Poker Jim, Gentleman, and Other Tales and SketchesLydston, G. Frank (George Frank)
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Poker Jim, Gentleman, and Other Tales and Sketches
Lydston, G. Frank (George Frank)
American fiction; Short stories, American
And again he said, “Gwan out o’ that, or I’ll--” and he brandished his
club menacingly.
And so I went “out o’ that.” I climbed over the bannister and on to
the balcony and attacked the bodies from the other side, unnoticed by
the officer and free from interference by the firemen, who had all
gone, save two or three whose feet were still grinding and crushing the
inanimate forms on the top of the pile.
Again I tugged and pulled at the bodies, this time with better success.
Down in one corner of the mass, protected somewhat by the marble pillar
forming the arch which connected the landing with the balcony, lay a
little boy of perhaps ten years of age. I drew him out quite easily. He
still breathed. Next to him lay the body of a grey haired woman. Her
face was gashed across by a blow from the boot of some one caught in
the death struggles of that pile. As I dragged her body from beneath
the towering mass of death, an opera glass, innocent accessory to
murder, fell from her nerveless hand and clattered upon the marble
floor of the balcony. She, too, was alive.
Curiosity seekers had by this time entered the building. I impressed
several of them into service, and between us we carried the bodies of
the old woman and the boy down the stair by which they had climbed to
their deaths, to the street, and into the restaurant next-door, which
was rapidly becoming transformed into a morgue and hospital emergency
ward. Leaving the poor creatures to the care of some of my brother
physicians, I rushed back to that pile of bodies--to again attempt to
break that awful dead-lock.
As I re-entered the door of the theater I heard a man wildly
expostulating with several policemen. He madly insisted on entering,
and they as strenuously refused to allow him to do so. His voice
seemed familiar, and I turned to look. He sprang past the opposing arms
of the officers, grasped me by the shoulders and cried, “My God! man,
can’t you help me? My daughters are in there somewhere!” He was one of
my oldest and dearest friends. I had watched his children grow up from
babyhood to childhood, from childhood to womanhood and loved them.
“Surely,” I said, “you are mistaken.”
“No, no, I am sure!” he cried, in agony. “Help me to find them, oh,
help me to find them!”
“Come with me,” I replied, as I sprang up the stairs. Pointing to the
pile of bodies on the landing, I said, “If they were in the theater
at all, let us hope that they have either escaped or are here in this
pile. Help me, Harry, let us try to get these bodies free.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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