heard. The tense thread of human resolution snapped; wills and
nerves broke down, and a hundred women suspended their irons or
dropped them. It was Mary who had screamed so terribly, and Saxon
saw a strange black animal flapping great claw-like wings and
nestling on Mary's shoulder. With the scream, Mary crouched down,
and the strange creature, darting into the air, fluttered full
into the startled face of a woman at the next board. This woman
promptly screamed and fainted. Into the air again, the flying
thing darted hither and thither, while the shrieking, shrinking
women threw up their arms, tried to run away along the aisles, or
cowered under their ironing boards.

"It's only a bat!" the forewoman shouted. She was furious. "Ain't
you ever seen a bat? It won't eat you!"

But they were ghetto people, and were not to be quieted. Some
woman who could not see the cause of the uproar, out of her
overwrought apprehension raised the cry of fire and precipitated
the panic rush for the doors. All of them were screaming the
stupid, soul-sickening high note of terror, drowning the
forewoman's voice. Saxon had been merely startled at first, but
the screaming panic broke her grip on herself and swept her away.
Though she did not scream, she fled with the rest. When this
horde of crazed women debouched on the next department, those who
worked there joined in the stampede to escape from they knew not
what danger. In ten minutes the laundry was deserted, save for a
few men wandering about with hand grenades in futile search for
the cause of the disturbance.

The forewoman was stout, but indomitable. Swept along half the