'FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!'
June had passed and July had come. Mr. Trent had arrived and was
eating his heart out while the days dragged by. Miss Jenrys waited and
wondered, and wrote to Miss O'Neil letters which she tried to make
cheerful, until one day she received a telegram. Mrs. Trent no longer
needed her, and Hilda O'Neil was coming to Chicago. She would set out
on July 3.
Of course I was summoned to meet her when she came, and I learned then
something about 'ordeal by question.' She was a pretty, brown-eyed,
gipsy-like, and petite maiden, more child than woman in her ways, but
with a warm, loving, and faithful heart, and a wit as bright and
ready almost as that of June Jenrys, who was, to my mind, the
cleverest as well as the queenliest of girls.
Miss O'Neil's presence was a boon to the sad-hearted father, for she
would not despair; and nature having blessed her with a strong and
hopeful temperament, and an abounding faith in a final good, she kept
the father's heart from despairing utterly.
Miss Jenrys, true to her word, had continued to receive Monsieur
Voisin, though she used much diplomacy in the matter, and seldom, if
ever, received him alone.
Lossing and I often met him there, and as the days wore on I noted
that Lossing was growing melancholy, or at least more serious and
thoughtful than of old, and I attributed a part of this to Voisin's
ever courteous and too frequent presence in Washington Avenue. I was
much with him in these days. Every day almost would find us together
for a longer or less length of time, according to my occupation or
lack of it.
One day, after a long and learned discussion of the water-crafts of
all countries, we, Lossing and myself, turned our steps toward the
Transportation Building to see a certain African brinba, sent all the
way from Banguella, Africa, and, to my eyes, a most unseaworthy craft.
It was shortly after the noon hour, and Lossing and I had been
lunching with June Jenrys and her friend, by invitation, in
consequence of which I was not disguised, while Lossing, by command of
Miss Jenrys, had worn and still wore his guard's uniform.
As we were passing from the main building into the annex I saw Lossing
start, and, looking up, beheld Monsieur Voisin standing alone in the
aisle, and evidently awaiting our approach.
He was, as usual, smiling and affable, and 'overjoyed to meet with
congenial spirits.' He fell into step with us at once, and so we were
proceeding in the direction of the mammoth locomotive display, when
suddenly the alarm of fire rang out all about us, and the cry, 'Fire!
fire! fire!' seemed sounding everywhere in an instant.
Following in the wake of a hundred others, we hastened out.
We were not far from the scene of that awful conflagration, and we
rushed forward, as men do at such times, carried out of themselves
often and reckless of danger.
Who can paint the story of that awful fire? What need to tell it? It
has passed out of history, and its victims to their rest and
recompense.
The mourning caused by that hateful death-trap, the Cold Storage
Building, is known to all the world; the recklessness, the heroism,
the strict obedience to orders in the face of death, the horror, the
suffering, the loss of gallant lives, all these are known; and yet
there remains much that has never been told and never will be: tales
of reckless daring, of risks taken for humanity's sake, of kindly,
humane deeds unchronicled, and of cowardice, selfishness,
dishonourable acts that were better left unwritten.
Among those who stood ready to aid, and who showed in that dreadful
time neither fear nor undue excitement, was Lossing. Where help was
needed his hands were ready, and it was not long, so ill-fitted was
the tindery edifice to resist the flames, before the worst had
happened, the tower had fallen, and the dead and dying, rather than
the burning structure, became the chief, almost the sole care of the
earnest workers, firemen and others.
With the falling of the tower one end of the building, from top to
base, became enveloped in flames and smoke, and flying timbers borne
that way by the wind made the place especially dangerous. As the
blackened fragments fell, small wonder that, seen through the smoke
and fire, they were sometimes mistaken for human beings by those who
had seen brave men making that fearful leap.
It was impossible to keep together in such a place, and we did not
attempt it; but as I now and then cast an anxious glance toward
Lossing, I noted that Voisin seemed to be all the time near him.
It was some moments after the falling of the tower, and while it was
still believed that there were yet men upon the burning roof, that I
moved toward the end of the building, where the smoke was hanging like
a curtain over everything below, while lifting somewhat above, to
look, if possible, toward that part of the roof which might be yet
intact. Lossing and Voisin seemed to be eagerly watching something
perilously near the choking smoke and falling timbers, I thought, and
I shouted a warning to them just as a group of firemen crossed my
path.
