Quintus Oakes: A Detective Story

MP3 Audio CD. Quintus Oakes: A Detective Story

CHAPTER I

The Rescue


It was a warm summer evening; the air was stifling and still. I, Rodney
Stone, attorney-at-law, left my apartment to stroll along Broadway,
seeking a roof garden wherein to spend a few hours of change from the
atmosphere of the pavements, and to kill the ennui that comes to all of
us whom business compels to accept such circumstances.

As I walked down a side street, I noticed ahead of me a colored man rush
out from an apartment house, shouting something that I did not
understand. His actions seemed peculiar for a moment, but a curl of
smoke from one of the third-story windows made known the cause. It was
fire. I found myself among the first to reach the spot. From Broadway a
crowd was coming, such as collects readily under these circumstances. I
was soon mingling with it, watching the police in their endeavors to
rouse the tenants and to spread the alarm on all the floors. The
numerous dwellers were soon rushing out, and I saw several deeds
deserving of mention. As the crowd looked up at the apartment in which
the flames were showing and from which smoke was pouring, a window was
raised--evidently in a separate room--and a young girl appeared standing
at the sill. The effort of raising the sash had been a severe one for
her, for she was not over ten. Looking back into the room, she saw the
smoke filling it, and quickly scrambled out on the window frame. The
engines had not yet arrived, but I could hear them shrieking in the
distance, and we all knew that help was coming.