第190章

"How would you get along at your business in this town if you didn't have a backer? Why, you'd be taking turns at the Island and the gutter within six months.You'd be giving all your money to some rotten cop or fly cop who couldn't protect you, at that.Or you'd work the street for some cheap cadet who'd beat you up oftener than he'd beat up the men who welched on you.""I'll look out for myself," persisted she.

"Bless the baby!" exclaimed he, immensely amused."How lucky that you found me! I'm going to take care of you in spite of yourself.Not for nothing, of course.You wouldn't value me if you got me for nothing.I'm going to help you, and you're going to help me.You need me, and I need you.Why do you suppose I took the trouble to tame you? What _you_ want doesn't go.It's what __I__ want."He let her reflect on this a while.Then he went on:

"You don't understand about fellows like Jim and me--though Jim's a small potato beside me, as you'll soon find out.

Suppose you didn't obey orders--just as I do what Finnegan tells me--just as Finnegan does what the big shout down below says? Suppose you didn't obey--what then?""I don't know," confessed Susan.

"Well, it's time you learned.We'll say, you act stubborn.

You dress and say good-by to me and start out.Do you think I'm wicked enough to let you make a fool of yourself? Well, I'm not.You won't get outside the door before your good angel here will get busy.I'll be telephoning to a fly cop of this district.And what'll he do? Why, about the time you are halfway down the block, he'll pinch you.He'll take you to the station house.And in Police Court tomorrow the Judge'll give you a week on the Island for being a streetwalker."Susan shivered.She instinctively glanced toward the window.

The rain was still falling, changing the City of the Sun into a city of desolation.It looked as though it would never see the sun again--and her life looked that way, also.

Freddie was smiling pleasantly.He went on:

"You do your little stretch on the Island.When your time's up I send you word where to report to me.We'll say you don't come.The minute you set foot on the streets again alone, back to the Island you go....Now, do you understand, Queenie?" And he laughed and pulled her over and kissed her and smoothed her hair."You're a very superior article--you are,"he murmured."I'm stuck on you."

Susan did not resist.She did not care what happened to her.

The more intelligent a trapped animal is, the less resistance it offers, once it realizes.Helpless--absolutely helpless.

No money--no friends.No escape but death.The sun was shining.Outside lay the vast world; across the street on a flagpole fluttered the banner of freedom.Freedom! Was there any such thing anywhere? Perhaps if one had plenty of money--or powerful friends.But not for her, any more than for the masses whose fate of squalid and stupid slavery she was trying to escape.Not for her; so long as she was helpless she would simply move from one land of slavery to another.Helpless!

To struggle would not be courageous, but merely absurd.

"If you don't believe me, ask Maud," said Freddie."I don't want you to get into trouble.As I told you, I'm stuck on you." With his cigarette gracefully loose between those almost too beautifully formed lips of his and with one of his strong smooth white arms about his head, he looked at her, an expression of content with himself, of admiration for her in his handsome eyes."You don't realize your good luck.But you will when you find how many girls are crazy to get on the good side of me.This is a great old town, and nobody amounts to anything in it unless he's got a pull or is next to somebody else that has."Susan's slow reflective nod showed that this statement explained, or seemed to explain, certain mysteries of life that had been puzzling her.

"You've got a lot in you," continued he."That's my opinion, and I'm a fair judge of yearlings.You're liable to land somewhere some day when you've struck your gait....If I had the mon I'd be tempted to set you up in a flat and keep you all to myself.But I can't afford it.It takes a lot of cash to keep me going....You'll do well.You won't have to bother with any but classy gents.I'll see that the cops put you wise when there's anyone round throwing his money away.And I can help you, myself.I've got quite a line of friends among the rich chappies from Fifth Avenue.And Ialways let my girls get the benefit of it."

My girls! Susan's mind, recovering now from its daze, seized upon this phrase.And soon she had fathomed how these two young men came to be so luxuriously dressed, so well supplied with money.She had heard of this system under which the girls in the streets were exploited as thoroughly as the girls in the houses.In all the earth was there anyone who was suffered to do for himself or herself without there being a powerful idle someone else to take away all the proceeds but a bare living?

Helpless! Helpless!

"How many girls have you?" she asked.

"Jealous already!" And he laughed and blew a cloud of smoke into her face.