Traffic in Souls: A Novel of Crime and Its CureBall, Eustace Hale
General
Traffic in Souls: A Novel of Crime and Its Cure
Ball, Eustace Hale
Crime -- Fiction
Burke clambered down and tried to lift the wounded man.
"Get up here!" he commanded.
"Oh, dey didn't get ye, after all!" cried Jimmie, recognizing his
voice. He sank his teeth in the hand which was stretched forth to help
him. Burke swung his left hand, still numb from the black-jack blow on
his shoulder, and caught the ruffian's nose and forehead. A vigorous
pull drew the fellow's teeth loose with a jerk.
"Well, you dog!" grunted the policeman, as he dragged the gangster to
the street level. "You'll have iron bars to bite before many hours,
and then the electric chair!"
Jimmie's nerve went back on him.
"Oh, Gaud! Dey can't do dat! I didn't do it. I wasn't dere!"
Burke said nothing, but holding the man down to the pavement with a
knee on his back, he whistled for the patrol wagon.
The prisoners were soon arraigned, Shultberger, Jimmie the Monk and the
first gangster were sent to the hospital shortly after under guard.
The second runner, who had been caught by White, was searched, and by
comparison of the weapons and the empty chambers of each one the police
deduced that it was he who had fired the shots which killed Maguire.
The entire band, including the saloon-keeper, were equally guilty
before the law, and their trial and sentencing to pay the penalty were
assured.
But back in the station house, late that night, the thought of
punishment brought little consolation to a heart-broken corps of
policemen.
Big, husky men sobbed like women. Death on duty was no stranger in
their lives; but the loss of rollicking, generous Maguire was a bitter
shock just the same.
And next morning, as Burke read the papers, after a wretched, sleepless
night, he saw the customary fifteen line article, headed: "ANOTHER
POLICEMAN MURDERED BY GANGSTERS." Five million fellow New Yorkers
doubtless saw the brief story as well, and passed it by to read the
baseball gossip, the divorce news, or the stock quotations--without a
fleeting thought of regret.
It was just the same old story, you know.
Had it been the story of a political boss's beer-party to the bums of
his ward; had it been an account of Mrs. Van Astorbilt's elopement with
a plumber; had it been the life-story of a shooting show girl; had it
been the description of the latest style in slit skirts; had it been a
sarcastic message from some drunken, over-rated city official; had it
been a sympathy-squad description of the hardships and soul-beauties of
a millionaire murderer it would have met with close attention.
But what is so stale as the oft-told, ever-old yarn of a policeman's
death?
"What do we pay them for?"
CHAPTER XIII
LORNA'S QUEST FOR PLEASURE
In the same morning papers Burke saw lengthy notices of the engagement
of Miss Sylvia Trubus, only child of William Trubus, the famous
philanthropist, to Ralph Gresham, the millionaire manufacturer of
electrical machinery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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