Arrived within a hundred feet of 10th Avenue, I felt all my powers failing, and at every step expected to fall to the ground, perhaps dead, as I had some valvular disease of the heart. If I fell westward of 10th Avenue, where there would be no possibility of witnesses, I feared the ruffians would beat me to death in their anger at my causing them this hard chase. I hoped to hold out until I could throw myself on the mercy of pedestrians whom I expected to encounter on 10th Avenue, a street lined with a poor class of tenement houses. I reached that avenue and ran north half a block until I overtook a company of four smartly dressed young men. I now stopped running, walked along directly in front of them, and believed my pursuers would withdraw. But the latter seized me violently, and I appealed to the four spectators: “Won’t you please keep these fellows from touching me? They are thieves, and were trying to beat and rob me.” “What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” “Wait till I kin git my breath and I’ll tell you.” “They are thieves and I was running away from them. They are blackmailers, that’s all they are. A few days ago on Broadway they got some money out of me, and now are trying it again.” “He is a c——. I found him down on 26th Street wid this young feller.” “I didn’t do anything of the kind to him. They are just trying to blackmail me.” “All they want is money. Just hand out four or five dollars and they’ll let you alone. It is worth that to you to get out of this scrape.” [Sidenote: _Wishing to Be Arrested._] “But I haven’t done anything why I should pay them money, and I haven’t that much money with me.” “You’ve admitted they are blackmailing you, so you must have done something pretty bad. We will leave you in their hands to take you to the police station. You ought to be locked up and have this cannibalism of yourn taken out of you.” “Please do me the favor not to leave me alone with them. They will kill me on the way. Please go along to the police station.” They all agreed to do so. But the more I saw of the character of the four smartly dressed young men, who were between twenty and twenty-five years of age, the more did I fear them, and I hoped we might encounter a policeman, so that I might voluntarily surrender myself to the toils of the law, as I expected to be killed by this party. But I have learned by experience that a policeman can never be found when needed most. Some civilian pedestrians were met, but I was afraid of the consequences of appealing to them.