wning, and the platform upon which his
patrons sat enthroned in state--and here memory fails me.

I had turned my gaze upon the gibbet-like uprights, and
simultaneously, as it now seems to me, a voice shouted my name; but
the sound and something else came together--something bringing with it
a sting and the sounds of a rampant engine. I saw a myriad of flashing
lights, heard a tremendous crash, and--that was all.

I came to myself a little later, outstretched upon a wire cot, and
with a cretonne cushion beneath what felt like a very large and
much-battered prize pumpkin, but what was in reality my head. There
was a glow of electric light all about and above me, and bottles of
all sizes and colours on every side.

Slowly it dawned upon my dazed senses that I was in the corner
drug-store where I had more than once called, on my return from
Washington Avenue, to buy a cigar.

I stirred slightly, and then the faces of Dave Brainerd, Lossing, the
druggist, and a big policeman came suddenly into view surrounding my
cot.

'Hello, old man, glad to see you back,' was Dave's characteristic
greeting, and the druggist, who proved to be a physician as well,
promptly placed a finger on my pulse.

'Better,' he said laconically, and turning, took from the desk at his
back a glass which he held before me. 'Can you lift your head and
drink this?' he asked.

I made a feeble effort, and with Dave's assistance got my head high
enough to swallow the medicine.

'Now,' said the surgeon, 'lie still, and I think before long you will
be all right, except for a sore head, which you will probably keep for
a day or two.'

For some time longer I lay quiet, and with no desire to think or
speak; then slowly the noise and dizziness wore away, and the strength
came back to my limbs; but when I attempted to rise, I found that my
head was paining me severely, and I contented myself with resting upon
my elbow and asking, with my eyes on Dave:

'What has happened?'

'Sandbag,' replied Dave tersely. 'Didn't you feel it?'

'I feel it now,' I said, trying to smile feebly, for I knew that Dave,
now assured that my hurt was not serious, was giving vent to his
relief in a characteristic bit of chaff.

'You see, it was this way,' he went on. 'Lossing here and I were
walking along on the north side of the street, just down here, and we
saw you cross the street on the opposite side; the lamp at the corner
showed you plainly. We saw you stop and look