It could not have been with malice--for the result swept Linda herself
into the vortex of excitement and peril that followed; but the railroad
president's daughter shrieked at the loudest pitch of her voice:
"Fire! fire! We'll all be burned to death! _Fire_!"
"Be still!" "Sit down!" were commands that instantly sounded from all
parts of the house.
But the mischief was done, and Linda continued to shriek in apparently an
abandonment of terror:
"_Fire! Fire!_"
Other nervous people took up the cry. Nearly half a thousand spectators
were seated in the picture theatre and the smell of smoke was in their
nostrils and the glare of fire above them.
For something, surely, was burning in the operator's box. The danger of
the inflammable film was in the minds of all. A surge of the crowd toward
the main exit signaled the first panic.
The outgoing rush was met by those who (not understanding the commotion)
had been waiting at the back for seats. These people would not give way
easily as the frightened audience pushed up the main aisle.
Those at the sides escaped more easily, for there was an exit on either
side of the audience room. In the case of Nan Sherwood and her party,
however, they were in the worst possible position as far as quick escape
went.
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