Suddenly she heard a door bang on the floor below—a shout and then a crash of glass. Next——
“Fire! Fire! Fire!”
In an instant she was out of her room and at the head of the stairs. It was an old building—a regular firetrap. Mr. Mayo had dashed out of his office and was shouting up the stairs:
“Come down! Down, every one of you! Fire!”
Through the open transom over the door of Mrs. Mantel’s office Ruth saw that one end of the room was ablaze.
CHAPTER X—SUSPICIONS
There was a patter of feet overhead and racing down the stairway came half a dozen frightened people. They had been aroused by Mr. Mayo’s shout, and they knew that if the flames reached the stairway first they would be driven to the fire escape.
There seemed little danger of the fire reaching the stairs, however; for when Ruth got to the lower hall the door of the burning office had been opened again, and she saw one of the porters squirting the chemical fire extinguisher upon the blaze.
Mr. Legrand had flung open the door, and he was greatly excited. He held his left hand in his right, as though it were hurt.
“Where is Mrs. Mantel?” demanded Mr. Mayo.