St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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HSATISFYING THOMPSON 31 nothing to make a wish. And perhaps some good fairy will hear me, he added humorously. My two wishes will be these, and may they speedily come true: First of all, I want employment immediatelyg next, I wish to be a hero. I might dispense with the latter, but I'll let it stand. Thompson was now far from the electric sign and enter- ing upon the residential section of the city. Suddenly a loud clanging rings out on the crisp evening air. And with it comes the thunder of galloping horses, the rattle of wheels over the cobbled streets and the shrill cries of the madly pursuing proverbial small boy. Though years of life in the city had deadened his ears to the uproar, Thomp- son feels his blood tingling with the thrill of excitement, as he leaps away in pursuit of the fast disappearing engines. Thicker and thicker grows the crowd, and soon the bril- liance of the flames bursts full upon the view. Another spurt, and Thompson is on the outskirts of the dense mob surrounding the fire line. Aided by football training of college days, he forces his way to the very front of the crowd with naught between him and the fire save the illustrious guardians of the law. On inquiry Thompson learned that the blazing building was owned by Judge Morgan. The house was a fair type of the modern home, a neat, substantial two-story structure. The fire had started in the rear of the first floor, and the entire lower portio-n of the building was a mass of flames. Ever and anon a tongue of flame would leap out of the shattered windows, reach up towards the roof, then dart back into its fiery mouth, leaving behind its blistered touch. The crackle of the wood was lost in the hiss of water as the firemen fruitlessly turned the streams upon it. Within an hour the whole structure would be a charred ruin. Suddenly at an upper window, framed in smoke and

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uimtinfging Efhnmpznif' RANK THOMPSON sank wearily to a bench in the deserted square. The trees, M shorn of their foliage by the winds of Au- jxwgtff, tumn, offered little resistance to the fierce onslaughts of wintry blasts. The cold LJ ' chilled him to the bone, as he hastily but- toned his light overcoat. A frown chased across his fore- head and vanished. His face was frank and open and pos- sessed of a determined look. Thompson fought hardest when the tide of battle turned against him. Scarcely a year previous Thompson had been graduated from college a full-fledged lawyer-a hopeful LL. B. Six months or more of rebuffs had somewhat dampened his ardor, but not a whit dismayed him. Even that afternoon he was returning from a fruitless search for employment. And during this whole period he had grown wiser in the art of approaching irascible lawyers, some met him cor- dially, but none seemed sufficiently impressed by his per- sonality to offer him a position. This, however, caused Thompso-n no great anxiety. He was rapidly becoming hardened. At last the young lawyer arose and walked hurriedly out of the square, whistling a cheerful tune. Darkness was mantling the great city, and already the electric signs, like signs of the Zodiac, were twinkling out their messages. Far overhead a brilliant glare caught his eye, and as he read the words: What Do You Want Most For Christmas? he awoke from his reverie to the happy fact that Christmas was less than two months distant. What do I want most? he mused. Well, it costs

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32 IGNA TIAN flame, appears a little child, forgotten in the mad rush from the burning home. Her face shines ghastly white in the flickering glare of the fire. Half overcome by the dense smoke and terrified by the incessant roar, she holds out her small, white arms to the crowd beneath, and piteously cries to them to save her. A A shudder runs through the mob on the street below. Open-mouthed they gaze upon her, horrified, unable to move a limb. Not so with Thompson 5 in a moment he has determined. With a wild charge he bowls over a burly policeman, clears the slippery sidewalk and flooded lawn, and springs up the swaying stairs to vanish in the seething caldron. With a gasp of horror the crowd watch him, and not one but believes that the daring youth has courted certain destruction. It seemed as if an age had passed before he again ap- peared, silhouetted in the blazing doorway. Bare-headed, coatless, his clothing afire, but in his arms he bore, surely wrapped in his coat, the little child, unharmed. For an in- stant he hesitated, swayed to and fro, then plunged down the steps to the sidewalk below, and fell, overcome by terrible agony. Willing hands beat out the tongues of flame, and bore him to a place of safety. A white-faced mother pressed the rescued child to her throbbing bosom, and shook with sobs of joy. Then only did the tense strain break, and in cheer after cheer did the crowd give vent to pent-up feeling. Suddenly the exultant cries were drowned in the roar of the fire, as the sides of the doomed building crashed in, sending up a shower of brilliant sparks. Like maddened beasts, the flames leapt higher and higher into the black night, and then, as if through sheer exhaustion, sank back wearily to earth. An ambulance drove swiftly up, and in it the un- conscious hero was borne to the hospital. Then the crowd slowly dispersed, and all, save a few, left the blazing ruins