Left to himself the dog surely would have howled and barked to betray his fear. But he was usually obedient to his little mistress's word, and Carolyn had warned him to keep silence. Her tender little feet and knees were scratched by the harsh matting. She could see but a little way through the murk. But she scrambled along just as bravely, and just as fast, as she could. Soon she rounded the stairwell and found the side corridor into which the doctor's office opened. All these rooms on either hand were occupied; but nobody in the hotel save herself and Prince seemed to have been aroused. In this side hall the stifling smoke was not so thick. There was a window at the end and it was open at the top. Therefore some fresh air was being sucked in from outside. Carolyn May had no thought for these things; merely the difficulty of breathing troubled the child. Here was the doctor's door. She could not mistake it, for he had a little sign on it: "E. Warren, M.D." She knew that those two letters at the end stood for "medical doctor;" although Johnny O'Harrity, the lame boy at home, had once told her they stood for "More Drugs." The little girl, panting and sobbing, stood up against the door and began to batter upon it with both plump fists. "Doctor Warren! Doctor Warren! Please, _please_, Doctor Warren, open the door!" Her cry was not very loud, nor did her fists make any great noise; but the physician was used to calls in the night. Or perhaps he, too, was troubled in his sleep by the growing volume of smoke from below stairs which was, by now, penetrating the rooms even as far from the kitchen as this. "What's the matter? Great Scott! where's all the smoke from?" demanded Dr. Warren, appearing in his robe and slippers, and forgetting to remove the tasselled nightcap from his bald head, which during the day and in public was usually covered by a brown toupé. He saw the little girl and her dog almost under his feet. "What do you want, child? Why, it's little Carolyn May!" for there was scarcely a person about the hotel who did not know her. "Oh, Dr. Warren! Come to mamma! Please come to mamma!" "What's all the smoke about? Where's the fire?" cried the doctor. "What's the matter with your mother, child?" "She won't speak to me. I can't wake her up," and Carolyn burst into frightened sobs. "My goodness, child!" The doctor was already at the corner of the corridor. He saw the main hall full of swirling smoke while from below the crackling of flames was unmistakable. To Carolyn's shocked amazement the physician began to shout: "Fire! Fire! Fire!" "Why--why, Dr. Warren!" choked Carolyn May. "You'll wake everybody up in the house."