er or a
thousand, for it would have been only part of the general plan to give
the widest scope to Jim's detractors, and to take no part in
counter-plotting any more than she would ally herself with her father's
villainous advisers. The utter absurdity of my joke, I firmly believe,
would have appeared plainly to her had the real danger of the fire not
been apprehended by her intuitions, far keener than she suspected, and
so interpreted to her will as to lead her without fear to the very spot
she was most needed in all the world.

CHAPTER XI

As the coach turned into Eighteenth Street, Gabrielle was prepared to
meet the emergency, for all at once it came upon her that duty had
brought her to the spot. She saw the excitement surrounding the fire and
knew why she was there. The coachman, following her order, drew up to
the curb, so that she might alight. She dismissed him and then pushed
through the crowd, now scattering, to the fire lines, and as she
proceeded she saw the building on our corner had been partly destroyed;
apparently the flames had done the most damage in the upper stories. Her
first question was put to a policeman on guard near the edge of the
crowd:

"Officer, please tell me if there were any persons injured at the fire?"

"Yes, ma'am, two men; they were taken to Bellevue, ma'am."

With a simple word of thanks she turned away. If the officers were then
in pursuit of her Jim, she would find him first and shield him with her
wit as many a woman had done before under like conditions. The
ambulances had gone half an hour before, but she would follow directly
to the hospital and first seek out there the man whose terrible fate was
foretold by her fears. Why had she not kept the coach to take her to
Bellevue? It had been dismissed when she wished to avoid even the
possible testimony of a coachman. Quickly she summoned a cab and a few
minutes later she was in the hospital ready to shield Jim Hosley from
all harm if he were there.

Gabrielle found him unconscious and quickly identified him as her
brother, George Marshall.

"I should like to have him placed in a private room," she said to the
hospital superintendent. "Please have it next to that of his friend, Mr.
Benjamin Hopkins. I want them to have the best care from your physicians
and nurses that may be obtained. There is no sacrifice that I would not
make to save the lives of these brave men who have suffered so
terribly."

Several weeks a