Page:A Damsel in Distress.pdf/50

 is ‘Never confuse the unusual with the impossible!’ Take the present case, for instance. If you had only realized the possibility of somebody some day busting you on the jaw when you tried to get into a cab, you might have thought out dozens of crafty schemes for dealing with the matter. As it is you are unprepared. The thing comes on you as a surprise. The whisper flies round the clubs: ‘Poor old What’s-His-Name has been taken unawares. He cannot cope with the situation!’”

The man with the collar studs made another diagnosis. He was seeing clearer and clearer into the thing every minute.

“Looney!” he decided. “This ’ere one’s bin moppin’ of it up, and the one in the keb’s orf ’is bloomin’ onion. That’s why ’e’s standin’ up instead of settin’. ’E won't set down ’cept you bring ’im a bit o’ toast, ’cos he thinks ’e’s a poached egg.”

George beamed upon the intelligent fellow.

“Your reasoning is admirable, but”

He broke off here, not because he had not more to say but for the reason that the stout young man, now in quite a Berserk frame of mind, made a sudden spring at the cab door and clutched the handle, which he was about to wrench when George acted with all the promptitude and decision which had marked his behavior from the start.

It was a situation which called for the nicest judgment. To allow the assailant free play with the handle, or even to wrestle with him for its possession, entailed the risk that the door might open and reveal the girl. To bust the young man on the jaw as promised, on the other hand, was not in George’s eyes a practical policy. Excellent a deterrent as the threat