Brisk and cheerful, he made a few inquiries, enchanted with this incident that broke the monotony of the night's dreary round.

The crowd breathed freely, feeling that the responsibility had shifted on to the official shoulders.

He blew shrilly on his whistle, and demanded a cab.
"Cab this time o' night?
No chance," was the common opinion.
But by great good luck a cab was heard rattling along the next street.
Two men ran to intercept it.
The woman clung desperately to the crippled body as they lifted it into the cab, impeding the men in their efforts, imploring them to carry him to his own house, with the distrust of the ignorant for the hospitals, where the doctors amuse themselves by cutting and carving the bodies of their helpless patients.

The policeman, a young man, embarrassed by the sight of this half-dressed woman, swore softly to himself.
"'Ere, missis, you'd better get 'ome, you can't do any good 'ere," he said, kindly.

"Don't you worry; I've seen worse cases than this go 'ome to breakfast the next day." As the cab drove off, some neighbours led her away, her thin, angular body shaken with sobs.
The street was quiet again, but some groups still lingered, discussing with relish the details of the outrage, searching their memories for stories of brutal stoushings that had ended in the death of the victim..