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Page 56
None answered, for no one had seen the woman and her children.
"They must be in the house," cried Carter.
At that instant a woman's face appeared, briefly, at a window on the
third floor. Her piercing cry rang out, then her face vanished, a cloud
of smoke driving her from the open window.
"Hustle the ladders along!" begged the hotel man hoarsely. "We must
rescue that woman and her children. Her husband will be here in
morning. What can we say to him if we allow his wife and children to
perish in the flames?"
In a few moments a long ladder had been hauled off the track and brave
men rushed it to the wall, two men starting to ascend the moment it was
in place.
In another moment they came sliding down, balked. Flames had enveloped
the upper end of the ladder. It had to be hauled down, buckets of water
being dashed over the blazing sides.
"You can't get a ladder up on any part of that wall to the third floor,"
called the chief of the fire department hoarsely, as he broke through a
thick veil of smoke. "You'll have to try the rear."
"Where are Reade and Hazelton?" called a voice.
"Reade!"
"Hazelton!"
There was no answer. A hundred men turned, looking blankly at their
nearest fellows.
"They've gone down in the flames!" called another voice.
"Reade and Hazelton have lost their lives!"
"That'll make their enemies happy!" groaned one man, and other voices
took it up.
"Carter," shouted one big man, running to the proprietor, "if this blaze
is the work of a fire-bug, then look for Reade and Hazelton's enemies.
They have the most to gain by the death of those young fellows!"
A hoarse yell went up from the crowd. All of a sudden it seemed plain
to every man present that the hatred for Tom and Harry in certain
quarters fully accounted for the fire.
"Get a rope! Lynch somebody!" shouted one voice after another.
"First of all, let's find a way to get that woman and her babies out!"
Carter appealed, frantically.
Scores of voices took up this cry, and numbers of men hastened around to
the rear of the little hotel in the wake of the laddermen.
"We must find Reade and Hazelton, too," shouted others.
"Then we'll lynch someone for this night's business!"
The cry was taken up hoarsely.
Two ladders were quickly hoisted at the rear. Almost before they had
begun to hoist, the laddermen and spectators felt that it was a useless
attempt.
Nor did the doors and passages seem to offer any better avenue of
escape.
Chug, chug, chug! sounded a touring car close at hand. An automobile
stopped, Dr. Furniss jumping out.
"Anyone in danger!" shouted the young doctor.
"Yes; a woman and her children. Also Reade and Hazelton!"
"It's all right, then," nodded Furniss, looking relieved. "Tom Reade
and Harry Hazelton have gone to the aid of the woman."
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