A FAITHFUL FRIEND.
"I am mad!
The torture of unnumbered hours is o'er,
The strong cord is broken, and my heart
Riots in free delirium! Oh, Heaven!
I struggled with it, but it mastered me!
I fought against it, but it beat me down!
I prayed, I wept, but Heaven was deaf to me,
And every tear rolled backward on my heart,
To blast and poison!"--GEORGE HENRY BOKER.
A crowd soon collected and the fire engines quickly came upon the scene.
Streams of water began to play on the burning house, but to no
avail. The fire had made too much headway to be checked now. The old
ramshackle building was doomed. In the large crowd that had collected
were two very elegant-looking young men--Earle Winans and Lord Chester.
The two young men, although acquainted but a few days, had become fast
friends.
It was the nobleman's deep solicitude over the fate of Precious that
had first drawn Earle toward him. Lord Chester's services were always
ready in any new plan for finding Precious; he was as eager as Earle
himself in the search.
The Winans family believed that all this zeal was for the sake of
Ethel, whom the nobleman had seemed to admire so much that gossip said
he would certainly make her Lady Chester at no distant date.
So Earle had taken the handsome young nobleman warmly into his heart
and confidence.
They had been walking together that chilly afternoon, several blocks
away from the place, when the light of the burning building drew them
to follow the crowd to the spot.
They arrived but a few moments after Ethel had turned away from the
dreadful scene, hardening her jealous heart against the voice of
accusing conscience, and answering to its reproaches: "I tried to save
her, and it was through her own cowardice she perished."
When her brother and Lord Chester came on the scene they heard some one
saying:
"There is a dog shut up in that house. Hear his frightful baying!"
They could hear it distinctly, the prolonged mournful howls, and it
seemed as if the sounds came from an open window.
"The window is open. Why don't the foolish animal come out?" cried
Earle Winans, and just then the streams of water playing on the side
of the wall cleared away the smoke a little, and the animal was seen a
moment dimly, then with another howl he fell back into the room.
"He is bewildered and afraid to jump," cried a fireman, as poor Kay's
dismal wails came distinctly to the ears of the crowd.
"Perhaps there is some person in the room, and he is too faithful to
desert his post. Dogs are often more faithful than friends. Put up a
ladder, and I will go and see," exclaimed Lord Chester suddenly.
"No, no! you must not risk your life for a dog, even a faithful one,"
cried Earle, trying to hold his friend back, for the situation was very
perilous.
"No, no! I must save that poor dog!" Lord Chester cried, breaking loose
and ascending the ladder, while the shouts of the tumultuous crowd rang
to heaven.
Slowly, carefully, through the blinding smoke and heat and threatening
flame he went, and presently his head rose above the sill of the open
window and he peered into the room, which seemed full of black smoke
and leaping flames.
He put out his hand and it touched a big tawny head.
"Come, good fellow, come," he cried, and tried to drag him out.
Then he made a startling discovery.
The faithful mastiff had dragged an unconscious human being to the
window with his teeth, and was holding her up by a mass of golden hair
in a vain effort to get her up to the sill, where she might be seen and
rescued by the crowd.