Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/147

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GORDON DESERTS HIS POST

water sprayed down his sleeve! But the roller kept right on rolling, majestically, remorselessly!

The policeman gave up in despair and rapped loudly with his club for assistance. At that moment the roller, heedless of his appeal, reached the intersection of Lafayette Street and, no longer restrained by the curbing against which it had been grinding, angled purposefully across and collided violently with a lamp-post. The lamp-post gave appreciably under the unexpected assault and the light flared wildly and expired. The steam roller, although its further progress was barred, kept on revolving its big wheels and the policeman, picking himself up, rescued his helmet from the coal-box and hurried from the scene.