at a huge, blood-red
bulk that swooped around the corner and dashed forward. But Miss Honey's
hand was clutching her apron string, and Miss Honey's weight as she
fell, tangled in the skates, dragged her down. Caroline, toppling,
caught in one dizzy backward glance a vision of a face staring down on
her, white as chalk under a black mustache and staring goggles, and
another face, Delia's, white too, with eyes more strained and terrible
than the goggles themselves. One second that look swept her and Miss
Honey, and then, shifting, fell upon the General strapped securely into
his carriage. Even as Caroline caught her breath, he flew by her like an
arrow, his blue eyes round with surprise under a whirl of white parasol,
the wicker body of the perambulator swaying and lurching. With that
breath still in her nostrils, she was pushed violently against Miss
Honey, who was dragged over her from the other side by a large hairy
hand. A sharp blow from her boot heel struck Caroline's cheek, and she
screamed with the pain; but her cry was lost in the louder one that
echoed around her as the dust from the red monster blew in her eyes and
shut out Delia's figure, flat on the ground, one arm over her face as
the car rushed over.

"My God! She's down!" That was the man.

"Take his number!" a shrill voice pierced the growing confusion.

Caroline, crying with pain, was forced to her feet and stumbled along,
one apron string twisted fast in Miss Honey's hand.

"Here, get out o' this--don't let the children see anything! Let's get
home."

"No, wait a minute. Let's see if she's alive. Have they got the
ambulance?"

"Look out, there, Miss Dorothy, you just stop by me, or you'll be run
over, too!"

"See! She's moving her head! Maybe she's not----"

Sobbing with excitement, Caroline wrenched herself free from the tangle
of nurses and carriages, and pushed her way through the crowd. Against
the curb, puffing and grinding, stood the great red engine; on the front
seat a tall policeman sat; one woman in the back leaned over another,
limp against the high cushions, and fanned her with the stiff vizor of
her leather cap.

"It's all right, dear, it's all right," she repeated monotonously, with
set lips, "the doctor's coming. It's all right."

Caroline wriggled between two policemen, and made for a striped blue and
white skirt that lay motionless on the ground. Across the white apron
ran a broad, dirty smudge.

Caroline ran forward.