[Itopengame-main] es. "Oh yes; come, sav

[Delles D. <sq...@gp...>]

 have laid down my life for her, but I had to stand idle, and see
her rush to fling her life away.
And all because I had not happened to have
the mere formality of an introduction." [Illustration: "I SAW HER TURN
AND WAVE HER HAND IN TRIUMPH."] "Well, you know,

I stood there waiting for the denouement. Now it happened
that, as the child-angel went up, a brisk breeze had started, which
blew away all the smoke, so that she went along for some distance
without any apparent inconvenience.
I saw her reach the top; I saw her turn and wave her hand in triumph.
Then
I saw her rush forward quickly and nimbly
straight toward the
crater. She seemed to go down into it. And
then the wind changed or died away, or both, for there came a vast
cloud of rolling smoke, black, cruel, suffocating; and the mountain
crest and the child-angel were snatched
from my sight. "I was roused by a shriek from Ethel. I saw her rush up
the slope, and struggle in a vain endeavor to save her friend. But
before she had taken a dozen steps down came the rolling smoke, black,
wrathful, and sulphurous; and I saw her crouch down and stagger back,
and finally emerge pale as death, and gasping for br