The Poisoned Pen(Fiscle Part-3) by Arthur B. Reeve (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖
- Author: Arthur B. Reeve
Book online «The Poisoned Pen(Fiscle Part-3) by Arthur B. Reeve (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖». Author Arthur B. Reeve
Fourteenth Street On Two Wheels, And At Last Were On Sixth Avenue.
With A Jerk And A Skid We Stopped. There Were The Engines, The
Hose-Carts, The Hook-And-Ladders, The Salvage Corps, The Police
Establishing Fire Lines--Everything. But Where Was The Fire?
The Crowd Indicated Where It Ought To Be--It Was Stacey's. Firemen
And Policemen Were Entering The Huge Building. Mccormick
Shouldered In After Them, And We Followed.
"Who Turned In The Alarm?" He Asked As We Mounted The Stairs With
The Others.
"I Did," Replied A Night Watchman On The Third Landing. "Saw A
Light In The Office On The Third Floor Back--Something Blazing.
But It Seems To Be Out Now."
We Had At Last Come To The Office. It Was Dark And Deserted, Yet
With The Lanterns We Could See The Floor Of The Largest Room
Littered With Torn Books And Ledgers.
Kennedy Caught His Foot In Something. It Was A Loose Wire On The
Floor. He Followed It. It Led To An Electric-Light Socket, Where
It Was Attached.
"Can't You Turn On The Lights?" Shouted Mccormick To The Watchman.
"Not Here. They're Turned On From Downstairs, And They're Off For
The Night. I'll Go Down If You Want Me To And--"
"No," Roared Kennedy. "Stay Where You Are Until I Follow The Wire
To The Other End."
At Last We Came To A Little Office Partitioned Off From The Main
Room. Kennedy Carefully Opened The Door. One Whiff Of The Air From
It Was Sufficient. He Banged The Door Shut Again.
"Stand Back With Those Lanterns, Boys," He Ordered.
I Sniffed, Expecting To Smell Illuminating-Gas. Instead, A
Peculiar, Sweetish Odour Pervaded The Air. For A Moment It Made Me
Think Of A Hospital Operating-Room.
"Ether," Exclaimed Kennedy. "Stand Back Farther With Those Lights
And Hold Them Up From The Floor."
For A Moment He Seemed To Hesitate As If At Loss What To Do Next.
Should He Open The Door And Let This Highly Inflammable Gas Out Or
Should He Wait Patiently Until The Natural Ventilation Of The
Little Office Had Dispelled It?
While He Was Debating He Happened To Glance Out Of The Window And
Catch Sight Of A Drug-Store Across The Street.
"Walter," He Said To Me, "Hurry Across There And Get All The
Saltpeter And Sulphur The Man Has In The Shop."
I Lost No Time In Doing So. Kennedy Dumped The Two Chemicals Into
A Pan In The Middle Of The Main Office, About Three-Fifths
Saltpeter And Two-Fifths Sulphur, I Should Say. Then He Lighted
It. The Mass Burned With A Bright Flame But Without Explosion. We
Could Smell The Suffocating Fumes From It, And We Retreated. For A
Moment Or Two We Watched It Curiously At A Distance.
"That's Very Good Extinguishing-Powder," Explained Craig As We
Sniffed At The Odour. "It Yields A Large Amount Of Carbon Dioxide
And Sulphur Dioxide. Now--Before It Gets Any Worse--I Guess It's
Safe To Open The Door And Let The Ether Out. You See This Is As
Good A Way As Any To Render Safe A Room Full Of Inflammable
Vapour. Come, We'll Wait Outside The Main Office For A Few Minutes
Until The Gases Mix."
Part 3 Chapter 4 (The Firebug) Pg 38
It Seemed Hours Before Kennedy Deemed It Safe To Enter The Office
Again With A Light. When We Did So, We Made A Rush For The Little
Cubby-Hole Of An Office At The Other End. On The Floor Was A
Little Can Of Ether, Evaporated Of Course, And Beside It A Small
Apparatus Apparently Used For Producing Electric Sparks.
"So, That's How He Does It," Mused Kennedy, Fingering The Can
Contemplatively. "He Lets The Ether Evaporate In A Room For A
While And Then Causes An Explosion From A Safe Distance With This
Little Electric Spark. There's Where Your Wire Comes In,
Mccormick. Say, My Man, You Can Switch On The Lights From
Downstairs, Now."
As We Waited For The Watchman To Turn On The Lights I Exclaimed,
"He Failed This Time Because The Electricity Was Shut Off."
"Precisely, Walter," Assented Kennedy.
"But The Flames Which The Night Watchman Saw, What Of Them?" Put
In Mccormick, Considerably Mystified." He Must Have Seen
Something."
Just Then The Lights Winked Up.
"Oh, That Was Before The Fellow Tried To Touch Off The Ether
Vapour," Explained Kennedy. "He Had To Make Sure Of His Work Of
Destruction First--And, Judging By The Charred Papers About, He
Did It Well. See, He Tore Leaves From The Ledgers And Lighted Them
On The Floor. There Was An Object In All That. What Was It? Hello!
Look At This Mass Of Charred Paper In The Corner."
He Bent Down And Examined It Carefully.
"Memoranda Of Some Kind, I Guess. I'll Save This Burnt Paper And
Look It Over Later. Don't Disturb It. I'll Take It Away Myself."
Search As We Might, We Could Find No Other Trace Of The Firebug,
And At Last We Left. Kennedy Carried The Charred Paper Carefully
In A Large Hat-Box.
"There'll Be No More Fires To-Night, Mccormick," He Said. "But
I'll Watch With You Every Night Until We Get This Incendiary.
