Over the wire, Forbes's voice came in a broken cry. Breil's men had arrived on time, and the strikers were waiting for them. There was a pitched battle in the street. The few policemen on duty disappeared. The strike-breakers fled into the factory, where two of them now lay dangerously wounded and a dozen others were badly cut and bruised.
"Why didn't you telephone sooner?" Forbes demanded. "It's awful! I sent for doctors and nurses. I've been trying everywhere to get you. There's one man—I couldn't find you anywhere—I don't know——"
Luke gritted his teeth.
"Haven't you 'phoned for more police?" he asked.
"Of course I have; but the Commissioner said it wasn't anything but a street-fight."
"Then I'll try the Mayor."
"I have done that, Huber."
"What did he say?"
"He said—you would hardly believe it—he said that these matters were the Commissioner's business."
§7. Luke went himself to the Commissioner and the Mayor, and was given the answers that Forbes had been given. The Commissioner said that he had the reports of his patrolmen, and that these spoke of the matter as trivial when it happened and described it as now ended. In the Mayor's office he was told: