CHAPTER IX
THE DEVOURING ELEMENT
Not even Helen heard Ruth's whispered words. She went on calmly with hersupper when her chum arose from her seat.
Ruth quickly controlled herself. The word "fire" would start a panic onthe instant, although both dormitories were across the campus from themain hall.
The girl of the Red Mill erased from her countenance all expression of thefear which gripped her; but about her heart she felt a pressure like thatof a tight band. Her knees actually knocked together; she was thankfulthey were invisible just then.
When she started up the room toward Mrs. Tellingham's table Ruth walkedsteadily enough. Some of the girls looked after her in surprise; but itwas not an uncommon thing for a girl to leave her seat and approach thepreceptress.
Mrs. Tellingham looked up with a smile when she saw Ruth coming. Shealways had a smile for the girl of the Red Mill.
The preceptress, however, was a sharp reader of faces. Her own expressionof countenance did not change, for other girls were looking; but she sawthat something serious had occurred.
"What is it, Ruth?" she asked, the instant her low whisper could reachRuth's ear.
The girl, looking straight at her, made the letters "F-I-R-E" with herlips. But she uttered no sound. Mrs. Tellingham understood, however, anddemanded:
"Where?"
"West Dormitory, Mrs. Tellingham," said Ruth, coming closer.
"Are you positive?"
"I can see it from my seat. On the second floor. In one of the duo roomsat this side."
Ruth spoke these sentences in staccato; but her voice was low and shepreserved an air of calmness.
"Good girl!" murmured Mrs. Tellingham. "Go out quietly and then run andtell Tony. Do you know where he is?"
"Lighting the lamps," whispered Ruth.
"Good. Tell him to go right up there and see what can be done. Warn MissScrimp. I will telephone to town, and Miss Brokaw will take charge andmarch the pupils to the big hall to call the roll. I hope nobody is in thedormitories."
Mrs. Tellingham had pushed back her chair and dropped her napkin; but hermovements, though swift, were not alarming. She passed out by a rear doorwhich led to the kitchens, while Ruth walked composedly down the room tothe main exit.
"Hey! what's the matter, Ruthie?" called Heavy, in a low tone. "Whose oldcat's in the well?"
Ruth appeared not to hear her. Miss Brokaw, a very capable woman, cameinto the dining hall as Ruth passed out. Miss Brokaw stepped to themonitor's desk at one side and tapped on the bell.
"Oh, mercy!" gasped Heavy, the incorrigible. "She's shut us off again. AndI haven't had half enough to eat."
"Rise!" said Miss Brokaw, after a moment of waiting. "Immediately, girls.Miss Stone, you will come, too."
A murmur of laughter rose at Jennie Stone's evident intention to linger;but Heavy always took admonition in good part, and she arose smiling.
"Monitors to their places," commanded Miss Brokaw. "You will march to thebig hall. It is Mrs. Tellingham's request. She will have something ofimportance to say to you."
The big hall was on the other side of the building, and from its windowsnothing could be seen of either dormitory.
Meanwhile, Ruth, once alone in the hall, had bounded to the chiefentrance of the building and opened one leaf of the heavy door. It was acrisp night and the frost bit keenly. The wind fluttered her skirt abouther legs.
She stopped for no outer apparel, however, but dashed out upon the stoneportico, drawing the door shut behind her. That act alone saved the schoolfrom panic; for it she had left the door ajar, when the girls filed outinto the entrance hall from the dining room some of them would have beensure to see the growing red glow on the second floor of the WestDormitory.
To Ruth the fire seemed to be filling the room in which it had apparentlystarted. There was no smoke as yet; but the flames leaped higher andhigher, while the illumination grew frightfully.
A spark of light coming into being at the far end of the campus near theEast Dormitory, showed Ruth where Tony Foyle then was. He was not likelyto see the fire as yet, for in lighting the campus lamps he followed aroute that kept his back to the West Dormitory until he turned to comeback.
Like an arrow from the bow the young girl ran toward the distant gardener.She took the steps of the little Italian garden in the center of thecampus in two flying leaps, passed the marble maiden at the fountain, andbounded up to the level of the campus path again without stopping.
"Tony! Oh, Tony!" she called breathlessly.
"Shure now, phat's the matter widyer?" returned the old Irishman,querulously. "Phy! 'tis Miss Ruth, so ut is. Phativer do be the trouble,me darlin'?"
He was very fond of Ruth and would have done anything in his power forher. So at once Tony was exercised by her appearance.
"Phativer is the matter?" he repeated.
