only sufficient to cause a temporary alarm. On the afternoon of the 25th
came another and severer one, strong enough to shake down some tottering
walls and add another to the list of victims. This was a woman named
Annie Whitaker, who was at work in the kitchen of her home at the time.
The chimney, which had been weakened by the great shock, now fell,
crashing through the roof and fracturing her skull. Thus the earth
powers claimed a final human sacrifice before their dread visitation
ended.



CHAPTER II.

The Demon of Fire Invades the Stricken City.


The terrors of the earthquake are momentary. One fierce, levelling shock
and usually all is over. The torment within the earth has passed on and
the awakened forces of the earth's crust sink into rest again, after
having shaken the surface for many leagues. Rarely does the dread agent
of ruin leave behind it such a terrible follower to complete its work
as was the case in the doomed city of San Francisco. All seemed to lead
towards such a carnival of ruin as the earth has rarely seen. The demon
of fire followed close upon the heels of the unseen fiend of the earth's
hidden caverns, and ran red-handed through the metropolis of the West,
kindling a thousand unhurt buildings, while the horror-stricken people
stood aghast in terror, as helpless to combat this new enemy as they
were to check the ravages of the earthquake itself.

Why not quench the fire at its start with water? Alas! there was no