catapult out at the
stooping dapper figure, bearing it to the sidewalk with the sheer
weight of his unprovoked assault.

There the struggle continued. There the two strangely diverse bodies
twisted and panted and writhed. There the startlingly agile dapper
figure struggled to throw off his captor. The arch of gas-pipe went
over. Glue-bottles showered amid the shattered glass and crockery.
But that once placid-eyed old cement seller struck to the unoffending
man he had so promptly and so gratuitously attacked, stuck to him as
though he had been glued there with his own cement. And before the
patrolman could tug the combatants apart, or even wedge an arm into the
fight, the exulting green-coated figure had his enemy on his back along
the curb, and, reaching down into his capacious pocket, drew out two
oddly shaped steel wristlets. Forcing up his captive's arm, he
promptly snapped one steel wring on his own wrist, and one on the wrist
of the still prostrate man.

"What 're yuh tryin' to do?" demanded the amazed officer, still tugging
at the great figure holding down the smaller man. In the encounter
between those two embattled enemies had lurked an intensity of passion
which he could not understand, which seemed strangely akin to insanity
itself.

It was only when McCooey pushed his way in through the crowd and put a
hand on his shoulder that the old cement seller slowly rose to his
feet. He was still panting and blowing. But as he lifted his face up
to the sky his body rumbled with a Jove-like sound that was not
altogether a cough of lungs overtaxed nor altogether a laugh of triumph.

"I got him!" he gasped.

About his once placid old eyes, which the hardened tear-ducts no longer
seemed able to drain of their moisture, was a look of exultation that
made the gathering street-crowd take him for a panhandler gone mad with
hunger.

"Yuh got _who_?" cried the indignant young officer, wheeling the bigger
man about on his feet. As the cement seller, responding to that tug,
pivoted about, it was noticeable that the man to whom his wrist was
locked by the band of steel duly duplicated the movement. He moved
when the other moved; he drew aside when the other drew aside, as
though they were now two parts of one organism.

"I got him!" calmly repeated the old street-peddler.

"Yuh got _who_?" demanded the still puzzled young patrolman, oblivious
of the quiescent light in the bewildered eyes of McCooey, close bes