Fred said, “All right, up we go. Now we’ll get that coat on, and into the car. Any particular place you want to be taken, buddy?”

I was weak and groggy. I gave him the address of my rooming house.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“My rooming house.”

“That’s fine. We’ll take you there.”

I saw him exchange glances with the woman. Fred helped me up, and I walked out into the other room. The chief came walking toward me, his face wreathed in blubbery smiles. “Well, well,” he said. “You certainly look a thousand per cent better, and that’s a mighty becoming tie! Yes, sir! It certainly is. My wife gave me that tie for Christmas last year.”

He threw back his head, and laughter bubbled forth. He quit laughing and grabbed my hand in his. He pumped it up and down and said, “Lam, you were splendid! You’ve got plenty of nerve my boy plenty of nerve. You’ve got what it takes. I wish I had a few men like you. You don’t feel like telling us anything?”

“No,” I said.

“I can’t blame you, my boy. I can’t blame you a bit.”

He kept pumping my arm. “Take him wherever he wants to go, Fred,” he said, “and be careful with him. Don’t drive too fast. Remember he’s sore. All right, Lam, my boy, perhaps I’ll see you later. Who can tell? No hard feelings, Lam. Tell me there’s no hard feelings.”

“No hard feelings,” I said. “You beat me up, and God damn you, if I ever get a chance to get even I’ll pour it to you.”

For a minute his eyes hardened. Then he bubbled into effusive laughter. “That’s the spirit, my boy, the old fighting spirit! Head bloody but unbowed, and all that sort of stuff. Too bad he hasn’t a little more beef, Fred. He’d have given you a tussle for a fact. He came up out of that chair as though he’d been shot from a gun.”

“Aw, he was awkward, and he couldn’t swat a fly hard enough to hurt it,” Fred said, “but he has guts, that boy.”

“Well, take him up town. Just be certain that he doesn’t try to locate the house so he can find his way back to it. You know, Lam, it’s been a nice visit, and we don’t want to seem inhospitable, but if you come back here again we’d much rather you came with us than with someone else.”

And he roared with laughter at his own joke.

Fred said, “Come on, buddy. Put this handkerchief over your eyes, and away we go.”