TRAGIC HOURS

And now while these young people are having a care-free, happy time in the beautiful Orange Hill country, let us return to the East Side that is sweltering in the heat of late June.

It was nine o'clock at night and the air was still breathlessly stifling.

The playground that edged the East River was thronged with neighboring folk who had brought what portable bedding they had and who planned sleeping upon the ground out-of-doors to catch some possible breeze from over the water.

Many of these people were residents of the rickety tenement across from the model apartments, but one there was who had been unable to leave the small, hot room that she called home, and that one was Mrs. Wilovich.

She was not alone, nor had she been, for all that day Lena May had been at her bedside.

"She cannot last the night out," the visiting district nurse had said.

"Hastn't she any own folks to stay with her till it's all over?"

"I shall stay," little Lena May had replied.

"You? Do you think you ought? You're a mere girl. Aren't there some women in this house who'd do that much for a neighbor?"

"I am seventeen," was the quiet reply, "and Mrs. Wilovich would rather have me. She never made friends among the neighbors."

"Well, as you wish," the busy nurse had said. "I have many more places to visit this evening, so I can't stay; and, anyway, there's nothing to do but to let her----"

"Hush, please, don't say it. Little Tony might hear," Lena May had implored in a whisper as she glanced at the child curled up on the floor as though he were asleep.

When the nurse was gone, Dean Wiggin appeared in the open doorway, as he had many times that day and evening. Nell had been called to the country to see about the small farm which their foster-father had bequeathed them, or she would have been with Lena May. Gloria had left at eight to take her evening cla.s.ses at the Settlement, and had promised to return at ten and remain with her sister until the end.

The giant of a lad, with his helpless arm that was always held in one position as it had been in slings so long ago, glanced first at the woman in the bed, and then at the girl who advanced to him.

"Can't I stay now?" he spoke softly. "I've closed the shop and the office. Isn't there anything that I can do to help?"

"No, Dean, I don't need you, and there isn't room; but I do wish that you would take Tony out of doors. It is stifling here."

The little fellow seemed to hear his name. He rose and went to Dean. The lad lifted Tony with his strong right arm. "I'll take him down to the docks a while," he told the girl. "Put a light in the window if you want me."

Lena May said that she would. Then for a time the young girl stood in the open window watching the moving lights out on the river. At last she turned back and glanced at the bed. The mother lay so quiet and so white that Lena May believed that she had pa.s.sed into the land where there is no sweltering, crowded East Side. She was right. The tired soul had taken its flight. The girl was about to place the lamp in the window to recall Dean when she paused and listened. What a strange roaring sound she heard, and how intensely hot it was becoming. In another moment there was a wild cry of "Fire! Fire!" from the playground.

Lena May sprang to the open door. She knew there was but one fire escape and that at the extreme rear of the long, dark hallway. That very day she had noticed that it was piled high with rubbish. Then she must make her escape by the narrow, rickety front stairs. Down the top flight she ran, only to find that the flight beneath her was a seething ma.s.s of flame.

She darted back into the small room and closed the door. Then she ran to the open window and called for help, but the roaring of the flames drowned her voice. However, she was seen, and several firemen ran forward with a ladder, but a rear wall crashed in and they leaped back.

At that moment a lad darted up and pushed his way through the crowd. "Put the ladder up to that window," he commanded, pointing to where Lena May, pale and quiet, was still standing.

"By heck, we won't! It's sure death to climb up there. The wall's rocking even now. Stand back, everybody," the chief shouted; but one there was who did not obey. With superhuman effort he lifted the ladder. Several men seeing that he was determined helped him place it, then ran back, and left the lad to scale it alone. Never before had Dean so regretted his useless arm.

"G.o.d, give me strength!" he cried; then mounted the ladder. He could feel it sway. Flames leaped from the windows as he pa.s.sed. He caught at the rounds with his left hand as well as his right, and up, up he went. The girl leaned far out. "Drop down. Hold to the window sill! I'll catch you," the lad called. Lena May did as she was told, and, clinging to the top round with his left hand, Dean clasped the girl's waist with his strong right arm and climbed down as fast as he could go. He did not realize that he was using his left arm. He had to, it was a matter of life and death. A pain like that made by a hot branding iron shot through his shoulder, but even this he did not know.

