"Put him to bed till he sleeps it off," he ordered; he swung himself to
the step of the ambulance. "Let him out, Steve," he called. There was
the clang of a gong and the rattle of galloping hoofs.
The police officer approached Winthrop. "They tell me Jerry stepped in
front of your car; that you wasn't to blame. I'll get their names and
where they live. Jerry might try to hold you up for damages."
"Thank you very much," said Winthrop.
With several of Jerry's friends, and the soiled person, who now seemed
dissatisfied that Jerry was alive, Winthrop helped to carry him up one
flight of stairs and drop him upon a bed.
"In case he needs anything," said Winthrop, and gave several bills to
the soiled person, upon whom immediately Gaylor's other friends closed
in. "And I'll send my own doctor at once to attend to him."
"You'd better," said the soiled person morosely, "or, he'll try to
shake you down."
The opinions as to what might be Mr. Gaylor's next move seemed
unanimous.
From the saloon below, Winthrop telephoned to the family doctor, and
then rejoined Miss Forbes and the Police officer. The officer gave him
the names of those citizens who had witnessed the accident, and in
return received Winthrop's card.
"Not that it will go any further," said the officer reassuringly.
"They're all saying you acted all right and wanted to take him to
Roosevelt. There's many," he added with sententious indignation, "that
knock a man down, and then run away without waiting to find out if
they've hurted 'em or killed 'em."
The speech for both Winthrop and Miss Forbes was equally embarrassing.
"You don't say?" exclaimed Winthrop nervously. He shook the
policeman's hand. The handclasp was apparently satisfactory to that
official, for he murmured "Thank you," and stuck something in the
lining of his helmet. "Now, then!" Winthrop said briskly to Miss
Forbes, "I think we have done all we can. And we'll get away from this
place a little faster than the law allows."
Miss Forbes had seated herself in the car, and Winthrop was cranking
up, when the same policeman, wearing an anxious countenance, touched
him on the arm. "There is a gentleman here," he said, "wants to speak
to you." He placed himself between the gentleman and Winthrop and
whispered: "He's 'Izzy' Schwab, he's a Harlem police-court lawyer and
a Tammany man. He's after something, look out for him."
Winthrop saw, smiling at him ingratiatingly, a slight, slim youth, with
beady, rat-like eyes, a low forehead, and a Hebraic nose. He wondered
how it had been possible for Jerry Gaylor to so quickly secure counsel.
But Mr. Schwab at once undeceived him.
"I'm from the Journal," he began, "not regular on the staff, but I send
'em Harlem items, and the court reporter treats me nice, see! Now
about this accident; could you give me the name of the young lady?"
He smiled encouragingly at Miss Forbes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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