City and town life -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
He was down on the ground again, groveling. His efforts had failed.
Tembarom, overwrought himself, caught at him and dragged him up.
“Make a fight,” he said. “You can't lie down like that. You've got to
put up a fight. It'll come back. I tell you it will. You've had a clip
on the head or something. Let me call an ambulance and take you to the
hospital.”
The next moment he was sorry he had said the words, the man's terror was
so ill to behold. He grew livid with it, and uttered a low animal cry.
“Don't drop dead over it,” said Tembarom, rather losing his head. “I
won't do it, though what in thunder I'm going to do with you I don't
know. You can't stay here.”
“For God's sake!” said the man. “For God's sake!” He put his shaking
hand on Tembarom again, and looked at him with a bewildered scrutiny.
“I'm not afraid of you,” he said; “I don't know why. There's something
all right about you. If you'll stand by me--you'd stand by a man, I'd
swear. Take me somewhere quiet. Let me get warm and think.”
“The less you think now the better,” answered Tembarom. “You want a bed
and a bath and a night's rest. I guess I've let myself in for it. You
brush off and brace yourself and come with me.”
There was the hall bedroom and the red-cotton comfort for one night
at least, and Mrs. Bowse was a soft-hearted woman. If she'd heard the
fellow sobbing behind the fence, she'd have been in a worse fix than he
was. Women were kinder-hearted than men, anyhow. The way the fellow's
voice sounded when he said, “Help me, help me, help me!” sounded as
though he was in hell. “Made me feel as if I was bracing up a chap that
was going to be electrocuted,” he thought, feeling sickish again. “I've
not got backbone enough to face that sort of thing. Got to take him
somewhere.”
They were walking toward the “L” together, and he was wondering what he
should say to Mrs. Bowse when he saw his companion fumbling under his
coat at the back as though he was in search of something. His hands
being unsteady, it took him some moments to get at what he wanted.
He evidently had a belt or a hidden pocket. He got something out and
stopped under a street light to show it to Tembarom. His hands still
shook when he held them out, and his look was a curious, puzzled,
questioning one. What he passed over to Tembarom was a roll of
money. Tembarom rather lost his breath as he saw the number on two
five-hundred-dollar bills, and of several hundreds, besides twenties,
tens, and fives.
“Take it--keep it,” he said. “It will pay.”
“Hully gee!” cried Tembarom, aghast. “Don't go giving away your whole
pile to the first fellow you meet. I don't want it.”
“Take it.” The stranger put his hand on his shoulder, the abject look in
his eyes harrowingly like the starved dog's again.
“There's something all right about you. You'll help me.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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