believed in him and had
kept his secret faithfully. After three
years in Sing Sing for crime that
should, at most, have merited a short
period of detention in Elmira reforma-
tory, Halloran had been embittered
against society. And Porter had found
him and plucked him out of the mud
and given him his post. Porter be-
| ieved in him.
But Eileen, his young wife, did not.
They had been married only three
months when he had stolen a purse,
to give her those little comforts which
she needed so badly. When he came
out to freedom Eileen was gone. Her
friends could not be found. Her fam
lily had dispersed. There was no trace
of her.
Then Porter had found Halloran
and picked him out Of the mud and
made fireman of him. Some day he
would show Porter that he was worthy
of his confidence.
The wild journey was ended in
front of a block of frames that sent
up columns of smoke and spouted fire.
All the occupants of the tenements
had been removed or fed to safety.
No! Suddenly a Cry went up from
the multitudes. Far up on the sew
enth story a child was leaning out of
the window, uttering a feeble cry. A
little brown-haired slip of a girl, with
outstretched arms and clinging night
robe, crying in terror as the coiling
smoke surged round her. Ladders had
been run up. TOO short |" shouted
Il man. That was all Halloran knew.
He was already upon the lowest part
Of the ladder and climbing steadily.
The child still hung in the midst of
the cOiling smoke wreaths and he was
at the top of the ladder, and a full
two stories beneath her.
He poised himself and sprang and
caught the sill Of the window of the
fifth story; caught it and hung there
Then he drew himself up, stood on the
sill for an instant and plunged into
the hell within.
Two minutes later a gasp went up |
from the watchers as they saw stag
gering, smoke-blackened figure appear
at the window of the seventh story |
and drag the child upon the SILL 1t |
was Halloran. Angry tongues of fire |
darted out at him, licked at his
clothes. greedy for their prey
Halloran chung to the sill and looked |
down. The crowd was shouting to him |
not to jump.
Slowly-a ladder upreared itself I'M
til it reached the sill. Halloran felt
for it through a cloud of fiame-tipped
smoke in which whirled fiery, singing |
sparks, chung to it with his feet,
perched himself upon that swaying
thing and thrust the child into the
arms OF the steel-helmeted man who ]
c!amhcTcd up to him. And then, when
she had passed downward along the
line, Falloran collapsed into his res
cuers arms.
AT the foot Of the ladder was a wom-
an who had broken through the police
ines. SO tense was her face with an
sulsh that they mad suffered Ter to
pass; and now she clasped the child
70 her breast and laughed and crooned
over it, Oblivious of all else. The
,hild was scatheless Not hair had
been burned. Hallorans thick coat
scorched to a crisp, bore witness to
hat. And Halloran, fire-blackened
ulll, With anu SllSbu |
eyebrows and hands that rested limp
y in the surgeons bandages opened
his eyes to find the woman kneeling
over him.
Hell do well now" exclaimed the
loice surgeon.
Sure he will !" cried the voice of
Porter, the fire chief, and in his tones
was something that set Halloran's
doubts at rest for ever.
But it was not of Porter that he
bought that moment. The burned
eyes opened widely, staring into the
ace of the woman at his side. And
he whispered:
"Eileenw
She knew him-had known him. She
lower beside him and laid
Ter head upon his breast, her tears
falling on his face like rain.
TONI" she whispered. "She's ours
your child and mine. And we shall
De waiting for you, Tom dear, to make
| new home for all our lives"