Part 6 (1/2)

The footman had jumped from his seat, and had the door open, and the great man began to alight. At that moment the mob set up a howl.

”For shame! For shame! Unfair! Don't go in there! They starve their workers! They're taking the bread out of our mouths! Scabs! Scabs!”

I got out second, and saw a spectacle of haggard faces, shouting menaces and pleadings; I saw hands waved wildly, one or two fists clenched; I saw the police, shoving against the ma.s.s, poking with their sticks, none too gently. A poor devil in a waiter's costume stretched out his arms to me, yelling in a foreign dialect: ”You take de food from my babies!” The next moment the club of a policeman came down on his head, crack. I heard Mary scream behind me, and I turned, just in the nick of time. Carpenter was leaping toward the policeman, crying, ”Stop!”

There was no chance to parley in this emergency. I grabbed Carpenter in a foot-ball tackle. I got one arm pinned to his side, and Mary, good old scout, got the other as quickly. She is a bit of an athlete--has to keep in training for those hoochie-coochies and things she does, when she wins the love of emperors and sultans and such-like world-conquerors. Also, when we got hold of Carpenter, we discovered that he wasn't much but skin and bones anyhow. We fairly lifted him up and rushed him into the restaurant; and after the first moment he stopped resisting, and let us lead him between the aisles of diners, on the heels of the toddling T-S. There was a table reserved, in an alcove, and we brought him to it, and then waited to see what we had done.

XIV

Carpenter turned to me-and those sad but everchangjng eyes were flas.h.i.+ng. ”You have taken a great liberty!”

”There wasn't any time to argue,” I said. ”If you knew what I know about the police of Western City and their manners, you wouldn't want to monkey with them.”

Mary backed me up earnestly. ”They'd have mashed your face, Mr.

Carpenter.”

”My face?” he repeated. ”Is not a man more than his face?”

You should have heard the shout of T-S! ”Vot? Ain't I shoost offered you five hunded dollars a veek fer dat face, and you vant to go git it smashed? And fer a lot o' lousy b.u.ms dat vont vork for honest vages, and vont let n.o.body else vork! Honest to Gawd, Mr. Carpenter, I tell you some stories about strikes vot we had on our own lot--you vouldn't spoil your face for such lousy sons-o'-guns--”

”Ssh, Abey, don't use such langwich, you should to be shamed of yourself!” It was Maw, guardian of the proprieties, who had been extracted from the car by the footman, and helped to the table.

”Vell, Mr. Carpenter, he dunno vot dem fellers is like--”

”Sit down, Abey!” commanded the old lady. ”Ve ain't ordered no stump speeches fer our dinner.”

We seated ourselves. And Carpenter turned his dark eyes on me. ”I observe that you have many kinds of mobs in your city,” he remarked.

”And the police do interfere with some of them.”

”My Gawd!” cried T-S. ”You gonna have a lot o' b.u.ms jumpin' on people ven dey try to git to dinner?”

Said Carpenter: ”Mr. Rosythe said that the police would not work unless they were paid. May I ask, who pays them to work here? Is it the proprietor of the restaurant?”

”Vell,” cried T-S, ”ain't he gotta take care of his place?”

”As a matter of fact,” said I, laughing, ”from what I read in the 'Times' this morning, I gather that an old friend of Mr. Carpenter's has been paying in this case.”

Carpenter looked at me inquiringly.

”Mr. Algernon de Wiggs, president of the Chamber of Commerce, issued a statement denouncing the way the police were letting mobs of strikers interfere with business, and proposing that the Chamber take steps to stop it. You remember de Wiggs, and how we left him?”

”Yes, I remember,” said Carpenter; and we exchanged a smile over that trick we had played.

I could see T-S p.r.i.c.k forward his ears. ”Vot? You know de Viggs?”

”Mr. Carpenter possesses an acquaintance with our best society which will astonish you when you realize it.”

”Vy didn't you tell me dat?” demanded the other; and I could complete the sentence for him: ”Somebody has offered him more money!”