“In case he needs anything,” said Winthrop, and gave several bills to the soiled person, upon whom immediately Gaylor’s other friends closed in. “And I’ll send my own doctor at once to attend to him.”
“You’d better,” said the soiled person morosely, “or he’ll try to shake you down.”
The opinions as to what might be Mr. Gaylor’s next move seemed unanimous.
From the saloon below, Winthrop telephoned to the family doctor, and then rejoined Miss Forbes and the police officer. The officer gave him the names of those citizens who had witnessed the accident, and in return received Winthrop’s card.
“Not that it will go any further,” said the officer reassuringly. “They’re all saying you acted all right and wanted to take him to Roosevelt. There’s many,” he added with sententious indignation, “that knock a man down, and then run away without waiting to find out if they’ve hurted ’em or killed ’em.”
The speech for both Winthrop and Miss Forbes was equally embarrassing.
“You don’t say?” exclaimed Winthrop nervously. He shook the policeman’s hand. The handclasp was apparently satisfactory to that official, for he murmured “Thank you,” and stuck something in the lining of his helmet. “Now, then!” Winthrop said briskly to Miss Forbes, “I think we have done all we can. And we’ll get away from this place a little faster than the law allows.”
Miss Forbes had seated herself in the car, and Winthrop was cranking up, when the same policeman, wearing an anxious countenance, touched him on the arm. “There is a gentleman here,” he said, “wants to speak to you.” He placed himself between the gentleman and Winthrop and whispered: “He’s ‘Izzy’ Schwab, he’s a Harlem police-court lawyer and a Tammany man. He’s after something, look out for him.”
Winthrop saw, smiling at him ingratiatingly, a slight, slim youth, with beady, rat-like eyes, a low forehead, and a Hebraic nose. He wondered how it had been possible for Jerry Gaylor to so quickly secure counsel. But Mr. Schwab at once undeceived him.
“I’m from The Journal,” he began, “not regular on the staff, but I send ’em Harlem items, and the court reporter treats me nice, see! Now about this accident; could you give me the name of the young lady?”