Andy at Yale: Or, The Great Quadrangle MysteryStokes, Roy Eliot
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Andy at Yale: Or, The Great Quadrangle Mystery
Stokes, Roy Eliot
College students -- Juvenile fiction; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
It was this that saved the day. The leader tapped with his violin bow on
the tin shade over his electric light and the dazed musicians came to
attention. They began on the number the girl had been singing. It was
like the irony of fate to hear the strains of a sentimental song when
the poor girl was in danger of death. But the music quieted the
audience. Men and women sank back in their seats, watching with
fear-widened eyes the actions of Andy Blair.
And while Tom had thus effectively stopped the incipient panic, Andy had
not been idle. Working with feverish haste, he had wrapped his heavy
coat about the girl, smothering the flames. She was sobbing and
screaming by turns.
"There! There!" cried Andy. "Keep quiet. I have the fire out. You're in
no danger!"
"Oh--oh! But--but the fire----"
"It's out, I tell you!" insisted Andy. "It was only a little blaze!"
He could see tiny tongues of flame where his coat did not quite reach,
and with swift, quick pats of his bare hands he beat them out, burning
himself slightly. He took good care not to let the flames shoot up, so
that the frantic girl would inhale them. That meant death, and her
escape had been narrow enough as it was.
As Andy held the coat closely about her he glanced over toward the box
whence the match had come. He saw the horror-stricken young men looking
at him and the girl in fascination, but they had not been quick to act.
After all, it was an accident and the fault of no one in particular.
The stage was now occupied by several other performers, and the frantic
manager. But it was all over. Andy patted out the last of the
smouldering sparks. The girl was swaying and he looked up in time to see
that she was going to faint.
"Look out!" he cried, and caught her in his arms.
"Back this way! Carry her back here!" ordered the manager, motioning to
the wings. "Keep that music going!" he added to the orchestra leader.
They carried the unfortunate little singer to a dressing room, and a
doctor was summoned. One of the stage hands brought Andy's coat to him.
The garment was seared and scorched, and rank with the odor of smoke.
"If you don't want to wear it I'll see Mr. Wallack, and get another for
you," offered the man.
"Oh, this isn't so bad," said Andy, slipping it on. "It's an old one,
anyhow."
He looked curiously about him. It was the first time he had been behind
the scenes, though there was not as much to observe in this little
theatre as in a larger one. Beyond the dropped curtain he could hear the
strains of the music and the murmur in the audience. The show had come
to a sudden ending, and many were departing.
As Andy was leaving, to go back to his chums, the doctor came in
hastily, and hurried to the room of the performer.
"Say, some little hero act, eh, Andy?" exclaimed Chet, as Andy rejoined
his friends.
"Forget it!" was the retort. "Tom, here, had his wits about him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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