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The crowd on the sidewalks and the teamsters on the locked waggons roared encouragement and their own delight. The motorman, smashing helmets with his controller bar, was beaten into insensibility and dragged from his platform. The captain of police, beside himself at the repulse of his men, led the next assault on the coal waggon. A score of police were swarming up the tall-sided fortress.
The young conductor still slept on, his head fallen so far on his shoulder that his breathing was difficult. The motorman, getting no signal to go on, looked back through the window, putting his face close to the glass to see, for it had grown dusky outside and the electric lights were not yet turned on.
More than one accident had happened there; but never an electric car accident. The rapidity with which the motorman ran the car, and the jerky way in which he stopped and started it, did not bother Nan Sherwood much, for she was not nervous.
I looked sharply to see if he were a motorman, a fireman or an officer from the Presidio. I am careful about these matters since last summer when I was coming North on the President, and asked a naval officer for some ice water. I rushed up to him and told him, which was true, that it was the first time I had ever seen a policeman when I wanted one.
"Do you know him?" asked Rankin. The motorman turned his red, weather-beaten face to them from the doorway where he stood, pulling on his clumsy gloves. "Who, me?" he asked. "No; I never seen him till to-day. He's a new hand, I reckon." He drew the door after him with a rattling slam, rang the bell for himself, and started the car forward.
"My, but I must say we have had strenuous times since we started away!" There were few passengers on the trolley so early in the morning and not many stops to make, so the motorman turned on the power full and made the vehicle speed along. Mile after mile was covered and finally the car reached the top of a long hill.
"When the bloodthirsty mob of maddened citizens has closed in on the motorman, some bringing camp stools and sitting quite close to him, and all shouting, 'Lynch him! Policeman Fogarty forces his way through them to the side of their prospective victim. "'Hello, Mike, says the motorman in a low voice, 'nice day. Shall I sneak off a block or so, or would you like to rescue me?
"To assure the motorman," answered the tall man, "that he is safe. If they really wanted to do him up they would go into the houses and drop bricks on him from the third-story windows." "New Yorkers are not cowards," said the other man, a little stiffly. "Not one at a time," agreed the tall man, promptly. "You've got a fine lot of single-handed scrappers in your town.
As they went up the far East Side, Mrs. Belloc, looking back through the little rear window, saw a taxi a few blocks behind them. "We haven't given them the slip yet," said she, "but we will in the park." They entered the park at East Ninetieth Street, crossed to the West Drive. Acting on Mrs. Belloc's instructions, the motorman put on full speed with due regard to the occasional policeman.
Honest, when I see a car with 'Forty-second street, crosstown, on it I wanted to gallup up and kiss the motorman. "Well, I've got to leave you here. Will tell you how I happened to leave Emporia the next time I see you. Take it from me, I had rather be a shine on Broadway than a glare anywhere else. So long."
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