Meanwhile I'll See What I Can Decipher, If Anything, In This Burnt
Paper."
Next Day Mccormick Dropped In To See Us Again. This Time He Had
Another Note, A Disguised Scrawl Which Read:
Chief: I'm Not Through. Watch Me Get Another Store Yet. I Won't
Fall Down This Time.
A. Spark.
Craig Scowled As He Read The Note And Handed It To Me. "The Man's
Writing This Time--Like The Second Note," Was All He Said.
"Mccormick, Since We Know Where The Lightning Is Going To Strike,
Don't You Think It Would Be Wiser To Make Our Headquarters In One
Of The Engine-Houses In That District?"
The Fire Marshal Agreed, And That Night Saw Us Watching At The
Fire-House Nearest The Department-Store Region.
Kennedy And I Were Assigned To Places On The Hose-Cart And Engine,
Respectively, Kennedy Being In The Hose-Cart So That He Could Be
With Mccormick. We Were Taught To Descend One Of The Four Brass
Poles Hand Under Elbow, From The Dormitory On The Second Floor.
They Showed Us How To Jump Into The "Turn-Outs"--A Pair Of
Trousers Opened Out Over The High Top Boots. We Were Given Helmets
Which We Placed In Regulation Fashion On Our Rubber Coats, Turned
Inside Out With The Right Armhole Up. Thus It Came About That
Craig And I Joined The Fire Department Temporarily. It Was A Novel
Experience For Us Both.
Part 3 Chapter 4 (The Firebug) Pg 39
"Now, Walter," Said Kennedy, "As Long As We Have Gone So Far,
We'll 'Roll' To Every Fire, Just Like The Regulars. We Won't Take
Any Chances Of Missing The Firebug At Any Time Of Night Or Day."
It Proved To Be A Remarkably Quiet Evening With Only One Little
Blaze In A Candy-Shop On Seventh Avenue. Most Of The Time We Sat
Around Trying To Draw The Men Out About Their Thrilling
Experiences At Fires. But If There Is One Thing The Fireman
Doesn't Know It Is The English Language When Talking About
Himself. It Was Quite Late When We Turned Into The Neat White Cots
Upstairs.
We Had Scarcely Fallen Into A Half Doze In Our Strange
Surroundings When The Gong Downstairs Sounded. It Was Our Signal.
We Could Hear The Rapid Clatter Of The Horses' Hoofs As They Were
Automatically Released From Their Stalls And The Collars And
Harness Mechanically Locked About Them. All Was Stir, And Motion,
And Shouts. Craig And I Had Bounded Awkwardly Into Our
Paraphernalia At The First Sound. We Slid Ungracefully Down The
Pole And Were Pushed And Shoved Into Our Places, For Scientific
Management In A New York Fire-House Has Reached One Hundred Per
Cent. Efficiency, And We Were Not To Be Allowed To Delay The Game.
The Oil-Torch Had Been Applied To The Engine, And It Rolled Forth,
Belching Flames. I Was Hanging On For Dear Life, Now And Then
Catching Sight Of The Driver Urging His Plunging Horses Onward
Like A Charioteer In A Modern Ben Hur Race. The Tender With Craig
And Mccormick Was Lost In The Clouds Of Smoke And Sparks That
Trailed Behind Us. On We Dashed Until We Turned Into Sixth Avenue.
The Glare Of The Sky Told Us That This Time The Firebug Had Made
Good.
"I'll Be Hanged If It Isn't The Stacey Store Again," Shouted The
Man Next Me On The Engine As The Horses Lunged Up The Avenue And
Stopped At The Allotted Hydrant. It Was Like A War Game. Every
Move Had Been Planned Out By The Fire-Strategists, Even Down To
The Hydrants That The Engines Should Take At A Given Fire.
Already Several Floors Were Aflame, The Windows Glowing Like Open-
Hearth Furnaces, The Glass Bulging And Cracking And The Flames
Licking Upward And Shooting Out In Long Streamers. The Hose Was
Coupled Up In An Instant, The Water Turned On, And The Limp Rubber
And Canvas Became As Rigid As A Post With The High Pressure Of The
Water Being Forced Through It. Company After Company Dashed Into
The Blazing "Fireproof" Building, Urged By The Hoarse Profanity Of
The Chief.
Twenty Or Thirty Men Must Have Disappeared Into The Stifle From
Which The Police Retreated. There Was No Haste, No Hesitation.
Everything Moved As Smoothly As If By Clockwork. Yet We Could Not
See One Of The Men Who Had Disappeared Into The Burning Building.
They Had Been Swallowed Up, As It Were. For That Is The Way With
The New York Firemen. They Go Straight To The Heart Of The Fire.
Now And Then A Stream Of A Hose Spat Out Of A Window, Showing That
The Men Were Still Alive And Working. About The Ground Floors The
Red-Helmeted Salvage Corps Were Busy Covering Up What They Could
Of The Goods With Rubber Sheets To Protect Them From Water.
Doctors With Black Bags And White Trousers Were Working Over The
Injured. Kennedy And I Were Busy About The Engine, And There Was
Plenty For Us To Do.
Above The Shrill Whistle For More Coal I Heard A Voice Shout,
"Began With An Explosion--It's The Firebug, All Right." I Looked
Up. It Was Mccormick, Dripping And Grimy, In A High State Of
Excitement, Talking To Kennedy.
I Had Been So Busy Trying To Make Myself Believe That I Was Really
Of Some Assistance About The Engine That I Had Not Taken Time To
Watch The Fire Itself. It Was Now Under Control. The Sharp And
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