commanded Polly, winding a wide silk sash about her own head.

The girls groped along the entry but could not distinguish a thing in the thick, choking haze. Then Polly came to the dressing-room back of the stage. This was comparatively clear from smoke, and there the girls saw Elizabeth Dalken stretched upon the floor, a cut in her forehead attesting to the cause of her sharp scream.

"Great Scott, Polly! What can we do now?" cried Eleanor, as the idea of trying to carry the girl up the steep ladder-way flashed across her mind only to be spurned. She had no idea of leaving her there to her fate, however.

"If we only had a rope!" wailed Polly.

"But we haven't! If I only knew this house better I might find a back-stairway. Most city houses have them and I should think this place would have one."

"Of course! Nolla, close this door to keep out smoke. I'll look for the stairs."

The few excited sentences were muttered through the m.u.f.flers tied over the girls' mouths and noses. Then both girls began groping their way to the rear, hunting for the back-stairs.

The ma.s.s of people that had surged from the Hall had made for the wide front stairs, and but few remembered to seek for a back exit. And these had speedily found a way down. Polly and Eleanor also found the narrow back stairs, then Polly hastily commanded:

"Run and tell Anne-she can call to your Dad and explain. Then tell her to come this way, with us. I'll lift Elizabeth over my shoulders and start down with her-Anne and you follow, at once!"

In another moment, Polly was back in the dressing-room while Eleanor was running for the rear window to advise Anne. But she found her already inside tying a veil over her mouth and nose.

"Nolla-where's Polly?"

"All right-come on!"

"I told your father-they are safe on the roof-hurry now!"

Eleanor led Anne through the smoke, and just as they reached the entry, Polly staggered out of the stage-door with the unconscious girl hanging over her shoulder.

"Polly! Polly! You never can carry her!" cried Anne, in a smothered voice through the veiling.

But Polly kept her mouth closed and struggled on to the back stairs.

Anne began to cough and choke as a reward for trying to speak, but she reached the stairs first and rushed on down to see if there was a safe pa.s.sage below. Eleanor was close upon her heels, and Polly followed more circ.u.mspectly.

They reached the kitchen of the house without trouble but the heat as they pa.s.sed by the second floor was terrific. Once down on the ground floor they found the rear of the place quite free from smoke, but it might only be because the fire overhead was blazing upward. At any moment the wall or upper floors might crash down and fall upon them.

"Nolla-how can we get out of this pen?" cried Anne.

"If the house is anything like Chicago's, I'll show you. There must be an area or cellar exit to the street."

The kitchen light was still burning but it looked weird in the smoke-laden atmosphere. Eleanor tried different doors but found that they opened into pa.s.sages leading to closets or to the front rooms.

Finally she opened one and caught a whiff of fresh uncontaminated air.

"Thank heavens! Here it is, but I don't know where it ends."

Anne and she pushed out, with Polly behind them. They were in a dark alley, now, and had to trust to good fortune to come out somewhere, in safety. Down several stone steps, and along another dark, damp area they went, and then Eleanor stumbled against a closed door.

"Oh, mercy! Are we locked in here?" she yelled desperately, beating the door with her clenched fists.

"Nolla-let me feel for a handle-you are hysterical!" cried Anne, swiftly pa.s.sing her hands over the rough wood.

"Hurry, hurry! I can't carry this weight a minute longer!" breathed Polly, hoa.r.s.ely.

Just at that moment, Anne's hand struck an iron bolt. In a second she had shot it backwards, and the heavy door swung open to give them an exit to the side street.

All three girls ran frantically forward and Polly dropped her heavy burden upon a gra.s.s strip which edged the curb. Eleanor sobbed with relief and Anne fell upon her knees in silent thanksgiving.

"I'm off, girls, to see if I can help, in front. Have a care for Elizabeth," cried Polly, and away she flew.

That silenced Eleanor's hysteria quicker than anything else, and in another moment she was gone after her friend, leaving Anne to watch the still unconscious girl on the gra.s.s.

The scene in front of the building was one of spectacular interest.

Seeing the crowds of fashionably-dressed people grouped opposite the flaring house, it would seem that everyone of the guests had escaped.

But there was a deafening mixture of cries and shouts from every direction. Some were crying for lost friends, some wailed for help because of injuries inflicted by the stampede; firemen signaled their a.s.sociates; the old proprietor of the Hall ran madly to and fro shouting and gesticulating wildly to everyone; in fact, it was a scene that shocked Polly to witness because she thought city people had great presence of mind.

Streams of water were pouring upon the flames that shot from the second-story windows, but the scaling ladders had not yet arrived, and the firemen were striving to enter the front door in order to carry the hose nozzle to a more effectual spot.

The Chief had sent some men through adjacent houses to reach the roofs and work downwards from that vantage spot. But they had not yet appeared when Polly saw how she could a.s.sist.

Acting upon an impulse, and doing exactly as she would do if she was witnessing a fire at Oak Creek, where the ranchers turn out and try to subdue the flames, Polly hastily dropped the clinging skirt of her evening dress. Having already removed the silk sash while in the Hall, she now dipped it in the flood of water that poured from the hydrant on the curb and tied it over her mouth and nose. Then she made a dash across the street.

She caught a coil of rope from the hook where it hung on the back of the engine, and pushed a way through the staring men. Before anyone dreamed of her plan, or the firemen could restrain her she had reached the corner of the building and was agilely climbing the height by holding to the copper leader.

A chorus of breathless gasps and frightened screams came from the crowd but Polly heard them not. She was too intent on her work. Being nimble and so light-weight, and thoroughly accustomed to climb up almost perpendicular cliffs, or along dizzy peaks, this ascent seemed like play to the mountain girl. But the onlookers were thrilled to silence as they watched her climb to the roof, and then safely crawl over the ledge.

Instantly there was such a wild cheer from the street, that Polly wondered if something dreadful had happened. She never thought that the acclamation was meant for her.

Without hesitation, she ran over to a nearby chimney and wound one end of the long rope about it, then lowered the other end to the street. The Chief saw the purpose, at once, and signaling back to the girl who was leaning over the edge of the roof, he had his men tie the rope ladder to the rope. Then Polly began hoisting it slowly, until its end came over the cornice.

Meantime, when Eleanor found her friend halfway up the building, clinging to the leader and finding foothold in the crevices between the bricks, or on the steel bands that held the metal pipe to its moorings, she also ran across the street, and attempted to break through the cordon which had been formed to permit the men to hold out a life-net in case the daring climber should fall.

"I want to help Polly-she is my best friend!" cried Eleanor, when the fireman made her turn back.

Then she remembered the rear entrance from which they had escaped. She turned to the Chief and called hurriedly: "Send some men with me-I'll show them the cellar entrance where they can reach the roof and different floors from the back!"

"Hallam! Colter! Take your equipment and follow this girl to a back door. You know what to do!"

The men detailed for this duty, beckoned a few others, and all ran after Eleanor who now made for the area door. She flew past Anne who was holding Elizabeth's head upon her lap, but forgot to glance that way.

Having gained the cellar door, she was about to go in but Hallam stopped her.

"No, Miss-we dare not permit anyone to enter a burning building, you know."

"Oh, but I want to join Polly on the roof! The only reason I showed you this way was to get through myself!"

"I'd lose my place in the contest for prize medals, Miss, if I broke rules. You wouldn't want me to lose my promotion?"

Eleanor felt that he had the best of the argument, so she very reluctantly turned and went back to the front of the house. There she saw that the firemen had climbed the ladder and were stationed on the roof and on window ledges, holding the hose from which the water poured in torrents upon the fire inside.

Then the mult.i.tude now gathered on both streets and the corners of the Parkway, were treated to another thrill. The strand of rope Polly had taken with her, was now used by her for descent. Down the taut rope like a trained monkey, came she, and safely jumped to the street.

Before she reached the ground however, a chorus of wild yells and hurrahs went forth from everyone in the crowd. The Chief called imperative orders to his men waiting with him, and the moment he had caught Polly, he forced his way across the street, carrying her in his arms as if she were a babe.