“Wilton must have his pay, too––he needs every cent of it to-morrow.
“‘You go on. I’ll stay here and settle this matter and go home by the trolley.’
“‘Let’s stick together,’ my young friend entreats. ‘Please hurry it through and come on with me. I need you.’
“Harry must have company. His time is wasted unless he has a spectator––an audience––a witness––a historian. Without that, all his hair-breadth escapes would be thrown away. His stories would hang by a thread.
“‘We’ve only twenty-one minutes,’ he calls.
“I say to myself: ‘Damn the man whose money is like water and whose time is more precious than the last hour of Mahomet.’ Well, of course, there was plenty of money, but the supply of time was limited. To waste a second was to lose an opportunity for self-indulgence.
“I draw a check and take a hurried receipt and jump in.
“Away we go. ‘Look out!’
“The brakes grind, and we rise in the air a little as a small boy crosses our bows. We just missed him––thank God!