The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-10-13
Chapter 3S
oh, Darling

CECILY. in her small bed, thrust
~ out an arm protestingly in her
sleep. Her head tossed restlessly
on her pillow with some Subcon-
Scious gesture She started nearly
awake and then pulled the covers
over her head. Her dreams were
troubled. After that brief almost
emergence from her sleep, she
sank deeper into it.
II was summer again and she
was suffocating. Trucks, wheels,
shrieking brakes kaleidoscoped
through her dreams. Noise, heat
and cries disturbed her. She spoke
in the incoherent phrases of sleep.
flung herself from side to side.
Her throat felt dry. choked. She
coughed and fiuttered her eyelids
weakly. The tickling in her throat
brought rasping cough and sum-
moned her finally from sleep. She
opened her eyes and shut them, in
stantly. They stung!
And there. as she lay suspended
between sleeping and waking, the
acrid odor of smoke came to her!
Her body awake, her senses still
numb. she reached for the box of
matches beside her bed, was con-
scious Of a red light out of doors,
and struck match trying to find
the wick of her lamp. The light
f1ickered on her clock. Four
o'clock.
Then coughing seized her again
and she Started up in panic.
There was a thin line of smoke
coming in. curling around her
door, increasing while she stared
paralyzed for moment. It was
coming through the keyhole. Dare
lea was on firel
She jumped out of bed and ran
toward the door to warn the
others. She pulled open the door
and staggered back. The hall was
filled with billowing clouds of
dense. choking smoke.
A paroxysm of coughing seized
her and she slammed the door.
From the window it was only a
short drop to the ground below,
but she had to warn the others.
Half stumbling, she pulled a
blanket from her bed, lifted the
heavy. pitcher of water on her
Tash-stand and poured it over a
corner Of the blanket. Then. hold
ing it about her. she opened the
door and staggered into the smoke
filed hall.
Smoke
CHE triad To scream a warning
- out when she opened her
mouth. n filed with smoke. The
smoke blinded her she could hear
the cracking of wood now. see
red glow through the black Blind
~ she tried 10 turn back. struck
q wall. realized she couldn't find
her way back. Panic sprea d
through her
Then she was seized in strong
arms. the blanket over her face.
She lost CONSCIOUSNESS for a mo-
ment. realized she was being
dra9ged back into room. Her
own room. filed now with smoke.
the. lamp out .-.-ss-.
She opened her smarting eyes
and lOoked up into the face of
Locke.
r.0h!" she said. What have you
d0aeI'
He clapped hand over her
meu h and she felt herself being
lifted.
That was all she remembered.
She heard the chattering of
bir,ls in the trees. The excited SpSh.
spSh A thread of fir ran along
her arm No il wasn't the birds
she heard II was voices She tried
10 make sense of what she heard
S1iintSDlintSteddySte1db
Then she smelled something
sweet. Sickenlngly sweet.
Her nose tickled. itched. She
tired TO raise her arm to scratch
II. Her arm was pinioned She
coul dn use 1t. Consc iousness
struggled through the hazy layers
Of her mind. fighting for control.
She tried to sit up. her body
strainlng, fighting. LET me 60!
Help"
A hand steadied her, a voice
milrmufed soothingly in her ear.
She couldn't open her eyes. She
could smell smoke. It seemed to
Be il her body. After little while
she opehed her eyes and stared up
1t the ceiling. Only it wasn't a cell
ing. There were rafters there and
strung on the rafters were old
tires.
@fShe'll be all right now"
DR.. MacDonald's voice. Cecily
moved her head painfully in his
direction.
Then q voice at her other side