Tin-types taken in the streets of New York : $b a series of stories and sketches portraying many singular phases of metropolitan lifeQuigg, Lemuel Ely
General
Tin-types taken in the streets of New York : $b a series of stories and sketches portraying many singular phases of metropolitan life
Quigg, Lemuel Ely
New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"I am an orderly, sir, if you please, at the Bellevue Hospital. A man
was brought there, this evening, sir, pretty well done up by a runaway.
After he'd been fixed a bit he asked me for his coat, and when I fetched
it he took out this bundle of papers and put them under his pillow. The
doctors didn't bother him much, for they saw he was a goner, and when
he asked if he could live they told him no. He didn't say no more, but
when we was alone he asked me to take out the papers from under his
pillow. I did it, and he asked me if he died to fetch them here and give
them to you in your own hands, and said you'd give me ten dollars for my
trouble. So as soon as I was off duty I fetched 'em, and here they are,
sir."
"Yes," said Mr. Maddledock, adjusting his eyeglasses and examining them
slowly one by one. "Yes. They appear to be all here. Ten dollars, did he
say? Well, here it is. Good-night."
"Good-night, sir."
"And the man? Wait a bit. What became of him?"
"Oh, he's dead, sir. The horse done him up. He's dead and in the Morgue
by this time. Good-night."
The orderly went out, and Mr. Maddledock stood quietly with the bundle
of papers in his hands until he heard the click of the vestibule door.
Then he struck a match and fired them one by one, watching each until it
was entirely consumed.
"In the Morgue," he said, as the last pale flame flickered and died
away. "Well, that's the best place for him. There's no doubt in my
mind, not the least, but that that amiable horse saved me from being the
central figure in a murder trial. What an odd world it is, to be sure!"
XI.
MR. WRANGLER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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