Firemen rushed forward and took the girl from him, and none too soon, for with a terrific roar the fire burst through the roof, which caved in; then the wall tottered and crashed down about them.

"Where's that boy? The one that went up the ladder?" people were asking on all sides. Where was he, indeed?

CHAPTER x.x.x.

A HERO REWARDED

A week later Lena May was in the sunny kitchen of the Pensinger mansion making broth. A curly-headed three-year-old boy was sitting on the floor playing contentedly with his toys. He had been told that his mother had gone to a beautiful country where she would be well and happy and that some day he would see her again.

"Muvver likes Tony to stay wiv you, Auntie May," he prattled as the girl stooped to kiss him. Then, as he suddenly reached up his chubby arms, he added: "Tony likes to stay wiv you."

"There, now, the broth's ready and Tony may help Auntie May," she told him. The little fellow was given a plate of crackers and the girl followed with a bowl of steaming refreshment. They went to Bobs' room, where a lad was lying in bed.

Once again Dean Wiggin had fought a fire for the sake of a friend, but this time had undone the harm that had been done in the long ago. Even the surgeon who had been called in declared that the way the lad had wrenched his arm free and had actually used it was little less than a miracle; but, all through the ages, people who with a high purpose have called upon G.o.d for help, have received it, and that help has been named a miracle.

"See, Lena May," the lad said as he stretched out his left arm, "it moves, doesn't it? Stiffly, perhaps, but I must keep it going, the doctor told me." Then he drew himself into a sitting position and the girl raised the pillows to make him comfortable.

He smiled at her beamingly as he said: "Another bit of good news is that tomorrow I may get up. Just because one wall of a burning tenement fell on me is no reason why I should remain in bed longer than one week and be waited upon."

"You surely had a wonderful escape, Dean," the girl said as she gave him the broth. "Just by chance the firemen instantly turned the water where you had fallen and so you weren't burned."

"Nor drowned," the lad said merrily, "just knocked senseless." Then, after a moment's pause, he continued: "I want to be up and about before Nell returns. She will be in about noon tomorrow. Unless it got into the New England papers, which isn't likely, she won't know a thing about it.

I don't want her to hear of it before I tell her. She would imagine all sorts of things that aren't true, and be needlessly worried."

"How glad your sister will be when she finds that the use of your arm has been restored to you." Lena May sat by the bedside holding Tony on her lap.

"Won't she?" Dean's upward glance was radiant. "No longer will I have to follow the profession of old book-seller. I want to do something that will keep that arm constantly busy."

"What, Dean, have you thought?"

"Yes, indeed. You won't think it a very wonderful ambition. I want to be a farmer. I don't like this crowded city. I feel as though I can't breathe. When I am lying here alone, I keep thinking of the New England farm where my boyhood was spent, and I long to really work in that rocky soil, standing up now and then to breathe deep of that sparkling air and to gaze at that wide view over the meadow-lands, and the shining, curving silver ribbon, that is really a river, to the distant mountains. Lena May, how I wish you could see it with me."

"I am sure that I would love it," the girl said, then, rising, she added: "Here comes Gloria and Mr. Hardinian. They are going to hear some Hungarian music tonight, and I promised to have an early supper for them.

Tony may stay with you. I am sure he would like to hear a story about the little wild creatures who live on your farm."

But, when the girl was gone, the little fellow accommodatingly curled up by Dean's side and went to sleep, and so the lad's thoughts were left free to dream of a wonderful something that might happen some day on that far-away New England farm.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

FOUR ROMANCES

Time--Two weeks later.

Place--Kitchen of the Pensinger mansion.

Characters--Gloria, Gwendolyn, Roberta, Lena May and little Tony.