Almost at the instant a voice--it sounded like Voisin's--cried:
'Look! there's a man!'
In the hubbub of sounds the cry was not heard beyond me. I could not
have heard it a few feet farther away; but as it struck my ears I saw
Lossing look up, and, following his gaze with my own, I saw something
black and bulky, something that looked like an arm thrust out, as it
fell down and outward and into the thick smoke that obscured that end
of the building altogether.
Was it a man falling there in the thick of that suffocating smoke? I
saw Lossing spring forward and dash into the midst of it, with Voisin
close behind, and then with a shudder I rushed after them, seeing
nothing, but entering where they had entered the smoke-cloud, and then
for an instant I paused and held my breath.
The thing that had fallen lay in the thickest of the smoke, and over
it Lossing was just about to bend when I halted, seeing a sudden
movement on Voisin's part which made me clench my hands.
For the moment, save for my unseen self, they were alone, shut in by
the shifting but never rising smoke, and in that moment, as Lossing
bent over to peer at the thing on the ground at his feet, the man just
behind him drew from his pocket something which I guessed at rather
than recognised, something which caused me to spring forward with my
fist clenched.
It was the work of a moment to strike down the man who, in an instant,
with a criminal's basest weapon, would have stunned Lossing and left
him there in the choking smoke to be suffocated.
As Voisin went down I had just enough strength and breath to catch
hold of Lossing and drag him out; and, in a moment, calling some
others to my aid, we went in after Voisin.
As we lifted him the 'knuckles' dropped from his relaxed hand, and,
unnoticed in the smoke, I picked them up and hastily concealed them.
He was quite insensible, and a little stream of blood was trickling
from one side of his face, where he had struck upon some hard
substance in falling.
As he lay upon the ground a sudden thought caused me to start; and I
bent down quickly, put my finger solicitously upon his wrist, and then
pushing back the dark hair, which always lay in a curving mass over
his brow, a little to one side, I laid bare a rather high forehead,
upon which, clearly defined, was an oblong scar quite close to the
roots of the concealing lovelock. Calling Lossing's attention to this,
I replaced the lock, smoothed it into place and arose.
'Come away,' I said to Lossing, and leaving Voisin in the hands of
those about him for a moment, we withdrew to a place where we might
see and be unseen. I told Lossing of the attempt upon his life, and he
was not greatly surprised.
'I ought to have been on my guard,' he said, 'for I think he caused me
that lagoon dip. But I was carried out of myself by this cursed
holocaust. What shall we do?'
'Keep out of his sight, and let them take him to the hospital. He's
not seriously hurt. Possibly he's shamming, now; though he was
stunned, as well as half-suffocated.'
It was as I surmised. Voisin opened his eyes after some time, and made
an effort to rise, but he seemed weak and dazed, and they withdrew him
from the place where he lay and made him comfortable in a sheltered
spot, to await the return of an ambulance, going back for a few
moments to note the progress of the fire.
They were not long absent, but when they went back to their charge he
was not there, and a bystander had seen him rise, look about him, and
move away, at first slowly and then quite briskly, in the direction of
the Sixty-fourth Street entrance.
I had persuaded Lossing to remain out of sight, and had myself viewed
Voisin's departure from afar, and when I reported the fact Lossing
exclaimed, 'Masters, this must end! That man must not be permitted to
visit Miss Jenrys after this!'
'Rest easy,' I answered him. 'The villain will at once take measures
to learn the truth about you, and when he knows that you are not lying
somewhere on a cold slab awaiting recognition, he will know that his
matrimonial game is up,' I took a sidewise glance at Lossing as I
spoke the next words, 'and that one fortune at least has slipped
through his fingers.'
His eyes, sombre and proud, at once turned slowly toward me as I
spoke.
'Masters,' he said, 'I wish to heaven June Jenrys were as poor--as
poor as I am!'
To this I had no answer ready, and we walked on for a short time in
silence. Then suddenly he stopped short.
'Masters,' he asked, 'what was it that fell when I went into the
smoke, like an idiot?'
'A piece of timber with a burning rag fluttering from it. A coat
thrown off by one of those poor fellows. Just the bait Voisin wanted,'
I replied.