The Colonel's Wife — page 56: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- THROUGH FLAME AND SMOKE. _—~- 49 ing was all that saved him from being suffocated on) ~ the roof. As his only means of escape lay in the extreme west end of the house, it was in that direction John bore his half-fainting burden. She seemed like a “child-to him. - Hehad not once looked in her face, « over which the long loose black strands of hair had blown. It was enough for John Ridgeway to know she | was a female in peril of her life, for chivalry lives in the breast of every son of the South. Reaching the end of the roof he looked down. Through the eddying smoke that curled around the corners of-.the house he could see that the ladder was coming, that 1t would speedily be placed in posi- tion. He crept down toward the gutter. Ii this failed him everything was lost, but thank Heaven the old wood was still firm, and John swung loose upon it. That strong arm sustained its double burden until he had acquired a certain momentum, when he broke loose and landed on the lower roof with some of the agility a cat would have shown. This done he made his way to the edge. ’Those below had discovered him and loud shouts attested the admiration they felt for their ae headers The ladder was reared aloft. By rare good luck it reached the edge of the roof, and John knew the game was saved. | He felt greatly relieved, for, brave. soldier that his act had proved him to be, he could not face such a doom without a shudder. Any death was preferable in his eyes to that by fire. People take a particular aversion to certain things, and this was John’s bete n01L. | So he clambered down that ladder witli the live- eo eae , comicbooks.co