As everybody had fled from their own homes and
shops to the church, this fire was not noticed until it had made headway.
Then it was that the cries of Madame Thibadeau, who was confined to her
bed in the house opposite, were heard, and the crowd poured down towards
the burning building. It was Gautry's "caboose." Gautry himself had been
among the crowd at the church.
As Gautry came reeling and plunging down the street, someone shouted, "Is
there anyone in the house, Gautry?"
Gautry was speechless with drink. He threw his hands up in the air with a
gesture of maudlin despair, and shouted something which no one
understood. The crowd gathered like magic in the wide street before the
house--the one wide street in Manitou--from the roof and upper windows of
which flames were bursting. Far up the street was heard the noisy
approach of the fire-engine, which now would be able to do little more
than save adjoining buildings. Gautry, reeling, mumbling and whining,
gestured and wept.
A man shook him roughly by the shoulder. "Brace up, get steady, you
damned old geezer! Is there any body in the house? Do you hear? Is there
anybody in the house?" he roared.
Madame Thibadeau, who had dragged herself from her bed, was now at the
window of the house opposite.
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