“I hardly know. The woman stopped me and insisted that I should go somewhere to talk with her. I explained that my time was limited, but that seemed to make no impression on her. When I tried to get away she flung her arms around me and screamed. That brought a crowd together, and then she declared I had assaulted her.”
The policeman on the other side of Frank laughed in ridicule. Although he said nothing, it was plain he took no stock in Frank’s story.
“Larf!” grated Gallup, under his breath. “Yeou think yeou know so gol-darned much that——”
“Hush!” warned Frank. “I do not wish you to get into trouble. You must inform the others what has happened to me.”
“It’s purty gol-darn hard to keep still,” declared Ephraim. “I never see sich a set of natteral born fools in all my life! How many of the craowd saw what happened ’tween yeou an’ the woman?”
“No one, I think.”
“An’ I’ll bet a squash they’ll all go up an’ swear to any kind of a story she’ll tell. Who is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s queer. Wut was her little game?”
“Don’t know that.”