"She is safe," the manager replied. "She went out but a moment ago."
"Thank Heaven! Mother, are you afraid to go back to the hotel alone?"
"No, no; it is but a very short distance. But what are you going to do, my boy?"
"I think I can be of some assistance in getting the people out. Good-by! I shall be with you again soon."
And he rushed around to the front of the house, where the confusion was greater than ever.
CHAPTER XXIII.
AN EVENTFUL NIGHT.
The Rockton police force were evidently not equal to the emergency—two or three Hibernians in blue uniform were rushing wildly about, issuing orders to which no one paid the slightest attention.
Meanwhile nearly a thousand people were confined within the burning building, most of them apparently doomed to a horrible death.
At the doors—of which there were only two—men were fighting like maniacs to escape, and actually retarding their own progress in their mad excitement.