"Fire!" blurted out Ruth, able at last to speak. The keen night air hadseemed for the moment fairly to congest her lungs and render herspeechless and breathless.
"That's _that_?" cried Tony. "'Fire,' says you? An' where is there firesave in the furnaces and the big range in the kitchen----"
He had turned, and the red glare from the room on the second floor of theWest Dormitory came into his view.
"There it is!" gasped Ruth, and just then the tinkle of breaking glassbetrayed the fact that the heat of the flames was bursting the panes ofthe window.
"Fur the love of----Begorra! I'll git the hose-cart, an' rouse herself an'the gals in the kitchen----"
Poor Tony, so wildly excited that he dropped the little "dhudeen" he wassmoking and did not notice that he stepped on it, galloped away onrheumatic legs. At this hour there was no man on the premises but thelittle old Irishman, who cared for the furnaces until the fireman andengineer came on duty at seven in the morning.
Ruth was quite sure that neither Tony nor "herself" (by this name he meantMrs. Foyle, the cook) or any of the kitchen girls, could do a thingtowards extinguishing the fire. But she remembered that Miss Scrimp, thematron, must be in the threatened building, and the girl dashed across theintervening space and in at the door.
There was not a sound from upstairs--no crackling of flames. Ruth wouldnever have believed the dormitory was afire had she not seen the fireoutside.
The girl ran down the corridor to Miss Scrimp's room, and burst in thedoor like a young hurricane. The matron was at tea, and she leaped up inutter amazement when she saw Ruth.
"For the good land's sake, Ruthie Fielding!" she ejaculated. "Whatever isthe matter with you?"
"Fire!" cried Ruth. "One of the rooms on the next floor--front--is allafire! I saw it from the dining hall! Mrs. Tellingham has telephoned forthe department at Lumberton----"
With a shriek of alarm, Miss Scrimp picked up the little old "brown Betty"teapot off the hearth of her small stove, and started out of the roomwith it--whether with the expectation of putting out the fire with thecontents of the pot, or not, Ruth never learned.
But when the lady was half way up the first flight of stairs the flamessuddenly burst through the doorframe, and Miss Scrimp stopped.
"That candle!" she shrieked. "I knew I had no business to give that girlthat candle."
"Who?" asked Ruth.
"That infant--Amy Gregg her name is. I'll tell Mrs. Tellingham----"
"But please don't tell anybody else, Miss Scrimp," begged Ruth. "It willbe awful for Amy if it becomes generally known that she is at fault."
"Well, now," said the matron more calmly, coming down the stairs again."You are right, Ruthie--you thoughtful child. We can't do a thing upthere," she added, as she reached the lower floor again. "All we can do isto take such things out as we can off this floor," and she promptlymarched out with the little tea-pot and deposited it carefully on thegrassplot right where somebody would be sure to step on it when thefiremen arrived.
Miss Scrimp prided herself upon having great presence of mind in anemergency like this. A little later Ruth saw the
good woman open herwindow and toss out her best mirror upon the cement walk.
Miss Picolet came flying toward the burning building, chattering about hertreasures she had brought from France. "Le Bon Dieu will not let to burnup my mothair's picture--my harp--my confirmation veil--all, all I have ofmy youth left!" chattered the excited little Frenchwoman, and because ofher distress and her weakness, Ruth helped remove the harp and likewisethe featherbed on which the French teacher always slept and which had comewith her from France years before.
By the time these treasures were out of the house a crowd came runningfrom the main building--Mrs. Foyle, some of the kitchen girls andwaitresses, Tony dragging the hose cart, and last of all Dr. Tellinghamhimself.
The good old doctor was the most absent minded man in the world, and theleast useful in a practical way in any emergency. He never had anything ofimportance to do with the government of the school; but he sometimes gavethe girls wonderfully interesting lectures on historical subjects. Hewrote histories that were seldom printed save in private editions; butmost of the girls thought the odd old gentleman a really wonderfulscholar.
He was in dishabille just now. He had run out in his dressing-gown andcarpet slippers, and without his wig. That wig was always awry when hewas at work, and it was a different color from his little remaining hair,anyway. But without the toupe at all he certainly looked naked.
"Go back, that's a dear man!" gasped Mrs. Foyle, turning the doctor aboutand heading him in the right direction. "Shure, ye air not dacentlydressed. Go back, Oi say. Phat will the young ladies be thinkin' of yez?Ye kin do no good here, dear Dochter."
This was quite true. He could do no good. And, as it turned out later, theunfortunate, forgetful, short-sighted old gentleman had already done agreat deal of harm.