he desperate, the unemployed of the great city had been swarming to the
scene, and the police force that, properly led and handled at the
outset, could easily have quelled the incipient tumult, was now as
powerless as the firemen. Oh, what if a prairie gale should rise and fan
these flames, as once, long years before, it swept before it an ocean of
fire that left only a ruined city in its wake!

Marching at route step now, but still in stern silence, the column
seemed to quicken its pace and push eagerly ahead. Open spaces between
the houses or one-storied cottages became more frequent. Fiercer and
wilder the flames seemed shooting on high. Over the low hoarse murmur of
the distant throng could now be heard occasional crackle of pistol
shots, followed by fierce yells. Out at the front, a hundred yards in
advance of the staff, an alert young officer, with a dozen picked men,
scoured the streets, the front yards, the crossings, sweeping the way
for the main column; and now as they came within six blocks of the
scene, the roar of the riot mingling with that of the mounting flames
drowned all other sounds about them. Women at squalid saloons and corner
groceries were laughing and jeering. Women at quiet homes were weeping
and wringing their hands. Somewhere up at the front, beyond the black
bulk of a row of warehouses, a sudden flash and glare lit up the
westward front of every house, and shone on scores of pallid faces. A
volume of flame, a burst of beams, sparks, and billowing smoke flung
high in air, and an instant later a dull roar and rumble shook the
windows close at hand, letting some loose sashes down with startling
clash and jangle. From the sidewalks arose stifled shrieks and louder
wailing. From the head of the column, where some horses shied in sudden
fright, came the firm, low-toned orders of the Colonel: "Forward the
first company! Clear that street ahead!" For, as if hurled back by the
explosion, a dense mass of rioters came flooding into the broad
thoroughfare, blocking it from curb to curb. Promptly at double time the
foremost company went dancing by, forming front into line as it cleared
the group of mounted officers, and then the Colonel turned in his
saddle, and looked back beyond his staff to a second rank of orderlies
and buglers, to where a pale young fellow, hatless, and with heavily
bandaged head, rode side by side with the signal sergeant, his dark eyes
fixed on the soldierly form of his commander.