"Call that man off!" shouted the younger of the two men pa.s.sengers.
"What do you think this is--a boiler factory? About all the good he"ll do will be to dislodge the car, and we"ll fall the rest of the way."
This was a bad suggestion, and only by hard work were two more cases of hysterics averted.
"I think what we need is a drink of water," declared Betty timidly.
"Do you think they could get some down to us? And, Bob, why don"t they send for the fire department?"
"I suppose because we are not on fire," answered Bob seriously.
"What good could the firemen do?"
"Oh, I don"t know," said Betty vaguely. "Only in Pineville the firemen get people out of all sorts of sc.r.a.pes. They can climb you know, and they have long ladders and ropes----"
"By George, the girl is right!" The elder man looked at Betty admiringly. "Hey, some of you who want to help! Go and "phone the fire department. And say, send us down some water--we"re dry as dust after this rumpus."
Half of the waiting crowd scattered to telephone to the fire department and the other half ran for the water coolers. Their zeal outstripped their judgment in this latter service, and the result was an icy stream of water that poured into the car.
CHAPTER XXII
BEING RESCUED
The water struck the lady given to hysterics, and she promptly opened her mouth and shrieked again.
"We"re drowning!" she cried, her terrified mind picturing a broken water pipe. "I tell you, we"re drowning!"
"And I tell you we"re not!" Betty stifled a desire to laugh as one of the men contradicted her. "Some idiot--"
The crash of the water cooler against the top of the car as it slipped from the hands of the person holding it interrupted his a.s.surance and weakened it hopelessly. A chorus of shrieks arose from those in the car.
"Well, there"s your drink, Betty," grinned Bob, a.s.sisting the girls to crowd on to the one seat, for the floor was soaked with ice-cold water. "And here come your firemen--maybe they"ll have better luck."
Some of the firemen went to the third floor and others obeyed orders to stay on the second.
"I"d say knock "er down," said the grizzled old fire chief after a careful inspection of the wedged car. "We"ll fix it up to break the fall. And, anyway, a drop from the third to the bas.e.m.e.nt would not be dangerous."
But the occupants of the elevator protested vigorously against this plan. They made it quite clear that they had had all the "drop" they wanted for that day, and some of them intimated that they preferred to spend the night there rather than be experimented with.
"Women is like that," they heard the fire chief confide sadly to his lieutenant. "You can"t reason with "em. Well, we"ll have to dope out another scheme."
After a consultation, it was proposed, via the chiefs voice which had a carrying quality that was famous throughout the city, to let a ladder down from the third floor, have a fireman chop a hole in the top of the car, and a.s.sist the prisoners up the ladder to safety.
This plan met with the approval of all but the two rather prim and elderly women who flatly refused to walk up a ladder, even to get out of their present unpleasant predicament.
"Well, then, you"ll have to stay here," announced the fire chief disgustedly. "The others are willing, and we can"t hang around here all day. If there was a fire you wouldn"t be consulted. A fireman would have you up or down a ladder before you could open your mouth to object. I ain"t used to arguing with anybody."
"There"s another way that might work, chief," suggested his aide.
"If we can fix ropes and rig up a windla.s.s, we can maybe hoist the car up to the level of the gate."
It was decided to try this plan, but the wily chief first extracted a promise from every one in the car that if the scheme failed, they would submit to a ladder rescue.
""Cause I ain"t saying this will work, and I don"t aim to cook up a different plan every minute till you"re all suited," he declared, with commendable precaution. "You all agree to the ladder if this ain"t a go?"
An unanimous chorus a.s.sured him that they did.
It took some time to arrange the ropes, but at last, creakingly and slowly, the car began to make its ascent.
"Bless the Lord!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the darky operator fervently, "I done guess our troubles is ovah!"
He changed his mind in a minute when it was discovered that the car gates were jammed. There the eleven imprisoned pa.s.sengers stood, on a level with the third floor, a crowd gathered in the corridor as far as the eye could see, a thin iron grating separating them from escape.
"I don"t know but I"d just as lief stay here as to face that mob,"
murmured Bob, but some one heard him.
"You"re among friends, bub," a man called. "Keep up a stout heart."
There was a general laugh, and some one was dispatched to get a file. Ten minutes" work with this, and the stubborn catch was filed through, the gates slid back and those behind them found themselves once more on good solid mosaic tiling.
Bob"s employer came up to him, and was presented to the girls. He was a pleasant, prosperous-looking man, middle-aged, and evidently fond of Bob. He immediately offered him the rest of the day off, insisting that after such an experience he should rest quietly for a few hours.
"By the way," he remarked _sotto voce_, "those two young men over there at the head of the stairs are newspaper reporters. One has a camera. I imagine they want to get a story on your morning"s sensations."
Bob had not yet met Mr. Littell, but he had a lively idea of what that gentleman might say should he find his daughters" pictures spread over the first page of the evening papers, accompanied by a more or less accurate a.n.a.lysis of their emotions during the trying period through which they had just pa.s.sed.
"Whisk us into your office, can"t you, Mr. Derby?" he urged, "They"re stopping people as they go down; they"ll take no notice of us if we go on up to the fourth floor."
The crowd, satisfied that no one had been killed or was likely to be, had drifted down the staircase, the two alert youths questioning each one in an effort to get the stories of those who had been in the stalled car. The negro operator had already furnished enough copy for a half-column of thrills.
Mr. Derby managed to usher the girls and Bob upstairs to his office without exciting suspicion, and once there the question of how to get to the street was considered. There were still enough people in the corridors to make a quick run down impossible, and the elevator was, of course, out of commission.
"I"ll tell you," said Mr. Derby suddenly. "Go down the fire escape to the second floor and get in at the hall window. It"s always open.
I"ll have to wait here for Anderson, Bob. He had an appointment at eleven, but telephoned he was delayed. But perhaps the nerves of the young ladies are not equal to a climb down the fire escape? In that case you could all remain here and I"ll have lunch sent in."
The girls, however, ridiculed the idea of nervousness. And indeed, with the elasticity of youth, they had already dismissed the accident from their minds except as an exciting story to tell at home that afternoon or evening.
"I"ll go first," said Bob, stepping out on the fire escape. "All there is to do is to take it easy, don"t hurry, and don"t push.
There"s only two flights, so you can"t get dizzy."
"Isn"t this a lark!" chuckled Bobby, as she and Betty waited for the younger girls to go first after Bob. "I never had so much fun in my life. What"s Bob stopping for?"
Bob was working with the window directly over the fire escape on the second floor. The girls caught up with him before he turned with a flushed face.
"The blame thing"s locked," he announced. "Isn"t that the worst luck! It"s a rule of the building that all hall windows be left open unless there"s a storm. Well, I suppose we might as well go back.
There"s no window on the first floor."
"We could climb in there," suggested Betty, pointing to another window, half-opened. "See, Bob, I can reach it easily."