THE BOMB
Archie out into the other room and tensely. He was not a naturally man, but he did at this point that Fate was on him with a severity.
“In th’ name av th’ Law!”
There are times when the best of us our heads. At this Archie should have gone to the door, opened it, his presence in a well-chosen words, and have passed the whole thing off with tact. But the of a of police in his present him to look about him for a hiding-place.
Up against the was a with a high, back, which might have been put there for that special purpose. He himself this, just as a crash that the Law, having gone through the of with its knuckles, was now with an axe. A moment later the door had way, and the room was full of feet. Archie himself against the with the of a in its shell, and for the best.
It to him that his for or for on the native of the Force. If they were the bright, men he they were, they would see all that in the and, from it that their had not upon the order of his going but had it, would not waste time in a empty apartment. If, on the other hand, they were the obtuse, flat-footed who occasionally their way into the ranks of the most constabularies, they would shift the and him into a from which his shrank. He was enchanted, therefore, a moments later, to a voice that th’ had it th’ fire-escape. His opinion of the of the New York police rose with a bound.
There a of war, which, as it took place in the bedroom, was to Archie as a noise. He no words, but, as it was succeeded by a of large in the direction of the door and then by silence, he that the pack, having the studio and it empty, had to return to other and more duties. He gave them a for themselves, and then his over the settee.
All was peace. The place was empty. No the stillness.
Archie emerged. For the time in this of he to that God was in his and all right with the world. At last were to up a bit, and life might be said to have taken on some of the of a good egg. He himself, for it is work under settees, and, to the bedroom, up the again.
Clothes had a for Archie. Another man, in circumstances, might have over his toilet; but Archie, by a difficult choice of ties, the thing out. He a which did great to the taste of Mr. Moon, one of our dressers, that it did not with the meaning of the suit, it, another, and was the and the effect, when his attention was by a which was a and a sniff; and, turning, himself into the clear of a large man in uniform, who had into the room from the fire-escape. He was a in a of way, and he looked at Archie with a total of bonhomie.
“Ah!” he observed.
“Oh, there you are!” said Archie, against the of drawers. He gulped. “Of course, I can see you’re all this and all that,” he proceeded, in a voice.
The no analysis of his emotions, He opened a mouth which a moment had looked of being opened with the of powerful machinery, and a single word.
“Cassidy!”
A voice gave in answer. It was like to their across swamps.
There was a of in the region of the stairs, and presently there entered an larger of the Law than the exhibit. He, too, a club, and, like his colleague, he at Archie.
“God save Ireland!” he remarked.
The appeared to be more in the nature of an than a practical on the situation. Having them, he himself in the like a colossus, and gum.
“Where ja him?” he enquired, after a pause.
“Found him in here to himself.”
“I told Cap. he was somewheres, but he would have it that he’d it th’ escape,” said the gum-chewer, with the of the has been by those above him. He his (or, as some say, unwholesome) to the other of his mouth, and for the time Archie directly. “Ye’re pinched!” he observed.
Archie started violently. The of the speech him with a from the dream-like into which he had fallen. He had not this. He had that there would be a period of to be gone through he was at to to the little for which his had been this long time past; but that he should be had been his calculations. Of course, he put right eventually; he call to his and the purity of his intentions; but in the meantime the whole would be in all the papers, with all those to which your newspaper is so to when he sees a chance. He would a chump. Chappies would him about it to the most extent. Old Brewster’s name would come into it, and he not it from himself that his father-in-law, who liked his name in the papers as little as possible, would be than a neck.
“No, I say, you know! I mean, I to say!”
“Pinched!” the larger policeman.
“And ye say,” added his smaller colleague, “will be used ya ’t the trial.”
“And if ya try t’escape,” said the speaker, his club, “ya’ll off.”
And, having sketched out this clear and neatly-constructed scenario, the two into silence. Officer Cassidy his to circulation. Officer Donahue at his boots.
“But, I say,” said Archie, “it’s all a mistake, you know. Absolutely a error, my dear old constables. I’m not the you’re after at all. The you want is a different of altogether. Another entirely.”
New York laugh when on duty. There is something in the against it. But Officer Donahue permitted the left of his mouth to slightly, and a the of Officer Cassidy’s features, as a the surface of some lake.
