Ruth, very cool said “What, shoot me?! You gotta be crazy…!”
“We ain’t gonna kill you nohow, but maybe you gets wounded accidental-like in your batting arm, see?”
“OK folks, they just wanna talk to me,” he said reluctantly getting in the car.
“Relax, we ain’t gonna hurt him, if he’s reasonable that is. The Boss just wants to have a little chat is all…” Ruth took a seat.
“Don’t bother checkin’ the license plate either - it’s stolen,” the gangster said with a nasty grin. “We’re not stupid.”
“What about Louie?” One of them said about their fellow gangster lying groaning on the sidewalk.
“If he can’t take care of his self, dat’s his own lookout, he ain’t gonna say nuttin.’ What are dese creampuffs gonna do anyways? Come on we gotta get outta here….da Boss is waitin’” I heard the other one say. He yelled at the driver who gunned the engine in gear and started to drive away.
To my sudden horror as the car drove away - there were Jonathan and Lauren hanging on the back of the car! They were crouching on the bumper, hanging onto the big spare tire and rack for luggage which was folded up acting like a railing, out of sight of the car’s occupants! They must have slipped aboard in all the confusion.
They flashed me their widest grins waving ‘bye, bye.’
I yelled at them and motioned for them to get off with my arms, but they just continued to wave, Jonathan pointing to the ground as if to say ‘stay where I am.’ Tora-san looked at me with concern and we started to run after the car as it tore out of sight heading west, then careened around the corner headed north on 6th Ave.
“No use, they are going too fast to catch. Jonathan is smart, he’ll find his way back. We need a cab and to call the police,” I said worried sick.
Meanwhile, the club’s doorman, Dottie, Benchley, FPA, Harpo, Ring and some others came outside to see what was happening as the car drove away. Benchley was calmly putting tobacco in his pipe and mumbling, “Hmmm, a battle royal I see? Who’s that, Dempsey or Tunney on the ground?” (joking about the recent Heavyweight championship fight).
“What’s going on!?” Dottie asked.
“My kids! They hopped onto the back of that car heading to God knows where! We need to call the police!” I shouted anxiously. They all started to tell me it would be OK. Jimmy Cagney in the sharp tuxedo came out with his little party as well.
“Say, nice to see you pal, what gives?” he said. I told him. “The dirty rats, they’re crazy! This one of them?” he asked cocking his head at the guy on the ground who was groaning in pain.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll bet he knows where they’re going…” Cagney said.
Tora-san grunted approval. “So yo!”
Cagney crouched down as Benchley, Dottie, Harpo and Ring looked on.
“Listen you! Where are they going?”
The guy looked at him arrogantly and still in pain said, “I don’t know nuttin…”
“Oh yeah?” Cagney said, a savage grin on his face. “Tough guy, huh? In Yorkville, we used to eat mugs like you for breakfast so start talkin…”
“Go chase yourself.” the gangster said defiantly.
Tora-san crouched down and started to pinch the guy in the shoulder. He started to scream, unable to use his injured arm.
“Better start talking or my friend here is gonna make things mighty tough on you…” Cagney said threateningly. Tora-san grunted and pinched harder, the guy screaming in pain, Dottie turning away.
“Oh, no….” she said.
“Come on, spill it!” Cagney said.
“Okay, okay!!!” The guy screamed. “Enough… ”
“Well?” Cagney asked.
“Dey…….dey went to da Genna Brothers warehouse on twenty-ninth and tenth….”
“Izzat so? You better not be lyin, see? Anything happens to those kids and…” He looked at Tora-san who smiled. “I don’t have to tell you what my friend here will do to you. We better shake a leg and take this guy with us if we wanna catch them.”
The doorman whistled up a taxi which screeched to a halt. Cagney picked up the gun and handed it to Harpo.
“Know how to use this?”
Harpo’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
“Never mind. I’ll hang onto this - let’s get going.”
“Franklin, give a call to Lindy’s Deli,” Ring said, “and get a message to Rothstein - I’ll bet he’ll put a stop to this - hurry!”
“Rothstein?” I asked.
“Yeah, you know, the gentleman gangster, the 1919 Series fix?”
“Oh, yeah!” I said.
“Sure, this kind of rough stuff brings down too much heat from the cops. Rothstein likes to keep things nice and quiet. I’m sure he didn’t authorize this.”
“Isn’t anybody gonna call the cops?”
“From a speakeasy?” Ring said with surprise. “Yeah, they’re gonna call but we’ll get there before the cops will, even if they believe our story… and they probably won’t. Don’t worry, Rothstein’ll take care of this a lot quicker.”
“Come on you!” Cagney said through clenched teeth as he and Tora-san picked the gangster up.
“Say, what mob are you wit?” the gangster asked.
“The Broadway Mob….gwan…..get movin!” Cagney said as he shoved the gangster into the cab. Tora-san, me, Benchley, Harpo, Ring and Dottie who said she had to see if the kids were all right, piled in.
“Twenty-ninth and 10th - and step on it!” Cagney said.
COWBOYS TO THE RESCUE
Jonathan and Lauren had taken off in the confusion, mounting the folded up luggage rack and spare tire on the bumper like they had seen many kids do. They couldn’t be seen from the small rear window of the black sedan.
“We’re gonna get in a lot of trouble,” Lauren said as they waved ‘Bye bye!’ as Tora-san and me were trying to chase the car as it rounded the corner heading north on 6th Ave under the old El.
“Don’t worry,” