CHAPTER XXII
BEING RESCUED
The water struck the lady given to hysterics, and she promptlyopened her mouth and shrieked again.
"We're drowning!" she cried, her terrified mind picturing a brokenwater pipe. "I tell you, we're drowning!"
"And I tell you we're not!" Betty stifled a desire to laugh as oneof the men contradicted her. "Some idiot--"
The crash of the water cooler against the top of the car as itslipped from the hands of the person holding it interrupted hisassurance and weakened it hopelessly. A chorus of shrieks arose fromthose in the car.
"Well, there's your drink, Betty," grinned Bob, assisting the girlsto crowd on to the one seat, for the floor was soaked with ice-coldwater. "And here come your firemen--maybe they'll have better luck."
Some of the firemen went to the third floor and others obeyed ordersto stay on the second.
"I'd say knock 'er down," said the grizzled old fire chief after acareful inspection of the wedged car. "We'll fix it up to break thefall. And, anyway, a drop from the third to the basement would not bedangerous."
But the occupants of the elevator protested vigorously against thisplan. They made it quite clear that they had had all the "drop" theywanted for that day, and some of them intimated that they preferredto spend the night there rather than be experimented with.
"Women is like that," they heard the fire chief confide sadly to hislieutenant. "You can't reason with 'em. Well, we'll have to dope outanother scheme."
After a consultation, it was proposed, via the chiefs voice whichhad a carrying quality that was famous throughout the city, to let aladder down from the third floor, have a fireman chop a hole in thetop of the car, and assist the prisoners up the ladder to safety.
This plan met with the approval of all but the two rather prim andelderly women who flatly refused to walk up a ladder, even to get outof their present unpleasant predicament.
"Well, then, you'll have to stay here," announced the fire chiefdisgustedly. "The others are willing, and we can't hang around hereall day. If there was a fire you wouldn't be consulted. A firemanwould have you up or down a ladder before you could open your mouthto object. I ain't used to arguing with anybody."
"There's another way that might work, chief," suggested his aide."If we can fix ropes and rig up a windlass, we can maybe hoist thecar up to the level of the gate."
It was decided to try this plan, but the wily chief first extracteda promise from every one in the car that if the scheme failed, theywould submit to a ladder rescue.
"'Cause I ain't saying this will work, and I don't aim to cook up adifferent plan every minute till you're all suited," he declared,with commendable precaution. "You all agree to the ladder if thisain't a go?"
An unanimous chorus assured him that they did.
It took some time to arrange the ropes, but at last, creakingly andslowly, the car began to make its ascent.
"Bless the Lord!" ejaculated the darky operator fervently, "I doneguess our troubles is ovah!"
He changed his mind in a minute when it was discovered that the cargates were jammed. There the eleven imprisoned passengers stood, on alevel with the third floor, a crowd gathered in the corridor as faras the eye could see, a thin iron grating separating them from escape.
"I don't know but I'd just as lief stay here as to face that mob,"murmured Bob, but some one heard him.
"You're among friends, bub," a man called. "Keep up a stout heart."
There was a general laugh, and some one was dispatched to get afile. Ten minutes' work with this, and the stubborn catch was filedthrough, the gates slid back and those behind them found themselvesonce more on good solid mosaic tiling.
Bob's employer came up to him, and was presented to the girls. Hewas a pleasant, prosperous-looking man, middle-aged, and evidentlyfond of Bob. He immediately offered him the rest of the day off,insisting that after such an experience he should rest quietly for afew hours.
"By the way," he remarked _sotto voce_, "those two young men overthere at the head of the stairs are newspaper reporters. One has acamera. I imagine they want to get a story on your morning'ssensations."
Bob had not yet met Mr. Littell, but he had a lively idea of whatthat gentleman might say should he find his daughters' picturesspread over the first page of the evening papers, accompanied by amore or less accurate analysis of their emotions during the tryingperiod through which they had just passed.
"Whisk us into your office, can't you, Mr. Derby?" he urged,"They're stopping people as they go down; they'll take no notice ofus if we go on up to the fourth floor."
The crowd, satisfied that no one had been killed or was likely tobe, had drifted down the staircase, the two alert youths questioningeach one in an effort to get the stories of those who had been in thestalled car. The negro operator had already furnished enough copy fora half-column of thrills.
Mr. Derby managed to usher the girls and Bob upstairs to his officewithout exciting suspicion, and once there the question of how to getto the street was considered. There were still enough people in thecorridors to make a quick run down impossible, and the elevator was,of course, out of commission.
"I'll tell you," said Mr. Derby suddenly. "Go down the fire escapeto the second floor and get in at the hall window. It's always open.I'll have to wait here for Anderson, Bob. He had an appointment ateleven, but telephoned he was delayed. But perhaps the nerves of theyoung ladies are not equal to a climb down the fire escape? In thatcase you could all remain here and I'll have lunch sent in."
The girls, however, ridiculed the idea of nervousness. And indeed,with the elasticity of youth, they had already dismissed the accidentfrom their minds except as an exciting story to tell at home thatafternoon or evening.
"I'll go first," said Bob, stepping out on the fire escape. "Allthere is to do is to take it easy, don't hurry, and don't push.There's only two flights, so you can't get dizzy."
"Isn't this a lark!" chuckled Bobby, as she and Betty waited for theyounger girls to go first after Bob. "I never had so much fun in mylife. What's Bob stopping for?"
Bob was working with the window directly over the fire escape on thesecond floor. The girls caught up with him before he turned with aflushed face.
"The blame thing's locked," he announced. "Isn't that the worstluck! It's a rule of the building that all hall windows be left openunless there's a storm. Well, I suppose we might as well go back.There's no window on the first floor."
"We could climb in there," suggested Betty, pointing to anotherwindow, half-opened. "See, Bob, I can reach it easily."
She drew herself up before Bob could stop her, and, raising thewindow as high as it would go, scrambled over the sill.
"It's fine--come on in," she laughed back at the others. "Cunningoffice and no one in it. I suppose the owner has gone out to see usrescued."
Bob lifted up Libbie, who was the shortest, and, one after theother, the girls climbed in, Bob following last.
It was a finely furnished office and one Bob had never been in,though he had a speaking acquaintance with many of the tenants in thebuilding. A pair of tiny scales and a little heap of yellow dust layon the highly polished mahogany desk.
The door into the corridor was partly open, and as they had to passthe desk to reach the door, it was natural that the group should drawnearer and glance curiously at the pair of scales.
"No nearer are you to come!" snapped a sharp voice with theprecision of a foreigner who is not sure enough of his English tospeak hurriedly. "I warn you not to put a finger out."
Libbie squawked outright in terror, and the others fell back a step.A little man with very black eyes stood facing them, and at them hewas leveling a small, businesslike looking revolver. The door hadclosed noiselessly, and he had evidently been behind it.
"I saw you all to enter," he informed them sternly. "I, of all inthe building, remembered that it is in excitement that sneak thievesdo their best work. Mr. Matthews is trusting, but I--I stood
onguard. It is well. You are not to move while I telephone to thepolice."
"Look here," said Bob determinedly, almost overwhelmed with hisresponsibility and blaming himself for having placed the girls insuch an awkward position. "We're no thieves. You can telephoneupstairs to Mr. Derby and he'll vouch for us."
"I know no Mr. Derby," said the little man stubbornly. "Why shouldyou pick out a jeweler's office and creep in through the window?Answer me that! Are there not stairs?"
"Well we wanted to avoid some--er--men," blurted Bob.
"Yah--already the police seek you!" triumphed their captor. "Well,they will not have long to seek."
"They were not the police." Betty found her voice and spokeearnestly. "They were reporters, and we didn't want to beinterviewed. We came down the fire escape from the fourth floor, andfound the hall window locked. This window was open, and we crawledin, intending to get out into the hall. That is the absolute truth."