Page:The Prussian officer, and other stories, Lawrence, 1914.djvu/226

 fire. Then she looked a little wildly over the fire-reddened faces in the crowd, and catching sight of her father hurried to him.

“Oh, dadda—is he safe? Is Will safe——?”

“Safe, aye, why not? You’ve no business here. Here, here’s Sampson, he’ll take you home. I’ve enough to bother me; there’s my own place to watch. Go home now, I can’t do with you here.”

“Have you seen Will?” she asked.

“Go home—Sampson, just take Miss Lois home—now!”

“You don’t really know where he is—father?”

“Go home now—I don’t want you here——” her father ordered peremptorily.

The tears sprang to Lois’ eyes. She looked at the fire and the tears were quickly dried by fear. The flames roared and struggled upward. The great wonder of the fire made her forget even her indignation at her father’s light treatment of herself and of her lover. There was a crashing and bursting of timber, as the first floor fell in a mass into the blazing gulf, splashing the fire in all directions, to the terror of the crowd. She saw the steel of the machines growing white-hot and twisting like flaming letters. Piece after piece of the flooring gave way, and the machines dropped in red ruin as the wooden framework burned out. The air became unbreathable; the fog was swallowed up; sparks went rushing up as if they would burn the dark heavens; sometimes cards of lace went whirling into the gulf of the sky, waving with wings of fire. It was dangerous to stand near this great cup of roaring destruction.