street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the
corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man
trampled calmly over the child s body and left her screaming on the
ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn t
like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut. I gave a few halloa,
took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him back to where
there was already quite a group about the screaming child. He was
perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly
that it brought out the sweat on me like running. The people who had
turned out were the girl s own family; and pretty soon, the doctor, for
whom she had been sent, put in his appearance. Well, the child was not
much the worse, more frightened, according to the Sawbones; and there
you might have supposed would be an end to it. But there was one
curious circumstance. I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first
sight. So had the child s family, which was only natural. But the
doctor s case was what struck me. He was the usual cut and dry
apothecary, of no particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh
accent and about as emotional as a bagpipe. Well, sir, he was like the
rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that Sawbones
turn sick and white with the desire to kill him. I knew what was in his
mind, just as he knew what was in mine; and killing being out of the
question, we did the next best. We told the man we could and would make
such a scandal out of this as should make his name stink from one end
of London to the other. If he had any friends or any credit, we
undertook that he should lose them. And all the time, as we were
pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we
could for they were as wild as harpies. I never saw a circle of such
hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of
black sneering coolness frightened too, I could see that but carrying
it off, sir, really like Satan. If you choose to make capital out of
this accident, said he, I am naturally helpless. No gentleman but
wishes to avoid a scene, says he. Name your figure. Well, we screwed
him up to a hundred pounds for the child s family; he would have
clearly liked to stick out; but there was something about the lot of us
that meant mischief, and at last he struck. The next thing was to get
the money; and where do you think he carried us but to that place with
the door? whipped out a key, went in, and presently came back with the
matter of ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on Coutts s,
drawn payable to bearer and signed with a name that I can t mention,
though it s one of the points of my story, but it was a name at least
4