and blazed with a steady light. Afterwards the
audience would all say again what they had always said about every
great lyric soprano, that it was just a wonderful instrument without a
particle of feeling, that it was an over-grown canary, a human flute,
and all the rest of it; but while the trills ran on the people
listened in wonder and the diamonds were very quiet.

'A-a--A-a--A-a--A-a--' sang Cordova at an inconceivable pitch.

A terrific explosion shook the building to its foundations; the lights
went out, and there was a long grinding crash of broken glass not far
off.

In the momentary silence that followed before the inevitable panic the
voice of Schreiermeyer, the manager, rang out through the darkness.

'Ladies and gentlemen! There's no danger! Keep your seats! The lights
will be up directly.'

And indeed the little red lamps over each door that led out, being on
another circuit, were all burning quietly, but in the first moment of
fright no one noticed them, and the house seemed to be quite dark.

Then the whole mass of humanity began to writhe and swell, as a
frightened crowd does in the dark, so that every one feels as if all
the other people were growing hugely big, as big as elephants, to
smother and crush him; and each man makes himself as broad as he can,
and tries to swell out his chest, and squares his elbows to keep the
weight off his sides; and with the steady strain and effort every one
breathes hard, and few speak, and the hard-drawn breath of thousands
together makes a sound of rushing wind like bellows as enormous as
houses, blowing steadily in the darkness.

'Keep your seats!' yelled Schreiermeyer desperately.

He had been in many accidents, and understood the meaning of the
noises he heard. There was death in them, death for the weak by
squeezing, and smothering, and trampling underfoot. It was a grim
moment, and no one who was there has forgotten it, the manager least
of all.

'It's only a fuse gone!' he shouted. 'Only a plug burnt out!'

But the terrified throng did not believe, and the people pressed upon
each other with the weight of hundreds of bodies, thronging from
behind, towards the little red lights. There were groans now, besides
the strained breathing and the soft shuffling of many feet on the
thick carpets. Each time some one went down there was a groan, stifled
as instantly and surely as though the lips from which it came were
quickly thrust under water.

Schreierm