Here and there fire broke out. Men on bicycles brought in the alarms;
then, as twilight thickened, men on foot. Chief Croker promptly
established lookouts in all the tall towers, as watchmen used a hundred
years ago to watch the night.
And, up-town, Smith cursed the necessity of reading his evening paper by
candle-light; and Mary, the cook, grumbled because she could not telephone
the grocery for some forgotten ingredient; and Jones' dinner party was
very hilarious over the joke on their host; and men swore and their wives
worried because they had perforce to be very late to dinner.
At eight o'clock, two hours after the inception of the curious phenomena,
the condition suddenly passed. The intimation came to the various parts of
the city in different ways. Strangely enough, only gradually did the
lights and transportation facilities resume their functions. Most of the
dynamos were being inspected by puzzled experts. Here and there the
blazing of a group of lights, the ringing of a bell, the response of a
volt or ammeter to test, hinted to the masters of the lightnings that
their rebellious steeds again answered the bit.
Within a half-hour the city's illuminations again reflected softly from
the haze of the autumn sky; the clang of the merry trolley, the wail of
the motor's siren again smote the air.
Malachi McCarthy, having caught a ride on a friendly dray, arrived home.
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