Betty saw Bob spring to his aid, saw Esther sink in a miserable little white heap to the floor, Bobby put her hands up to her eyes as if to shut out the light, and Louise mechanically try to defend herself from the strangle hold of the woman who stood next to her. It seemed minutes to Betty that the car was falling, and she watched the others' behavior with a curious, semi-detached interest that was oddly impersonal. One of the men passengers began to claw at the gate frantically and the other kept muttering under his breath, softly and steadily, biting off his words crisply and quite unconscious of what he was saying. The woman who had clutched Louise was silent at first, but her companion instantly screamed, and in a fraction of a second she, too, was screaming.
Now Betty had never heard the sound of women in terror, and she was unprepared for the wild anguish of those shrill voices.
The experience was terrifying, but it was all over very swiftly. The mechanism jammed between the third and second floors and the elevator came to a stop with a suddenness that jarred the teeth of the passengers. It had begun to fall after leaving the seventh floor.
For a moment every one stared at every one else stupidly. Bobby Littell was the first to find her voice.
"Well, I guess we're all here," she observed matter-of-factly. "Esther, are you hurt?"
"No-o, I think not," said Esther slowly. "Wasn't it awful! Let's get out of here, quick."
A hasty investigation proved that no one was injured, and as one of the men said, shaken nerves could not be allowed to count.
"That was a narrow escape, a mighty narrow escape!" said the other man. "I fully expected to be smashed in the wreck of the car when it struck the concrete well."
"I'll never ride in another elevator, never!" ejaculated the woman who had seized Louise. "Why, I'll dream of this for weeks to come."
The girls said nothing, though their lips were white and Betty's knees were trembling. She was rather angry that she should feel this loss of control after everything was over, but it was natural.