THE PROTECTOR
The truck came lumbering along Terrace Avenue, its huge load shaking
like some Dixie mammy of vast dimensions. The piled-up bales and burlap
sacks were agitated by each small hubble in the road; the vast,
overhanging pile tilted to an alarming angle. In a kind of cave or
alcove in this surrounding mass sat the driver, almost completely
enclosed by the load.
Pee-wee had no intention of interrupting the progress of this
outlandish, bulging, tipsy caravan. The responsibility for what shortly
happened is traceable to little Irene Flynn, who was hurrying to school
in frantic haste, being already twenty minutes late. When Pee-wee’s eyes
were diverted from the advancing load to her spectacular approach, she
was almost at the curb, panting audibly, for she had run all the way
from Barrel Alley.
In the full glory of his authority, he planted himself immovably in the
middle of the cross street and raised his autocratic hand, at the same
time beckoning to little Irene to proceed across Terrace Avenue. With
cynical assurance of his power, the truck driver disregarded Pee-wee,
and was presently struck with consternation to find himself within
fifteen feet of the little official, and the official still immovable.
Other drivers, finding Pee-wee a statue, had driven around him and gone
upon their way, to his chagrin.
But the driver of the truck could not do that, for in deference to his
top-heavy load, he must keep a straight course. He therefore jammed on
both his brakes with skilful promptness; the load shook as if stricken
with palsy, a bale of rags rolled merrily off like a great boulder from
a mountain, then the whole vast edifice swayed, collapsed, and was
precipitated to the ground. A jungle of bales, sacks and huge bundles of
loosely tied papers and rags decorated the middle of Terrace Avenue. It
seemed inconceivable that any single truck could have contained so much.
The street was transformed into a rubbish dump.
It is said that music has charms to soothe the savage beast, but the
swelling strains of an approaching band, which could now be distinctly
heard, did not soothe the driver of the truck. Pee-wee had entertained
no idea that he was as many things as the driver called him. The number
and character seemed also to astonish little Irene Flynn, who stood
beside her protector in the middle of the street.
“Yer see wotcher done?” bawled the man. “All on account o’ that there
blamed kid! I’d oughter ran over yer, that’s wot I’d oughter done, yer
little——”
“Just the same you didn’t,” said Pee-wee. “Why didn’t you stop when I
first raised my hand? Gee whiz, can’t you see I’m a—I’m in the official
patrol? Maybe you think I didn’t mean what I said when I motioned. Now,
you see, you’ve got only yourself to blame. Gee whiz, that shows what
you get for defying the law—geeee whiz!”
“It serves him right,” little Irene whispered to Pee-wee, as if she were
afraid to advertise her loyalty. “It serves him a good lesson.”
Pee-wee would have withdrawn from this scene of devastation, escorting
Irene, except that the approaching music grew louder and louder, and he
and his little charge paused to ascertain the occasion of such a festive
serenade. He was not long kept in doubt. Around the corner of Broad
Avenue, which was the first cross street beyond Allerton, where Pee-wee
was stationed, appeared a proud figure in a towering hat, swinging a
fantastic rod equipped with a sumptuous brazen sphere.
“Oh, look at the soldier man, he’s got a barrel on his head, like,”
gasped little Irene in awestruck admiration.
“It’s a drum-major,” said Pee-wee, staring. “Gee whiz, the circus is
coming!”
Even the irate driver of the truck paused in the midst of the chaos he
had wrought to gaze at the imposing spectacle which emerged around the
corner and advanced down the wide thoroughfare of Terrace Avenue. Behind
the red-coated band Pee-wee beheld three pedestrians walking abreast,
and he knew that they would not be obedient to his raised arm. These
were huge elephants, complacent, serene, contemptuous of the law.
“Oh, look—_look!_” gasped little Irene. “They’re efilants, they’re
_real_ efilants! Will they eat you?”
Pee-wee was too absorbed with the motley spectacle to answer. Behind the
elephants came rolling cages, and amid the strains of martial music he
could hear a mighty intermittent roaring—savage, terrible. Little Irene
grasped his arm.
“Don’t you be scared,” he said. “I won’t let them hurt you.”