And then Sidney Prale sprang straight forward, and grasped the body of the other as it was in mid-air.
"No, you don't!" Prale exclaimed.
He found immediately that he had a fight on his hands. The other whirled and began kicking and striking. Sidney Prale hurled him backward, rushed, caught him up again in a better hold, threw him back against the building, and held him there, breathless and panting.
"Another smash out of you, and I'll drop you into the river myself!" Prale said. "Suppose you take time to get your breath now."
"I—I thought you was a cop."
"Afraid of the cops?"
"It's against the law to—to try to commit suicide."
"So I understand," said Prale. "Well, I am not a cop. Trying to drown yourself, were you? Why?"
"Why not?" the other asked. "I'm done with livin'."
"Not just yet, but you would have been if I hadn't been sitting here."