“That’s what they all say!” Officer Donahue.
“It’s no use tryin’ that line of talk,” said Officer Cassidy. “Babcock’s squealed.”
“Sure. Squealed ’s morning,” said Officer Donahue.
Archie’s memory vaguely.
“Babcock?” he said. “Do you know, that name familiar to me, somehow. I’m almost sure I’ve read it in the paper or something.”
“Ah, cut it out!” said Officer Cassidy, disgustedly. The two a of disapproval. This them. “Read it in th’ paper or something!”
“By Jove! I now. He’s the who was in that business. For goodness’ sake, my dear, old constables,” said Archie, astounded, “you surely aren’t under the that I’m the Master-Mind they were talking about in the paper? Why, what an notion! I to say, I ask you, what! Frankly, laddies, do I look like a Master-Mind?”
Officer Cassidy a sigh, which up from his like the of a cyclone.
“If I’d known,” he said, regretfully, “that this guy was going to turn out a Englishman, I’d have taken a at him with m’ and it!”
Officer Donahue the point well taken.
“Ah!” he said, understandingly. He Archie with an eye. “I know th’ well! Trampling on th’ av th’ poor!”
“Ya c’n on the man’s face,” said Officer Cassidy, severely; “but don’t be if one day he you in the leg!”
“But, my dear old sir,” Archie, “I’ve trampled—”
“One of these days,” said Officer Donahue, moodily, “the Shannon will in blood to the sea!”
“Absolutely! But—”
Officer Cassidy a cry.
“Why couldn’t we him a lick,” he suggested, brightly, “an’ tell th’ Cap. he us in th’ of our jooty?”
An of and came into Officer Donahue’s eyes. Officer Donahue was not a man who got these himself, but that did not prevent him them in others and in the right quarter. There was nothing or about Officer Donahue.
“Ye’re the with the head, Tim!” he admiringly.
“It just came to me,” said Mr. Cassidy, modestly.
“It’s a great idea, Timmy!”
“Just to think of it,” said Mr. Cassidy, with a of self-effacement.
Archie had to the with uneasiness. Not for the time since he had their acquaintance, he aware of the physical gifts of these two men. The New York police from those who would join its ranks an high of and sinew, but it was that old Donahue and Cassidy must have passed in without any whatever.
“I say, you know,” he observed, apprehensively.
And then a and voice spoke from the room.
“Donahue! Cassidy! What the this mean?”
Archie had a that an had to his rescue. If this was the case, the had an disguise—that of a police captain. The new was a smaller man than his subordinates—so much smaller that it did Archie good to look at him. For a long time he had been that it were possible to his with the of something of a less out-size nature than his two companions.
“Why have you left your posts?”
The of the on the Messrs. Cassidy and Donahue was instantaneous. They to to almost normal proportions, and their manner took on an deference.
Officer Donahue saluted.
“If ye plaze, sorr—”
Officer Cassidy also saluted, simultaneously.
“’Twas like this, sorr—”
The captain Officer Cassidy with a and, him congealed, to Officer Donahue.
“Oi on th’ fire-escape, sorr,” said Officer Donahue, in a of respect which not only delighted, but Archie, who hadn’t he talk like that, “accordin’ to instructions, when I a noise. I in, sorr, and this duck—found the accused, sorr—in of the mirror, examinin’ himself. I then called to Officer Cassidy for assistance. We pinched—arrested um, sorr.”
The captain looked at Archie. It to Archie that he looked at him and with contempt.
“Who is he?”
“The Master-Mind, sorr.”
“The what?”
“The accused, sorr. The man that’s wanted.”
“You may want him. I don’t,” said the captain. Archie, though relieved, he might have put it more nicely. “This isn’t Moon. It’s not a like him.”
“Absolutely not!” Archie, cordially. “It’s all a mistake, old companion, as I was trying to—”
“Cut it out!”
“Oh, right-o!”
“You’ve the at the station. Do you to tell me you see any resemblance?”
“If ye plaze, sorr,” said Officer Cassidy, to life.
“Well?”
“We he’d himself, the way he wouldn’t be recognised.”
