Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1920 — ONE KIND OF A HERO [ARTICLE]

ONE KIND OF A HERO

By JOHN B. OXFORD

(Copyright.)

As Lieutenant Reilly and the three men with 1dm —probationers all of them —had opened the last of the -smoke vents in the roof of the burning piano factory the explosion came. The whole building rocked with the force of it. and the roof beneath their feet undulated in an alarming fashion. Great clouds of copper-hued smoke shot upward through the hole? that had just been opened. The three probationers looked question i ngl y a t one an other with blaached them turned, as if Involuntarily, toward the open scuttle by which they had gained the roof, but before he coadd take a step d n that direction Reillv’s hand was laidfirmly on his shoulder and Reilly’s big voice was giving assurance to all three impartially : ‘That ain’t nothin’ but hot air. More noise’n anything else. Git your mauls now an’ bust in them deadlights over In the corner.” Reilly, turning to steady his men once again, found he was alone. At the second explosion the probationers had scurried unceremoniously to the open -scuttle. Two of them had already disappeared within, anil the third, a man named Kerrigan, had just reached the opening when Reilly spied him and chargM toward him, bellowing hoarsely at tbe top of his voice:

“Here, you damned quitters! Come back here, d’yer hear? Come back, you white-livered tabbies!” —The man at the scuttle made a motion as if he were about to step inside. In a sudden blind rage Reilly tore off his helmet and hurled It with all his strength at the man before him. It flew true as an arrow and caught Kerrigan' squarely on the left cheek. The heavy rim cut a great gash in the flesh, and the force of the impact sent Kerrigan sprawding backward at full length. Before he could get to his feet Reilly was on him. “Yer would, would yer?” he snarled between his teeth, reaching down to twist his fingers into the collar of the prostrateman's rubber coat.—_ ~ “Oh, yer would, would yer? I’ll learn you a few things about quittin’, yer damned little scut! He yunkedKe»4gan roughly to his feet and pushed him forward, at the same time landing a vigorous kick. “Go on noW,. and bust in them deadlights. I’ll do for them other two the first time I lay eyes on ’em, s'help me I will !” j • “Don’t be a damned fool any longer than you have to,” Reilly yelled at him. “Git your maul an’ git into them deadlights.” He took a step toward Kerrigan, who slowly backed away. In his retreat he tripped over one of the mauls, which had been flung aside in the recent flight to the scuttle. He stopped quickly and picked it up. A sudden blaze of anger and hatred came to his eyes. He leered at the lieutenant like a cornered beast. “You keep away from me, understand” he said thickly. “Don’t you come a step nearer. Keep back!” His voice rose to almost a scream; he swung" tlie" maul threateningly above his head. Reilly caught his breath in a great gasp. “What!” he yelled. “What’s this? Would you be tryin’mutiny on pie?” He drew back a step, lowered his head, and hunched his shoulders, as if he intended to rush the man before him; but at that moment a voice shouting- stridently through a megaphone from a roof across an intervening alley drew the attention of both belligerents. “Get off that roof!” it bellowed. “Get off that roof! It’s going down in a minute!” Reilly sprang at the man facing him, Swung him about, and shoved him oh before him. “Rtinfor the tank!” he roared above the din: “it’s our only chance!” Stumbling blindly, choking, gasping for breath, the twq men pushed acrossthe roof, gained tfie tank, and scrambled up the footholds on its side just as the remainder of the roof went crashing down.

They reached the top of the tank, swung themselves over the side, and clinging desperately to the edge, lowered themselves into the cooling water, which, fortunately for them, nearly filled the tank. J ■' The heat from the blazing pile below was terrific. Moreover, It was only a question of time when the steel supports of the tank would warp and twist and the whole thing topple over into the inferno below them. For a time they clung there, breathless, silent. spent. Reilly was the first to speak. • “We’ll be goin’ over in a> few minutes. The supports of this thing will warp and let us down,” he said with the calm of despair. “Sure,” said Kerrigan simply. His voice was quite as steady as Reilly's. From the street far below came the labored puffing of pumping engines. It sounded plainly even above the roar of the flames. Reilly’s hands closed convulsively on the edge of the tank. “Oh, my God!’ he groaned involuntarily. Beside him Kerrigan moved uneasily ip the water. serted stolidly. There was something so Very mat-ter-of-fact in the tones that Reilly burst Into raucous laughter—the harsh.

grating laughter of a dhan who to about to die horribly, and who knows It It seemed to nettle Kerrigan. “There ain’t nothin’ funny about it,” he said. “I mean it. I want to get out of this; an’, what’s more, I want to get you out, too. I wouldn’t give a damn to get out without you.” Reßly seemed not to have heard. To him, Kerrigan’s talk was but irresponsible babbling. Now and then a faint, far-off human voice drifted up to them, and Reilly bit his lips until the blood came. Suddenly Kerrigan began to thrash about. He lifted his chin to the level of the tank’s edge and looked up steadily for a time. Then he gave a grunt of satisfaction and lowered himself to his former position. “Say. maybe there’s a way, after all,” he hazarded hopefully. Reilly made no reply. _ _~ “Just look? at that wire cable up there t ” Kerrigan chattered on. “It runs Tight above the middle of this tank, and see that plank across the top of -the tank over at the farther side. Now, if we could get up on that plank and get hold of that cable—” “Oh. hell!” Reilly interrupted disgustedly. , “Come on.” Kerrigan persisted; "we might just as well make a try.” He began to pull himself along the edge of the tank, and instinctively Reilly followed him. They reached the place where the plank lay across the top. Kerrigan scrambled on to this and helped Reilly up after him. They stood panting on the narrow board. The heat, swelling up in great waves from' the fire below, scorched their faces and nearly strangled them. “Some feet above their swung a heavy wire cable, its long loop dangling from a bracket on a roof on one side of t hem to a similar bracket on a roof across the alley.

Kerrigan kicked off his heavy boots and threw aside his rubber coat. “Hold steady, now,” he cautioned Reilly; “we’ll make a try for it.” With the ease of an acrobat he mounted Reilly’s shoulders, but. reaching upward at full stretch, the cable still dangled just beyond his grasp. Reilly, watching intently, groaned, but Kerrigan was by no means at the end of his resources. “Give me your belt,” he demanded, scrambling down from his precarious piu-ch and standing beside Reilly on the board. Reilly unbucked his heavy ax-belt and Kerrigan strapped it about his own waist. Once again he mounted Reilly’s shoulders and stood there poised for a moment, estimating the distance to the cable. “Hohl tight now, will yer?” he shouted. “I’m goin’ to jump for it.” Reilly was aware that the man on his shoulders had assumed a crouching attitude; then suddenly there was an upward spring, the recoil of which nearly sent him staggering into the tank. He lifted his eyes to see Kerrigan clinging triumphantly to the cable. “All right,” the latter called down to him. “Jump for my legs, an’ when you get ’em, plimb up till you can get hold of the ax-belt.”

Reilly’s leap was successful. He caught Kerrigan’s dangling legs, and slowly, painfully, worked his way upward, bit by bit, until his fingers closed firmly on the heavy belt about Kerrigan’s waist. _ “Hang on hard.” Kerrigan panted. “If the cable don’t bust we’ll get across.” Inch by inch with Reilly’s dead weight dragging at his belt, Kerrigan worked his way out on the cable toward the rbof across the alley. Painfully almost imperceptibly they advanced along the sagging wire. Once in that racking journey, when Kerrigan paused for momentary rest, Reilly voiced his doubts as to the ultimate success of the venture.

•‘You’ll never make it, Kerrigan.” he piped; “leastways, not with me bangin' on to you. I’d best leave go the belt an’ give yer a show. It’ll be one of us that goes out, then, at any rate.” “You hang on an’ keep your blamed motith shut!” gasped Kerrigan as the journey along the cable began again. For untold-ages—so it seemed to the two men—they dangled in mid-air, like some ungainly insect on the thread of a spider's web. Kerrigan’s arms were numb and nerveless, the pounding of his heart nearly suffocated him, and a red mist swam before his eyes. Time and again he was solely tempted to loose his hold on the wire and end it all. Yet always he worked his way, slowly and with -infinite agopy toward that roof across the alley. At last he heard a great commotion just below him. The dragging weight on the belt suddenly ceased. His first thought was that Reilly had dropped to the pavement, and a dull anger pierced the toiture of his mind; but looking dowh, he found that they had gained the roof, an| that Reilly had dropped into the waiting arms of a pair of hosemen. Three other hosemen caught Kerrigan as he fell. He staggered tohls feet and shook them pff. “Where’s Reilly?* he demanded feebly, struggling from the restraining arms. “Let me at him, will you? I got somethin’ to settle with him. 'Twas for that I brought him out o* that hell over there. Aw, show me where he is, can’t you? I don’t mind the smash he gave me with the helmet, but he kicked me.” The tears were streaming down his smoke-blackened face. He babbled piteously like an angry child. “He kicked me. He ktetednie.’ » Reilly came pushing his way through the hosemen. but Kerrigan had sunk to the roof in a huddled heap and lay there exhausted. - -