Billie also dreamed of the diamonds. They were not around her neck, but in their box, which had grown to the size of a trunk and pressed on her chest so heavily that she was suffocating.
Suddenly a great bell clanged out in the night.
Billie opened her eyes with difficulty. The room was filled with smoke and down the corridor there came the cry of “Fire! Fire!”
CHAPTER VII.—THE FIRE.
A bell with a deep baying note rang out in the darkness.
If you have ever heard a fire bell boom out in the stillness, you will remember the terror which clutched your heart at the first ominous peal. It seemed to Billie, in going over it afterward, that the boom of that big fire bell was like the last trump on the day of judgment arousing the spirits of the dead.
Then came the sound of voices. The corridors were filled with hurrying footsteps. Somebody ran down the hallway calling again:
“Fire! Fire!”
Billie jumped to the floor with a bound. Her senses had returned at last.
“Nancy, Nancy!” she cried, shaking her friend violently back to consciousness. “The hotel is on fire. Get into your dressing gown as quickly as you can while I wake up the others.”