"Aches," replied the boy huddled in his corner of the cab.
Then he found spirit enough for a pale, thin smile, faintly visible in a milky splash from an electric arc rocking by the vehicle in its flight.
"Aches like h.e.l.l," he added. "Makes one feel a bit sickish."
"Anything I can do?"
"No--thanks. I"ll be all right--as soon as I find a surgeon to draw that slug and plaster me up."
"That"s the point: where am I to take you?"
"Home--the Monastery--Forty-third Street."
"Bachelor apartments?"
"Yes; I herd by my lonesome."
"Praises be!" muttered P. Sybarite, relieved.
For several minutes he had been entertaining a vision of himself escorting this battered and b.l.o.o.d.y young person to a home of shrieking feminine relations, and poignantly surmising the sort of welcome apt to be accorded the good Samaritan in such instances.
And while he was about it, he took time briefly to offer up thanks that the shock of his wound seemed to have sobered the boy completely.
Opening the door, he craned his neck out to establish communication with the ear of the chauffeur; to whom he repeated the address, adding an admonition to avoid the Monastery until certain he had shaken off pursuit, if any; and dodged back.
At this juncture the taxicab was slipping busily up Eighth Avenue, having gained that thoroughfare via Forty-first Street. A little later it turned eastwards....
"No better, I presume?" P. Sybarite enquired.
"Not so"s you"d notice it," the boy returned bravely.... "First time anything like this ever happened to me," he went on. "Funny sensation--precisely as if somebody had lammed me for a home run--with a steel girder for a bat ..."
"Must be tough!" said P. Sybarite blankly, experiencing a qualm at the thought of a soft-nosed bullet mushrooming through living flesh.
"Guess I can stand it.... Where are we?"
P. Sybarite took observations."
"Forty-seventh, near Sixth Avenue," he reported finally.
"Good: we"ll be home in five minutes."
"Think you can hold out that long?"
"Sure--got to; if I keel over before we reach my digs ... chances are it"ll get you into trouble ... besides, I want to fight shy of the papers ... no good airing this scandal ..."
"None whatever," affirmed P. Sybarite heartily. "But--how did you get into it?"
"Just by way of being a natural-born a.s.s."
"Oh, well! If it comes to that, I admit it"s none of my business--"
"The deuce it isn"t! After all you"ve done for me! Good Lord, man, where _would_ I be...!"
"Sleeping the sleep of the doped in some filthy corner of Dutch House, most likely."
"And you saved me from that!"
"And got this hole drilled through you instead."
"Got me away; I"d"ve collected the lead anyhow--wasn"t meaning to stay without a fight."
"Then you weren"t as drunk as you seemed?"
"Didn"t you catch me making a move the minute you created a diversion?
Of course, I"d no idea you were friendly--"
"Look here," P. Sybarite interrupted sharply: "doesn"t it hurt you to talk?"
"No--helps me forget this ache."
"All right, then--tell me how this came about. What has Red November got on you, to make him so anxious--?"
"Nothing, as far as I know; unless it was Brian Shaynon"s doing--"
"A-ah!"
"You know that old blighter?"
"Slightly--very slightly."
"Friend of yours?"
"Not exactly."
The accent of P. Sybarite"s laugh rendered the disclaimer conclusive.
"Glad to hear that," said the boy gravely: "I"d despise to be beholden to any friend of his ..."
"Well.... But what"s the trouble between you and old man Shaynon?"
"Search me--unless he thought I was spying on him. I say!" the boy exclaimed excitedly--"what business could he have had with Red November there, to-night?"
"That _is_ a question," P. Sybarite allowed.
"Something urgent, I"ll be bound!--else he wouldn"t ever have dared show his bare map in that dump."
"One would think so...."
"I"d like to figure this thing out. Perhaps you can help. To begin with--I went to a party to-night."