Mr. Colter slept in this smaller room and no sound had come from him. At present his wife and daughter found themselves wondering why he had not awakened and warned them. Always he had been the shelter and strong force in every crisis in their lives.
Reaching him first and catching him firmly by the shoulder, Jack struggled to arouse him. She found his body already limp and inert. The room was become a thick cloud. Located immediately above the fireplace in the living-room, the smoke probably had penetrated here first and then spread into the other parts of the house.
"We must get your father out of here, Jeanette, I cannot waken him," Jack announced, her throat so filled with smoke she could scarcely speak.
Jeanette somehow made her way into the bathroom, returning with damp towels. One she tied about her own nostrils and lips, another she adjusted about her father's face, the third she offered her stepmother.
The woman and girl pulled at the heavy figure.
They were both strong, but he was a man six feet in height, big-boned and muscular.
Nevertheless, half supporting, half carrying him, they got him to the door and through the short hall and down the stairs.
Neither the woman nor girl knew how they managed. Although the fire actually had started in the living-room, downstairs the smoke was not so heavy.
Moreover, the front door stood open and Lina rushed indoors to help them, having spied the struggling figures through the gloom.
Outside Eda stood gazing with wide-open, terrified blue eyes at the Rainbow Lodge. No one else had been aroused, as no one else was sleeping in the house.