CHAPTER XXXIII A PRISONER ESCAPES

In the meantime a passing stranger, who had witnessed from a distance Florence’s struggle with the two men before the theatre door, and had arrived on the scene too late to be of any assistance, had rushed into the theatre lobby to spread the alarm.

There he fell into the arms of Solomon. His tale was quickly told, and at once three greatly excited persons ran into the street. They were Solomon, Angelo and Dan Baker.

Sprinting along in the direction indicated by the stranger, Angelo plunged boldly into the dark shadows by the bridge.

There was no one there. But by good chance he came upon Florence’s Boston bag lying on the ground.
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The exclamation of joy that escaped his lips at sight of it died suddenly. As he lifted it from the earth he found it almost as light as air.

“Gone!” he exclaimed. “The Fire God is gone!”

“What could you expect?” Solomon grumbled. “They were after it. Why should they leave it?

“See!” he added after one look at the bag. “They ripped it open.”

As he turned to retrace his steps he stumbled over a hard object.

“A brick,” he mumbled after casting the light of a pocket torch upon it. “Only a brick.”

“But how strange!” There was surprise in Angelo’s voice. “The thing is dry. And it rained only two hours ago. And see! There are two of them.”

“Those men threw them there,” was Solomon’s pronouncement. “Probably meant to brain some one if necessary.”

He could not have guessed how wrong he was.
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Since no further trace of the missing girl and her precious burden could be found there was nothing for them but to return. This they did. Then they discovered that Petite Jeanne, too, was missing.

The police were notified at once. An alarm was broadcast over the police radio network. After that there seemed nothing to do but wait.

* * * * * * * *

Florence was a girl of strength and courage. Not without reward had she spent hours in the gymnasium. Swinging from ring to ring in mid-air, twisting through ladder and trapeze, torturing the medicine-ball, she had developed muscular strength far beyond her years.

There was need of grip and grit now, as she clung, with the mysterious pursuers above her, and with water, perhaps fathoms of it, beneath her, to the side of that abandoned scow.

Footsteps approached. Grumbles and curses sounded in her ears. Trembling, she held her breath. Her fingers, she knew, were in the shadows. Flattened as her body was against the dark side of the scow, she hoped she might not be seen if anyone looked for her there.
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To her great relief they did not look but went grumbling away toward some fish shanties a block away.

“Do they live there?” she asked herself. “I wonder.”

Moments passed. Her courage and her grip weakened.

“What’s the use?” she murmured at last. “I can swim. Swimming is better than this, even in a city dump scow.”

Relaxing her hold, she dropped with a low splash into some ten inches of black, muddy water.

“So far, so good,” she philosophized. “But now?”

Groping about in the muddy water she retrieved her paper-wrapped package and tucked it under her arm.

Her next task was a survey of her temporary prison. She was in no great danger, but the water was frightfully cold.

“Must get out of here some way,” she told herself. “Besides, there’s Petite Jeanne. She’ll fret her poor little heart.”
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Had she but known!

Slowly she made her way about, feeling the walls of her strange prison. Everywhere the walls were too high. Even by leaping she could not grasp them.

“And if that were possible,” she told herself, “I could not climb up without some foothold.”

It was a foothold she sought. “Only some cleats or patches, or a rusty chain dangling down,” she all but prayed. Her prayer was not answered.

“Oh, well,” she sighed. And with that, propping herself in a corner, she stood first on one foot, then on the other, and almost fell asleep.

But what was this? Did she catch the sound of footsteps? Yes. She was sure of it, light footsteps as of a woman. She knew not whether to tremble or rejoice.

The sound grew louder, then ceased.

After that, for a long time there was silence. The silence was broken at last by a startling sound. A rusty harmonica suddenly lent its doubtful harmonies to the night.
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Curiosity and desire drew her from the shadows. Then she all but laughed. A ragamuffin of a newsboy with three frayed papers under his arm sat, legs adangle, on top of the dump, pouring out his soul to the moon in glorious discord.

Instantly she knew that here was her savior. She understood boys well enough to realize that the raggedest of them all could not be hired to watch a lady freeze in a well of a prison.

“Hey, there!” she called in a loud whisper, as the disharmony died away.

This came near being her undoing. The boy’s eyes bulged as he scrambled to his feet, prepared to flee. His whole being said: “I have heard a ghost!”

“No, no!” she cried aloud. “Don’t run away! I am down here. In the scow. I—I fell in. Help me out. I’ll buy your papers, a jitney for every one, and a dime to boot!”

Reassured, he dropped to the top of the scow and peered down.

“Gee!” he exclaimed. “You are in it! Been in long?”
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“About an hour.”

“Gee!”

“I’ll go for help,” he said, after a moment’s thought.

“No, don’t,” she begged. “Find a rope, can’t you? Tie it up here. I can climb out.”

“I’ll try.”

He disappeared. A moment later there came a clanking sound.

“Here’s a chain,” he called back. “Gee, it’s heavy!”

He succeeded in dragging it to the top of the scow and knotting one end about a broken bit of plank. He threw the free end over the edge. With a mighty jangle and bump, it extended its length to the water’s edge.

“Fine!” she applauded. “Now watch this!” She threw her paper-bound package to the dump beside him.

“Man! It’s heavy!” he exclaimed as he picked it up.
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“Now! Here I come!” Florence’s agility in climbing a chain surprised even a boy. He was still more surprised when, after thrusting a shiny half dollar in his hand, she grasped her mysterious package and hastened away among the box cars.

Ten minutes later she emerged upon an all but deserted street. To her great relief she succeeded in hailing a passing taxi at once and went whirling away from the scene of her peril.