Then he fell asleep, to dream that he had been captured by the men on the floor below, who were about to cast him into a fiery furnace for spying on them. He thought they grasped him by his head and his heels and were swinging him to cast him into the flames, when he woke up to find his mother shaking him and saying:
“Come, come, Larry. It’s almost breakfast time. You’ve overslept yourself.”
He got up with a jump and began dressing, glad enough that he was not going to be burned to death. He ate his breakfast in a hurry and had to run downstairs and halfway to the car, for fear of being behindhand.
However, he reached the office just in time. He had to put in another busy day. In the afternoon he was sent to a hall uptown, where a meeting was in progress and where one of the Leader reporters was on an assignment. Larry had to bring back some copy, but as the meeting was not very important only one trip was necessary.
The car Larry rode on in coming back to the office was quite crowded, and he stood on the rear platform. Near him were several rather flashily dressed young men, who were laughing and joking in loud tones. Occasionally they would playfully shove one another.
At first Larry paid no attention to them, but finally he noticed that the young men seemed to be directing their attentions to an elderly gentleman who stood in the corner, smoking a cigar. He was well dressed, and his vest was adorned with a heavy gold watch chain.
Suddenly one of the young men gave his companion such a hard push as to send him violently against the elderly gentleman. The latter’s face flushed.
“Can’t you chaps stand up straight?” he demanded.
The one who had collided with him seemed to be unable to regain his balance for a moment, and leaned heavily against the old man. Finally, however, he straightened up. Then, turning to the elderly gentleman, and making a bow as he removed his hat he said:
“I humbly beg your pardon, sir. I was not aware that I had hurt you. It was my companion’s fault. I am sure he’ll apologize also.”