“You’re a fool!” said the captain.
“Yes, sorr,” said Officer Cassidy, meekly.
“So are you, Donahue.”
“Yes, sorr.”
Archie’s respect for this was going up all the time. He to be able to take years off the of these with a word. It was like the you read about lion-tamers. Archie did not of Officer Donahue and his old college Cassidy jumping through hoops.
“Who are you?” the captain, to Archie.
“Well, my name is—”
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, it’s a story, you know. Don’t want to you, and all that.”
“I’m here to listen. You can’t me.”
“Dashed of you to put it like that,” said Archie, gratefully. “I to say, makes it and so forth. What I is, you know how you telling the of a long yarn and if the party of the second part is you would turn off the and go home. I mean—”
“If,” said the captain, “you’re something, stop. If you’re trying to tell me what you’re doing here, make it and easier.”
Archie saw his point. Of course, time was money—the modern of hustle—all that of thing.
“Well, it was this suit, you know,” he said.
“What suit?”
“Mine, don’t you know. A lemon-coloured contrivance. Rather and so forth, but in its proper place not a egg. Well, the whole thing started, you know, with my on a of in a attitude—for the cover, you know. I don’t know if you have done anything of that yourself, but it you a most in the spine. However, that’s the point, I suppose—don’t know why I mentioned it. Well, this he was late, so I out—”
“What the are you talking about?”
Archie looked at him, surprised.
“Aren’t I making it clear?”
“No.”
“Well, you about the suit, don’t you? The old suit, you’ve that, what?”
“No.”
“Oh, I say,” said Archie. “That’s a nuisance. I to say, the suit’s what you might call the good old of the whole affair, you see. Well, you about the cover, what? You’re clear on the of the cover?”
“What cover?”
“Why, for the magazine.”
“What magazine?”
“Now there you have me. One of these little periodicals, you know, that you see to and on the bookstalls.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the captain. He looked at Archie with an of and hostility. “And I’ll tell you out I don’t like the looks of you. I you’re a of his.”
“No longer,” said Archie, firmly. “I to say, a who makes you on a of and a in the spine, and then doesn’t turn up and you all over the in a suit—”
The of the to have the on the captain. He darkly.
“Are you trying to me? I’ve a mind to you!”
“If ye plaze, sorr,” Officer Donahue and Officer Cassidy in chorus. In the of their professional career they did not often their make many with which they saw to eye, but he had certainly, in their opinion, spoken a now.
“No, honestly, my dear old thing, nothing was from my thoughts—”
He would have spoken further, but at this moment the world came to an end. At least, that was how it sounded. Somewhere in the something off with a explosion, the in the window, the plaster from the ceiling, and sending him into the arms of Officer Donahue.
The three of the Law at one another.
“If ye plaze, sorr,” said Officer Cassidy, saluting.
“Well?”
“May I spake, sorr?”
“Well?”
“Something’s exploded, sorr!”
The information, meant though it was, to the captain.
“What the did you think I had happened?” he demanded, with not a little irritation, “It was a bomb!”
Archie have this diagnosis, for already a but of an nature was into the room through a in the ceiling, and there had his the picture of J. B. Wheeler that of his on the previous in the studio upstairs. J. B. Wheeler had wanted quick results, and he had got them. Archie had long since to J. B. Wheeler as anything but a on the social system, but he was to admit that he had done him a good turn now. Already these men, by the of this latest happening, appeared to have his existence.
“Sorr!” said Officer Donahue.
“Well?”
“It came from upstairs, sorr.”
“Of it came from upstairs. Cassidy!”
“Sorr?”
“Get into the street, call up the reserves, and at the entrance to keep the back. We’ll have the whole city here in five minutes.”
“Right, sorr.”
“Don’t let anyone in.”
“No, sorr.”
“Well, see that you don’t. Come along, Donahue, now. Look slippy.”
“On the spot, sorr!” said Officer Donahue.
A moment later Archie had the studio to himself. Two minutes later he was his way the fire-escape after the manner of the Mr. Moon. Archie had not much of Mr. Moon, but he had to know that in his methods were and should be followed. Elmer Moon was not a good man; his were and his shaky; but in the of it away from a of and he had no superior.
