She might easily have escaped
by herself; but to leave this helpless girl whom Linda Riggs had
abandoned--
Nan could not do that. She seized Pearl Graves by the shoulders and
strove to drag her out of that row of seats and into the next. Although
the main aide was now clear, she dared not try that way. Fire was raining
down from the balcony into the back of the house.
Pearl was a larger and heavier girl than Nan. Strong as the latter was,
and well developed from her athletic training, the older girl would have
been a heavy charge for Nan at best. Now, with the smoke half smothering
her, and Pearl a dead weight in her arms, Nan could scarcely drag her
burden to the opening in the row of seats.
She struggled to it, however, and got the girl through the first row of
chairs, tearing Pearl's dress sadly in the effort and scratching her own
ungloved hands. Nan was crying, too, as she struggled on; she was both
frightened and unnerved.
But she stuck to her self-imposed task. She could hear no voices near
her now. Nothing but the crackling of the flames and the crash of axes
as the firemen wrecked the partition back of the balcony to get at the
seat of the fire.
There was nobody to help Nan with her burden. A curtain of smoke shut off
the firemen and policemen in the front of the house from the auditorium
itself.
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