ad directed him to be
taken at once to the hospital; and thither his little daughter insisted
on following him, despite the efforts of some of the women to detain her
and dress her properly.

Before returning to his quarters the colonel desired to know something
of the origin of the fire. There was testimony enough and to spare.
Every woman in Sudsville had a theory to express, and was eager to be
heard at once and to the exclusion of all others. It was not until he
had summarily ordered them to go to their homes and not come near him
that the colonel managed to get a clear statement from some of the men.

Clancy had been away all the evening, drinking as usual, and Mrs. Clancy
was searching about Sudsville as much for sympathy and listeners as for
him. Little Kate, who knew her father's haunts, had guided him home, and
was striving to get him to his little sleeping-corner before her
mother's return, when in his drunken helplessness he fell against the
table, overturning the kerosene lamp, and the curtains were all aflame
in an instant. It was just after taps--or ten o'clock--when Kate's
shrieks aroused the inmates of Sudsville and started the cry of "Fire."
The flimsy structure of pine boards burned like so much tinder, and the
child and her stupefied father had been dragged forth only in time to
save their lives. The little one, after giving the alarm, had rushed
again into the house and was tugging at his senseless form when rescue
came for both,--none too soon. As for Mrs. Clancy, at the first note of
danger she had rushed screaming to the spot, but only in time to see the
whole interior ablaze and to howl frantically for some man to save her
money,--it was all in the green box under the bed. For husband and child
she had for the moment no thought. They were safely out of the fire by
the time she got there, and she screamed and fought like a fury against
the men who held her back when she would have plunged into the midst of
it. It took but a minute for one or two men to burst through the flimsy
wall with axes, to rescue the burning box and knock off the lid. It was
a sight to see when the contents were handed to her. She knelt, wept,
prayed, counted over bill after bill of smoking, steaming greenbacks,
until suddenly recalled to her senses by the eager curiosity and the
remarks of some of her fellow-women. That she kept money and a good deal
of it in her quarters had long been suspected and as fiercely denied;
but