The Girl from Hong-Kong: A Story of Adventure Under Five Suns — page 285: what you’re looking at

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

THE GIRL FROM H ONG-KONG. 279 men in the ill-fated building at the sad hour. One feels more confidence in the nobility of human nature to sée men daring all in order to save the helpless of the weaker sex. Terry’s alarm is on account of the fair gir! who now clings so desperately to his arm, for, brave as Doris has shown herself on other occasions, the awful horror of such a spectacle causes her to tremble like an aspen leaf, and her face to turn as colorless as chalk. To save her he must exercise the nicest judgment of his life—once a mistake is made all may be lost. | Hence Terry calms the tumult of his heart, sets his. teeth firmly together and sweeps a hasty look around the whole structure. That picture must remain with him, as with others whom Providence saves, to the last - day of his life. a At least it gives him the points which he seeks. He is immediately struck with the fact that the whole vast audience, in shrinking away from the location of the fire, crush against the right wall and compactly fill that end of the building where the three doors are situated. _ It so happens that he and Doris are some distance away from the front. At first this might seem like a dire calamity, but in the end it proves the greatest of blessings, for should they have started with the mass of surging, frenzied women, it must have been to become so inextricably wedged in that no effort on his part could accomplish their escape. That shrewd eye of Terry immediately notes these facts. It sees more. While the main body of women sweep to.the right and toward the front, he discovers that here and there some figure detaches itself from the struggling mass, and, skirting the already roaring flames, darts toward the rear of the building. This fact is so noticeable that it instantly rivets his attenion, and he seeks its cause. The first thing he marks is that one and all of these who fly toward the rear are attaches of the fair, those who in some capacity have been connected with its working. This gives hgn a sudden . comicbooks.com