CHAPTER XXV THE HUMAN SPIDER
Strangely enough, as Johnny crept over the railing that hung out over onehundred and fifty feet of empty air, he chanced to think of the black bagbeneath the bed in his room.
"What a numbskull I was to throw it there and not tell anyone about it,"he thought to himself. "I shall probably not get out of this alive. Thebag may stay there for weeks. Then it is likely to be found by the wrongperson. And I am all but certain that it contains evidence which would gofar toward putting Knobs Whittaker behind the bars."
During all this time his friend Mazie, ignorant of the fate of her threefriends, had at first been jostled and pushed by the fear-maddened thronguntil at last she had fought her way out into a little open space whereshe was allowed to pause for breath.
Stationing herself in a secluded spot, she had watched the little dramaplayed by Pant and his two friends. Without knowing who they were, shehad screamed her approval with the others.
Having caught sight of two figures moving about at the top of the tower,and happening to think of her opera glasses, she drew them from herpocket and focussed them upon the top of the tower.
A look of surprise spread over her face as she recognized the topmostman. It was the hook-nosed, stooped figure of the firebug. The glassesdropped from her nerveless fingers as she recognized the other one as herfriend Johnny, who was at this moment crawling over the railing with theapparent intention of leaping to the ground.
"He'll be killed!" she fairly screamed as she closed her eyes to shut outthe sight.
When at last she summoned up enough courage to look again she wasastonished to see, some twenty feet below the balcony where she had lastseen Johnny, a figure that clung to the corner of the tower and appearedby some miracle of skill and strength to be moving downward.
She snatched up her glasses to look again and again came little short ofdropping them the second time. The figure clinging to the corner of thetower was Johnny!
Seldom is it given to man to witness such a human spider act as she wasprivileged to watch during the next five minutes. The chance that Johnnyhad seen was a slim one, yet it was a chance. At regular intervals of afoot, two double rows of incandescent lamps ran down the corner of thetower. The two rows on the south side were four inches apart; those onthe east the same. These lamp sockets protruded for about three inches,and using them as steps to his ladder, Johnny was slowly but surelyclimbing downward. There was great peril in the undertaking. A brokensocket, a sudden slip, and all would be over. Never in all his eventfullife had Johnny undertaken a feat which required so much skill anddaring. Yet, once he had committed himself to the undertaking, there wasno turning back.
By great good fortune, the sockets which held the lamps had been fastenedwith long nails instead of screws. The wood was strong. One by one thesockets supported his weight. Like a bat, gripping with both hands andfeet, he moved cautiously downward. As Mazie watched him she measured thedistance:
"A quarter done, a third, a half, a--but there," she cried, "there's aflame shooting out below him!"
Johnny saw it, too, but there was no turning back. Trusting to goodfortune, he continued steadily downward. Fortune did not desert him; abreath of air sucked the flame back and the next moment he had passed thespot.
Again Mazie resumed her eye measurement. It was a mad thing to do, but itwas all that was left to her.
"Two-thirds of the way; three-quarters. But there's a lower balcony! Howis he to pass that?"
How indeed? This balcony, some six feet in width, left no opportunity toclimb over its rail and down. Some forty feet from the ground, itthreatened to stop the boy's progress and condemn him to a terribledeath.
As Johnny reached this balcony, flames were leaping at him from everyside. Directly before him, however, was a clear space. Through that spacehe caught sight of what at first appeared to be flames, but what provedin the end to be but the reflection of the fire in the pool of water usedby the chute. It was fully forty feet below him.
Johnny's keen brain worked like lightning. One look, and then a racingleap. With arms and figure set for a dive, he shot far out and down.
He disappeared from Mazie's view, nor could she ascertain his fate. To gothere to see would have been sheer madness. Half burned off at thebottom, the two hundred foot tower was already tottering to a fall.
A moment it hung there in space, a second, and yet a third. Having oncemore trained her glass on the top of it, Mazie saw a figure standing uponthe topmost pinnacle. It was the firebug! For twenty seconds he hoveredthere between earth and sky. Then, just as the tower bent to a rakishangle, he toppled over and fell headlong.
"It's as well," she sighed, dropping her glasses and brushing a tear fromher eye. "There can be no pain in such a death. Poor fellow! His brainmust have been addled."
For a time she stood there alone, thinking of many things. Then,realizing that the hour was late and that there was little chance offinding her friends even if they were still alive, she turned her facetoward home.
"If they are still in the land of the living," she told herself, "they'llcome straggling in. A cup of hot cocoa will do them good. I'll have thewater ready."