Freddie Drummond sat in the auto, quite composed, alongside Catherine Van
Vorst; but looking out of Freddie Drummond’s eyes was Bill Totts, and
somewhere behind those eyes, battling for the control of their mutual
body, were Freddie Drummond the sane and conservative sociologist, and
Bill Totts, the class-conscious and bellicose union working man. It was
Bill Totts, looking out of those eyes, who saw the inevitable end of the
battle on the coal waggon. He saw a policeman gain the top of the load,
a second, and a third. They lurched clumsily on the loose footing, but
their long riot-clubs were out and swinging. One blow caught the
teamster on the head. A second he dodged, receiving it on the shoulder.
For him the game was plainly up. He dashed in suddenly, clutched two
policemen in his arms, and hurled himself a prisoner to the pavement, his
hold never relaxing on his two captors.
Catherine Van Vorst was sick and faint at sight of the blood and brutal
fighting. But her qualms were vanquished by the sensational and most
unexpected happening that followed. The man beside her emitted an
unearthly and uncultured yell and rose to his feet. She saw him spring
over the front seat, leap to the broad rump of the wheeler, and from
there gain the waggon. His onslaught was like a whirlwind. Before the
bewildered officer on the load could guess the errand of this
conventionally clad but excited-seeming gentleman, he was the recipient
of a punch that arched him back through the air to the pavement. A kick
in the face led an ascending policeman to follow his example. A rush of
three more gained the top and locked with Bill Totts in a gigantic
clinch, during which his scalp was opened up by a club, and coat, vest,
and half his starched shirt were torn from him. But the three policemen
were flung far and wide, and Bill Totts, raining down lumps of coal, held
the fort.
The captain led gallantly to the attack, but was bowled over by a chunk
of coal that burst on his head in black baptism. The need of the police
was to break the blockade in front before the mob could break in at the
rear, and Bill Totts’ need was to hold the waggon till the mob did break
through. So the battle of the coal went on.
The crowd had recognized its champion. “Big” Bill, as usual, had come to
the front, and Catherine Van Vorst was bewildered by the cries of “Bill!
O you Bill!” that arose on every hand. Pat Morrissey, on his waggon
seat, was jumping and screaming in an ecstasy, “Eat ’em, Bill! Eat ’em!
Eat ’em alive!” From the sidewalk she heard a woman’s voice cry out,
“Look out, Bill—front end!” Bill took the warning and with well-directed
coal cleared the front end of the waggon of assailants. Catherine Van
Vorst turned her head and saw on the curb of the sidewalk a woman with
vivid colouring and flashing black eyes who was staring with all her soul
at the man who had been Freddie Drummond a few minutes before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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