DRIVEN BY LOVE INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH.
By the time Mr. Hart and William Smith reached the township, there was a straight sheet of fire, more than a mile in length. At least three hundred stores were in flames. Silver Creek could boast of a volunteer fire brigade, and the brave fellows worked at their two small fire-engines with the perspiration pouring down their faces in streams, but they might as well have pumped water into the creek for all the good they did. However, they worked away, approaching as close as they dare to the immense body of flame; those who were closest to the burning stores directed their hose towards the blazing rafters, whilst their comrades pumped upon them to prevent their catching fire. The shouting, the screaming, the confusion were terrible; loud cries ran along and about the crowd with the rapidity of the flame itself, and every few moments another store on each side of those already on fire caught light. Strange to say, no attempt was made to stop the fire by pulling down the buildings on either side, and so create a gap across which the flames could not leap. The only thought that people had was to save their goods; but even as it was, very little was preserved from destruction.
When Mr. Hart and his companion plunged into the crowd, their first thought, of course, was of the hotel and theatre.
"Ah," said one and another, "here's Mr. Hart! Here's William Smith!"
They made way for these two men, who ran rapidly along, and found that the hotel had just caught fire.
"Where's Margaret? Where's Philip?" cried Mr. Hart, with anxious glances around.
At that moment he cared not one pin for the destruction of his property; he saw the flames beggaring him, but he paid no heed to them. Time to think of that afterwards. All that he cared for now was the safety of Margaret and Philip.
"Where's Margaret? Where's Philip?" he cried.
Some man among the crowd answered, that Margaret had last been seen going into the hotel before the fire had reached it, and that she had not come out.
"Good God!" groaned Mr. Hart, and would have plunged into the flames but that they held him back.