"That," said Psmith, nodding, "is a very fair _précis_ of the evening's events. We should like you, if you will be so good, to corral this Comrade Repetto, and see that he buys me a new hat." "We'll round Jack up," said one of the policemen indulgently. "Do it nicely," urged Psmith. "Don't go hurting his feelings." The second policeman gave it as his opinion that Jack was getting too gay. The third policeman conceded this. Jack, he said, had shown signs for some time past of asking for it in the neck. It was an error on Jack's part, he gave his hearers to understand, to assume that the lid was completely off the great city of New York. "Too blamed fresh he's gettin'," the trio agreed. They could not have been more disapproving if they had been prefects at Haileybury and Mr. Repetto a first-termer who had been detected in the act of wearing his cap on the back of his head. They seemed to think it was too bad of Jack. "The wrath of the Law," said Psmith, "is very terrible. We will leave the matter, then, in your hands. In the meantime, we should be glad if you would direct us to the nearest Subway station. Just at the moment, the cheerful lights of the Great White Way are what I seem to chiefly need." CHAPTER XVII GUERILLA WARFARE Thus ended the opening engagement of the campaign, seemingly in a victory for the _Cosy Moments_ army. Billy Windsor, however, shook his head. "We've got mighty little out of it," he said. "The victory," said Psmith, "was not bloodless. Comrade Brady's ear, my hat--these are not slight casualties. On the other hand, surely we are one up? Surely we have gained ground? The elimination of Comrade Repetto from the scheme of things in itself is something. I know few men I would not rather meet in a lonely road than Comrade Repetto. He is one of Nature's sand-baggers. Probably the thing crept upon him slowly. He started, possibly, in a merely tentative way by slugging one of the family circle. His nurse, let us say, or his young brother. But, once started, he is unable to resist the craving. The thing grips him like dram-drinking. He sandbags now not because he really wants to, but because he cannot help himself. To me there is something consoling in the thought that Comrade Repetto will no longer be among those present." "What makes you think that?" "I should imagine that a benevolent Law will put him away in his little cell for at least a brief spell." "Not on your life," said Billy. "He'll prove an alibi." Psmith's eyeglass dropped out of his eye. He replaced it, and gazed, astonished, at Billy. "An alibi? When three keen-eyed men actually caught him at it?" "He can find thirty toughs to swear he was five miles away." "And get the court to believe it?" said Psmith.