"Stand back! stand back! They're my friends!"
"Gott in Himmel!" gurgled a German. "Did not they you attackt? Dit ve not see them py our eyes as they didid it?"
"I tell you they're my friends," persisted Carker.
"They hit-a you! They grab-a you!" shouted an Italian. "They stop-a you from making the speech!"
"It's all right," persisted the young socialist. "I had finished my speech. I tell you to keep back! Stand off! The man who touches them is not friendly toward me. He's not friendly toward socialism."
"Vale," said the German, "uf you put it to us up dot vay, it vill a settlement make."
Then he turned and faced the crowd, pushing many of them back with his pudgy hands as he shouted:
"Stood avay nearer off! Don't push up so far close! Dit you not hear our prother say they vas his friendts alretty?"
The excitement of the crowd rapidly subsided. Carker spoke to them calmly, explaining that the two young men who had brought his speech to such a sudden termination were his bosom comrades of old times, even thought they might not be thoroughbred socialists.
"Where the dickens did you two boys come from?" he finally demanded, as he once more turned toward Ephraim and Barney, grasping their hands. "Oh, it's good to see you again, fellows!"