Psmith, Journalist, P. G. Wodehouse [top 5 ebook reader .txt] 📗

But, if you gents feel like it, I’d be mighty glad to come in till I’m wanted to go into training camp.”

“Great,” said Billy; “that would suit us all the way up. If you’d do that, Kid, we’d be tickled to death.”

“And touching salary⁠—” put in Psmith.

“Shucks!” said the Kid with emphasis. “Nix on the salary thing. I wouldn’t take a dime. If it hadn’t a-been for you gents, I’d have been waiting still for a chance of lining up in the championship class. That’s good enough for me. Any old thing you gents want me to do, I’ll do it. And glad, too.”

“Comrade Brady,” said Psmith warmly, “you are, if I may say so, the goods. You are, beyond a doubt, supremely the stuff. We three, then, hand-in-hand, will face the foe; and if the foe has good, sound sense, he will keep right away. You appear to be ready. Shall we meander forth?”

The building was empty and the lights were out when they emerged from the dressing room. They had to grope their way in darkness. It was still raining when they reached the street, and the only signs of life were a moist policeman and the distant glare of public house lights down the road.

They turned off to the left, and, after walking some hundred yards, found themselves in a blind alley.

“Hullo!” said Billy. “Where have we come to?”

Psmith sighed.

“In my trusting way,” he said, “I had imagined that either you or Comrade Brady was in charge of this expedition and taking me by a known route to the nearest Subway station. I did not think to ask. I placed myself, without hesitation, wholly in your hands.”

“I thought the Kid knew the way,” said Billy.

“I was just taggin’ along with you gents,” protested the lightweight, “I thought you was taking me right. This is the first time I been up here.”

“Next time we three go on a little jaunt anywhere,” said Psmith resignedly, “it would be as well to take a map and a corps of guides with us. Otherwise we shall start for Broadway and finish up at Minneapolis.”

They emerged from the blind alley and stood in the dark street, looking doubtfully up and down it.

“Aha!” said Psmith suddenly, “I perceive a native. Several natives, in fact. Quite a little covey of them. We will put our case before them, concealing nothing, and rely on their advice to take us to our goal.”

A little knot of men was approaching from the left. In the darkness it was impossible to say how many of them there were. Psmith stepped forward, the Kid at his side.

“Excuse me, sir,” he said to the leader, “but if you can spare me a moment of your valuable time⁠—”

There was a sudden shuffle of feet on the pavement, a quick movement on the part of the Kid, a chunky sound as of wood striking wood, and the man Psmith had been addressing fell to the ground in a heap.

As he fell, something dropped from his hand on to the pavement with a bump and a rattle. Stooping swiftly, the Kid picked it up, and handed it to Psmith. His fingers closed upon it. It was a short, wicked-looking little bludgeon, the blackjack of the New York tough.

“Get busy,” advised the Kid briefly.

XVI The First Battle

The promptitude and despatch with which the Kid had attended to the gentleman with the blackjack had not been without its effect on the followers of the stricken one. Physical courage is not an outstanding quality of the New York hooligan. His personal preference is for retreat when it is a question of unpleasantness with a stranger. And, in any case, even when warring among themselves, the gangs exhibit a lively distaste for the hard knocks of hand-to-hand fighting. Their chosen method of battling is to lie down on the ground and shoot. This is more suited to their physique, which is rarely great. The gangsman, as a rule, is stunted and slight of build.

The Kid’s rapid work on the present occasion created a good deal of confusion. There was no doubt that much had been hoped for from speedy attack. Also, the generalship of the expedition had been in the hands of the fallen warrior. His removal from the sphere of active influence had left the party without a head. And, to add to their discomfiture, they could not account for the Kid. Psmith they knew, and Billy Windsor they knew, but who was this stranger with the square shoulders and the uppercut that landed like a cannonball? Something approaching a panic prevailed among the gang.

It was not lessened by the behaviour of the intended victims. Billy Windsor, armed with the big stick which he had bought after the visit of Mr. Parker, was the first to join issue. He had been a few paces behind the others during the blackjack incident; but, dark as it was, he had seen enough to show him that the occasion was, as Psmith would have said, one for the Shrewd Blow rather than the Prolonged Parley. With a whoop of the purest Wyoming brand, he sprang forward into the confused mass of the enemy. A moment later Psmith and the Kid followed, and there raged over the body of the fallen leader a battle of Homeric type.

It was not a long affair. The rules and conditions governing the encounter offended the delicate sensibilities of the gang. Like artists who feel themselves trammelled by distasteful conventions, they were damped and could not do themselves justice. Their forte was long-range fighting with pistols. With that they felt en rapport. But this vulgar brawling in the darkness with muscular opponents who hit hard and often with sticks and hands was distasteful to them. They could not develop any enthusiasm for it. They carried pistols, but it was too dark and the combatants were too entangled to allow them to use these. Besides, this was not the