Part 7 (1/2)

Jimmie mistook the quiet manner for respect and a timid memory of the recent retirement from active service.

He spread his legs, and, with a wink to his companion, he began, with the strident rasp of tone which can seldom be heard above Fourteenth Street and east of Third Avenue.

”Say, bo. Do you recollect gittin' a little present? Well, listen, dere's a Christmas tree of dem presents comin' to you ef ye tries any more of dis stuff. I'm in _right_ in dis district, don't fergit it.

Ye tink's I'm going to de Island? Wipe dat off yer memory, too. W'y, say, I kin git yer b.u.t.tons torn off and yer s.h.i.+eld put in de sc.r.a.p heap by de Commish if I says de woid down on Fourteenth Street, at de bailiwick.”

”I know who was back of the a.s.sault on me, Monk, and let me tell you I'm going to get the man who threw it. Now, you get!”

Burke raised his right hand carelessly to the side of his collar, as he pressed up close to the gangster. The big man at his side came nearer, but as the policeman did not raise his club, which swung idly by its leather thong, to his left wrist, he was as unprepared for what happened as Jimmie.

”Why you----” began the latter, with at least six ornate oaths which out-tarred the vocabulary of any jolly, profane tar who ever swore.

Burke's hand, close to his own shoulder, and not eight inches away from Jimmie's leering jowl, closed into a very hard fist. Before the tough knew what had hit him that nearby fist had sent him reeling into the gutter from a short shoulder jab, which had behind it every ounce of weight in the policeman's swinging body.

Jimmie lay there.

The other man's hand shot to his hip pocket, but the officer's own revolver was out before he could raise the hand again. Army practice came handy to Burke in this juncture.

”Keep your hand where it is,” exclaimed the policeman, ”or you'll get a bullet through it.”

”You dog, I'll get you sent up for this,” muttered the big man.

But with his revolver covering the fellow, Burke quickly ”frisked” the hip pocket and discovered the bulk of a weapon. This was enough.

”I fixed the Monk. Now, you're going up for the Sullivan Law against carrying firearms. You're number one, with me, in settling up this score!” Jimmie had shown signs of awakening from the slumber induced by Burke's st.u.r.dy right hand.

He pulled himself up as Burke marched his man around the corner. The Monk hurried, somewhat unsteadily, to the edge of the fruit stand and looked round it after the two figures.

”Do youse know dat cop, ye d.a.m.n Ginnie?” muttered Jimmie.

”Signor, no!” replied the fruit dealer, nervously. ”I never saw heem on dis beat before to-day, wenna he buy de apple from me.”

Jimmie turned--discretion conquering temporary vengeance, and started in the opposite direction. He stopped long enough to say, as he rubbed his bruised jaw, ”Well, Wop, ye ain't like to see much more of 'im around dis dump neither, an' ye ain't likely to see yerself neither, if ye do too much talkin' wid de cops.”

Jimmie hurried up the street to a certain rendezvous to arrange for a rescue party of some sort. In the meantime Officer 4434 led an unwilling prisoner to the station house, one hand upon the man's right arm. His own right hand gripped his stick firmly.

”You make a wiggle and I'm going to give it to you where I got that brick, only harder,” said Burke, softly.

A crowd of urchins, young men and even a few straggling women followed him with his prisoner. It grew to enormous proportions by the time he had reached the station house.

As they entered the front room Captain Sawyer looked up from his desk, where he had been checking up some reports.

”Ah, what have we this time, Burke?”

”This man is carrying a revolver in his hip pocket,” declared the officer. ”That will take care of him, I suppose.”

Dexter, at the captain's direction, searched the man. The revolver was the first prize. In his pocket was a queer memorandum book. It contained page after page of girls' names, giving only the first name, with some curious words in cipher code after each one. In the same pocket was a long, flat parcel. Dexter handed it to the captain who opened it gingerly. Inside the officer found at least twenty-five small packets, all wrapped in white paper. He opened two of these.

They contained a flaky, white powder.

The man looked down as Sawyer gave him a shrewd glance.