When he had been working diligently in the training school for three months lacking a day, the great moment came when he was given a chance to put theory into practice, by being sent forth, in a uniform slightly too large for him, to patrol a beat in the company of a veteran officer, so that he might observe, at first hand, how an expert handled the many and varied duties of the police job. Except that he had no shield, no night stick, and no revolver, Peter looked exactly like any of the other guardians of law. He trudged by the side of the big Officer Gaffney, trying to look stern, and finding it hard to keep his joy from breaking out in a smile. If Judy McNulty could only see him now! They were to be married as soon as he got his shield.
But joy is never without its alloy. Even as Peter strode importantly through the streets of the upper West Side, housing delicious thrills in every corpuscle from the top of his blue cap to the thick soles and rubber heels of his shiningly new police shoes, a worry kept plucking at his mind. On the morrow he was to take his final examination in general education, and that was no small obstacle between him and his shield. He had labored to be ready, but he was afraid.
That worry grew as he paced along, trying to remember whether the Amazon is longer than the Ganges and who Gambetta was. He did not even pay close attention to his mentor, although on most occasions those five blue service stripes on Officer Gaffney"s sleeve, representing a quarter of a century on the force, would have caused Peter to listen with rapt interest to Officer Gaffney"s genial flow of reminiscence and advice.
Dimly he heard the old policeman rumbling:
"When I was took on the cops, Pether, all they expected of a cop was two fists and a cool head. But sthyles in cops changes like sthyles in hats, I guess. I"ve seen a dozen commissioners come and go, and they all had their own ideas. The prisint comish is the queerest duck of the lot, wid his "Who was Pernambuco and what the divil ailed him, and who invinted the gin rickey and who discovered the Gowa.n.u.s Ca.n.a.l." Not that I"m agin a cop bein" a learned man. Divil a bit. Learnin" won"t hurt him none if he has two fists and a clear head."
He paused to take nourishment from some tabloid tobacco in his hip-pocket, and rumbled on,
"Whin I was took on the cops, as I say, they was no graduatin" exercises like a young ladies" siminary. The comish--it was auld Malachi Bannon--looked ye square in the eye and said, "Young fella, ye"re about to go forth and riprisint the majesty of the law. Whin on juty be clane and sober and raisonably honest. Keep a civil tongue in your head for ivrybody, even Republicans. Get to know your precinct like a book. Don"t borrow trouble. But above all, rimimber this: a cop can do a lot of queer things and square himself wid me afterward, but there"s one sin no cop can square--the sin of runnin" away whin needed. Go to your post.""
Little Peter nodded his head.
They paced along in silence for a time. Then Peter asked,
"Jawn----"
"What, Pether?"
"Jawn, where is the Tropic of Capricorn?"
Officer Gaffney wrinkled his grey eyebrows quizzically.
"The Tropic of Whichicorn?" he inquired.
"The Tropic of Capricorn," repeated Peter.
"Pether," said Officer Gaffney, dubiously, scratching his head with the tip of his night-stick, "I disrimimber but I think--I think, mind ye, it"s in the Bronx."
They continued their leisurely progress.
""Tis a quiet beat, this," observed Officer Gaffney. "Quiet but responsible. Rich folks lives in these houses, Pether, and that draws crooks, sometimes. But mostly it"s as quiet as a Sunday in Dooleyville."
He laughed deep in his chest.
"It makes me think," he said, "of Tommie Toohy, him that"s a lieutinant now over in Canarsie. "Tis a lesson ye"d do well to mind, Pether."
Peter signified that he was all ears.
"He had the cop bug worse than you, even, Pether," said the veteran.
Peter flushed beneath his freckles.
"Yis, he had it bad, this Tommie Toohy," pursued Officer Gaffney. "He was crazy to be a cop as soon as he could walk. I never seen a happier man in me life than Toohy the day he swaggers out of the station-house to go on post up in the twenty-ninth precinct. In thim days there was nawthin" up there but rows of little cottages wid stoops on thim; nawthin but dacint, respictable folks lived there and they always give that beat to a recruity because it was so quiet. Well, Toohy goes on juty at six o"clock in the evenin", puffed up wid importance and polishing his shield every minute or two. "Tis a short beat--up one side of Garden Avenue and down on the other side. Toohy paces up and down, swingin" his night-stick and lookin" hard and suspicious at every man, woman or child that pa.s.ses him. He was just bustin" to show his authority. But nawthin" happened. Toohy paced up and back, up and back, up and back. It gets to be eight o"clock. Nawthin happens. Toohy can stand it no longer. He spies an auld man sittin" on his stoop, peacefully smokin" his evenin" pipe. Toohy goes up to the old fellow and glares at him.
""What are you doin" there?" says Toohy.
""Nawthin," says the auld man.
""Well," says Toohy, wid a stern scowl, shakin" his night-stick at the scared auld gazabo, "You go in the house.""
Peter chuckled.
"But Toohy lived to make a good cop for all that," finished the veteran.
"Wid all his recruity monkey-shines, he never ran away whin needed."
"I wonder could he bound Bolivia," said Peter Mullaney.
"I"ll bet he could," said Officer Gaffney, "if it was in his precinct."
Late next afternoon, Peter sat gnawing his knuckles in a corner of the police schoolroom. All morning he had battled with the examination in general education. It had not been as hard as he had feared, but he was worried nevertheless. So much was at stake.
He was quivering all over when he was summoned to the office of the Commissioner, and his quivering grew as he saw the rigid face of Commissioner Kondorman, and read no ray of hope there. Papers were strewn over the official desk. Kondorman looked up, frowned.
"Mullaney," he said, bluntly, "you"ve failed."
"F-failed?" quavered Peter.
"Yes. In general education. I told you if you made excellent marks we"d overlook your deficiency in height. Your paper"--he tapped it with his finger--"isn"t bad. But it isn"t good. You fell down hard on question seventeen."
"Question seventeen?"
"Yes. The question is, "Where is the Tropic of Capricorn?" And your answer is"--the Commissioner paused before he p.r.o.nounced the d.a.m.ning words--""The Tropic of Capricon is in the Bronx.""
Peter gulped, blinked, opened and shut his fists, twisted his cap in his hands, a picture of abject misery. The Commissioner"s voice was crisp and final.
"That"s all, Mullaney. Sorry. Turn in your uniform at once. Well?"
Peter had started away, had stopped and was facing the commissioner.
"Commissioner," he begged----
"That will do," snapped the Commissioner. "I gave you your chance; you understood the conditions."
"It--it isn"t that," fumbled out Peter Mullaney, "but--but wouldn"t you please let me go out on post once more with Officer Gaffney?"
"I don"t see what good that would do," said Commissioner Kondorman, gruffly.
Tears were in Peter"s eyes.
"You see--you see----" he got out with an effort, "it would be my last chance to wear the uniform--and I--wanted--somebody--to--see--me--in--it--just--once."
The Commissioner stroked his chin reflectively.
"Were you scheduled to go out on post for instruction," he asked, "if you pa.s.sed your examination?"
"Yes, sir. From eight to eleven."
The Commissioner thought a moment.