The sunshine of a fair Spring morning fell graciously on London town. Out in Piccadilly its heartening warmth seemed to infuse into traffic and pedestrians alike a novel jauntiness, so that bus drivers jested and even the lips of chauffeurs uncurled into not unkindly smiles. Policemen whistled at their posts-clerks, on their way to work; beggars approached the task of trying to persuade perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim which makes all the difference. It was one of those happy mornings. At nine o'clock precisely the door of Number Seven Arundell Street, Leicester Square, opened and a young man stepped out.
Preface
THE conditions of life in New York are so different from those of London that a story of this kind calls for a little explanation. There are several million inhabitants of New York. Not all of them eke out a precarious livelihood by murdering one another, but there is a definite section of the population which murders--not casually, on the spur of the moment, but on definitely commercial lines at so many dollars per murder. The "gangs" of New York exist in fact. I have not invented them. Most of the incidents in this story are based on actual happenings.
The Rosenthal case, where four men, headed by a genial individual calling himself "Gyp the Blood" shot a fellow-citizen in cold blood in a spot as public and fashionable as Piccadilly Circus and escaped in a motor-car, made such a stir a few years ago that the noise of it was heard all over the world and not, as is generally the case with the doings of the gangs, in New York only. Rosenthal cases on a smaller and less sensational scale are frequent occurrences on Manhattan Island. It was the prominence of the victim rather than the unusual nature of the occurrence that excited the New York press. Most gang victims get a quarter of a column in small type.
P. G. WODEHOUSE New York, 1915
Preface
19/11/2017
Chapter 1 Cosy Moments
19/11/2017
Chapter 2 Billy Windsor
19/11/2017
Chapter 3 At The Gardenia
19/11/2017
Chapter 4 Bat Jarvis
19/11/2017
Chapter 5 Planning Improvements
19/11/2017
Chapter 6 The Tenements
19/11/2017
Chapter 7 Visitors At The Office
19/11/2017
Chapter 8 The Honeyed Word
19/11/2017
Chapter 9 Full Steam Ahead
19/11/2017
Chapter 10 Going Some
19/11/2017
Chapter 11 The Man At The Astor
19/11/2017
Chapter 12 A Red Taximeter
19/11/2017
Chapter 13 Reviewing The Situation
19/11/2017
Chapter 14 The Highfield
19/11/2017
Chapter 15 An Addition To The Staff
19/11/2017
Chapter 16 The First Battle
19/11/2017
Chapter 17 Guerilla Warfare
19/11/2017
Chapter 18 An Episode By The Way
19/11/2017
Chapter 19 In Pleasant Street
19/11/2017
Chapter 20 Cornered
19/11/2017
Chapter 21 The Battle Of Pleasant Street
19/11/2017
Chapter 22 Concerning Mr. Waring
19/11/2017
Chapter 23 Reductions In The Staff
19/11/2017
Chapter 24 A Gathering Of Cat-Specialists
19/11/2017
Chapter 25 Trapped
19/11/2017
Chapter 26 A Friend In Need
19/11/2017
Chapter 27 Psmith Concludes His Ride
19/11/2017
Chapter 28 Standing Room Only
19/11/2017
Chapter 29 The Knock-Out For Mr. Waring
19/11/2017
Other books by P. G. Wodehouse
More