The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 282: what you’re looking at

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

Qi6 THE GIRL FROM HONG-KONG. a step toward the distant door, when a sudden. shriek strikes his ears. As he whirls around he is just in time to see a great flash: ‘of flame shoot upward and seize upon the flaunting banners that cover’ the-wooden walls, while a chorus of terrified women scream at the’ top of their Voices: the awful signal for Pandemonium to be let loose: “Fire! Fire!” CHAPTER XXIX. THE CRIME OF IEE CENTURY, Could Terry Donahue -live to’ the age of Methusaleh he would never. forget the shock of that moment’ when the awful cry of fire is heard in the crowded bazaar, ‘The human mind in search of horrors cuuld not well’ conceive of one more terrible—here are hundreds, almost thousands, of human beings, mostly ladies of ‘fashion, the’ cream of Parisian society, packed in a frame fire-trap, with: Oriental draperies hanging on all sides, everything inviting a frightful havoc. Surely the distressing result must of necessity reflect. upon the Fire Department of Paris—in few great cities would so dangerous a shell be permitted to be used for a fair of such magnitude. Of what are commissioners unless'to guard against such dangers? That the terrifying alarm is no false one. the man from London immediately realizes, for his eyes have seen the Sudden flash as the illuminating apparatus of the, cinematograph on the left side of the bazaar. exploded | and set fire to the surrounding hangings. Those’ who are able to preserve their senses to any extent in the midst of such a scene are few indeed. The fire, starting on the left side, forces the great mass of people toward the right, where they form a. perfect jam against the wall of the building, beyond which rears the Hotel da Palais. | Wretched fate—there is not a door on thie side, three comicbooks.com