Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-28
- BY Katharine
Z NetULin Burt
Mary or
Eioise?
Which
Should Win
Unusual Hero?

| I c"S "ouiu Ut travelling through the
arm about her and a sick. hot memory
and dread Of kisses.
What hardening Of her imagina ton,
what disassociation of her very per
sonality had left her free to such inten .
!ions! rupert, by now, had gone off,
alone and angry, to console himself with
less uncertain adventures. The sounds
OF the street ratified and hummed across
ner dazed consciousness. Below her.
Mariana Benton stepped here and there
from closet to bureau, getting herself
ready for her evening off. Now she had
pulled up a chair. She was probably
preparing to curl her bang. Sure
enough, scorched smell presently drift. I.
ei IN at US window. Sophie waited,
wishing that she could get rid of her
gag. which was beginning to be very
uncomfortabie. She would not cry out
now; q might have trusted her. She
began to work with her tongue and Inns
and jaw to loosen the scarf. NV, but
he was clever at tying a person up
Mariana, below, went out of her room
and banged the door. She would be
going out, thought Sophie, with her
young man, the drug store clerk, Ma.
riana had always been shrewd and sen.
sible and kind, even to prospective
stepmother. She had a vast amount OF
philosophy, that curled, manicured. in .
different being. There would never be
folly in Mariana's life--nor a flight.
sophie watched Q's curtains trail slug.
gishly in and out across the sill. The
smell OF scorched hair persisted. Ma
riana must have all but burnt off her
bang. There followed upon the smell
wisp OF smoke; some blackened frag-
-
sky. Sophie Strengthened little in
her chair and stared at the whirling
black bits. They looked like burnt lace.
pieces of lace curtain. Another and
denser scarf of smoke was sucked in at
the window. 1t had a certain heat.
Something was burning down below In
Mariana's s room, her curling iron heater
attached to the gas Jet, left burning
near the window curtains on the bureau
that was it-Mariana's curtains must
be on fire. And Mariana had gone out
FIVE minutes ago. Sophie thought
dazedly that she ought to give an
alarm.
The alarm was given by a small boy
In the street, who. five slow, queer min
utes later. shrilled out. Fire! Fire :"
That cry took a shar-' stitch in Sophie s
heart. The hotel was burning. Inside.
along the hall, she could hear running
steps; outside. the street began to
hurry, to clatter, to hold an increasing
panic OF foot and voice. Just below her
1t she was tied and gagged. She began
to struggle and that, true to Q's warn
ing, frightened the hitch. 1t hurt. But
even If 1t did hurt, hurt to agony. she
must get free, must scream, must at
tract help. She couldn't just sit there,
could she and be burned alive, while
Laurie was on his way to her? Oh,
how the cords cut and scared like fame
1t would feel like that when the fire
reached her There was q terrible tu-
multi outside in the street; inside,
people wre running about. They came
to Mariana's r,~rn. The door was
smashed in. There followed confused
shouting: the sm.ka went up past her
window in big black clouds full OF
whlring sparks. She could not fight
Q's hitch now; 1t was cutting her
wrists to the bone and tightening hor-
knees. But the gag had loosened.
In her hideous increasing panic she
could not make out the cries and shouts,
only she knew that the clamor was
growing. Yes, there was the frantic,
outrageous growing cry of the fire en-
gine. Here the gag slipped and Sophie,
hinging herself convulsively back in her
chair, shrieked and shrieked and
Help! Save me! III be burned
alive!"
The Hotel Was Burning
BY the time Benton and Sophie's $
father. with a fireman's help, had
broken open the door of her prison,
Sophie was entirely incapable of re-
assurance. They united her. while
they swore, sick with anger at what
they saw, and she fought them with all
her strength. The fire, they told her,
was out; it had been nothing worse
than burning curtain; they begged
her to explain her plight. But she
could neither understand nor explain
anything. She had to be held down on
Q's bed by her father and Bill, while
Benton ran for DR.. Sales.
After his deed Of lingual valor. Q
mounted his taxicab and went back to
Sluypenkill at top speed. He had a
letter from Laurie In his pocket and
his fancy pleased itself with vision
of Sophie's reading face. He compared
the probable happy issue of his adven-
ture with that other masterful benef-
cence concerning Ma Shippen's
daughter" IF l was only as good at
rescuing me from myself as ! am at
rescuing ladies from themselves, I'd be
right successful feller," he decided,
and sadness stepped his face, his body
relaxing on the cushioned seat. That
strong, confident will of his tightened
it's grip on his aching heart. He had
been hurt bad" by Heloise. She had
..sure done him in," but in spite of her,
he would win out. He would break her
proud, high, cold and willful heart to
his tenderness as he had gentled the
mad eyed broncs to his control. There
had been moments when her eyes had
been the eyes of girlhood, sweet fright
ened, unawakened eyes; faltering-and
held by his. He would believe those
eyes even when the lips denied their
loyalty. He made an effort of faith
that was almost physical, crudely he
believed in a sort of magic; defeat came
only to those that believed in defeat.
There would probably be message
from Heloise waiting for him at the
hotel. and he would have suffered all
day from an unnecessary pain. So i'm
patient was he to get the message that
he only noticed without any impulse to
inquiry that there was a ragged rem
nant of a crowd about TIE front of the
River Hotel, small boys and dogs, still
hopeful of q renewal of the splendid
chance of a conhagration, and he
sprang up the steps. through the, glass
doors, and half across the lobby before
he noticed Benton drawn up near the
loot of the stairs and obviously chal-
longing him. Then, with an abrupt
ba rdeninp of nerves, o stopped, ewes