“Better get ready to eat, children,” suggested their father, as he noticed Ted and Janet looking from the windows out across the country, for Midvale was on the side of a hill from which a good view could be had.
Mrs. Martin washed Trouble, and put clean clothes on him from the supply carried in the valises, and thus he was first ready to go down to the dining room. When neither his father nor his mother noticed him he wandered out into the hall.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin were ready to go down, and so were Ted and Janet, when Trouble’s mother looked around for him.
“Where’s William?” she asked.
“I saw him go out into the hall,” answered Ted. “I’ll get him.”
As he opened the door to go into the hall, the others following, they heard the tinkle of broken glass, and then, directly afterward, a bell began to ring.
Instantly, throughout the hotel, which was not a very large one, there was a great commotion. The elevator shot up to the floor where the Martin family stood and the colored boy in the cage cried:
“Come on! Git in! Ah’ll take yo’ all down ’fore de place burns!”
“Before the place burns? What do you mean?” asked Mr. Martin. “The hotel isn’t burning!”
“Yes, ’tis!” cried the colored elevator lad, his eyes big with fright. “Doan yo’ all hear de ’larm!”