Billy Windsor reached out and grabbed the rent collector by the collar. Having done this, he proceeded to shake him.
Billy was muscular, and his heart was so much in the business that Mr. Gooch behaved as if he had been caught in a high wind. It is probable that in another moment the desired information might have been shaken out of him, but before this could happen there was a banging at the door, followed by the entrance of Master Maloney. For the first time since Psmith had known him, Pugsy was openly excited.
“Say,” he began, “youse had better beat it quick, you had. Dey’s coming!”
“And now go back to the beginning, Comrade Maloney,” said Psmith patiently, “which in the exuberance of the moment you have skipped. Who are coming?”
“Why, dem. De guys.”
Psmith shook his head.
“Your habit of omitting essentials, Comrade Maloney, is going to undo you one of these days. When you get to that ranch of yours, you will probably start out to gallop after the cattle without remembering to mount your mustang. There are four million guys in New York. Which section is it that is coming?”
“Gum! I don’t know how many dere is ob dem. I seen Spider Reilly an’ Jack Repetto an’-”
“Say no more,” said Psmith. “If Comrade Repetto is there, that is enough for me. I am going to get on the roof and pull it up after me.”
Billy released Mr. Gooch, who fell, puffing, on to the low bed, which stood in one corner of the room.
“They must have spotted us as we were coming here,” he said, “and followed us. Where did you see them, Pugsy?”
“On de Street just outside. Dere was a bunch of dem talkin’ togedder, and I hears dem say you was in here. One of dem seen you come in, an dere ain’t no ways out but de front, so dey ain’t hurryin’! Dey just reckon to pike along upstairs, lookin’ into each room till dey finds you. An dere’s a bunch of dem goin’ to wait on de Street in case youse beat it past down de stairs while de udder guys is rubberin’ for youse. Say, gents, it’s pretty fierce, dis proposition. What are youse goin’ to do?”
Mr. Gooch, from the bed, laughed unpleasantly.
“I guess you ain’t the only assault-and-battery artists in the business,” he said. “Looks to me as if some one else was going to get shaken up some.”
Billy looked at Psmith.
“Well?” he said. “What shall we do? Go down and try and rush through?”
Psmith shook his head.
“Not so, Comrade Windsor, but about as much otherwise as you can jolly well imagine.”
“Well, what then?”
“We will stay here. Or rather we will hop nimbly up on to the roof through that skylight. Once there, we may engage these varlets on fairly equal terms. They can only get through one at a time. And while they are doing it I will give my celebrated imitation of Horatius. We had better be moving. Our luggage, fortunately, is small. Merely Comrade Gooch. If you will get through the skylight, I will pass him up to you.”
Mr. Gooch, with much verbal embroidery, stated that he would not go. Psmith acted promptly. Gripping the struggling rent collector round the waist, and ignoring his frantic kicks as mere errors in taste, he lifted him to the trap-door, whence the head, shoulders and arms of Billy Windsor protruded into the room. Billy collected the collector, and then Psmith turned to Pugsy.
“Comrade Maloney.”
“Huh?”
“Have I your ear?”
“Huh?”
“Are you listening till you feel that your ears are the size of footballs? Then drink this in. For weeks you have been praying for a chance to show your devotion to the great cause; or if you haven’t, you ought to have been. That chance has come. You alone can save us. In a sense, of course, we do not need to be saved. They will find it hard to get at us, I fancy, on the roof. But it ill befits the dignity of the editorial staff of a great New York weekly to roost like pigeons for any length of time; and consequently it is up to you.”