By some oversight of the fire inspectors the seats on several front
rows had been built close against the sidewalls, with no passage at that
end of the rows for entrance or egress.
Bess was next to the wall, and she jumped up, crying: "Oh, come on,
girls! let's get out. Walter! I say, Walter! I'm frightened. Let us go."
Grace was crying.
Nan hugged Inez close to her and looked to Walter, too, to extricate
them from their situation. But Linda had reached across her cousin,
Pearl Graves, and clawed at Walter in abject terror. "Oh, save me! save
me, Walter!" she moaned. "I am _so_ afraid of fire--and in a place like
this! Oh! oh!"
"Shut that girl's mouth!" exclaimed one man from the front. "Stop that
screaming! There is no danger! The fire is confined to the box, and that
is made of sheet iron. We're all right. Don't crowd!"
The panic had, however, spread too far.
The mob struggled and fought at the main doors. The police had been
summoned; but they could not get into the building through the main
entrance, and the side exits were toward the rear. Several people were
knocked down and trampled on. A pungent odor of burning filled the
theatre; the crackling of the flames grew louder and louder.
Walter had his hands full with Linda and Pearl, who had become likewise
panic-stricken.
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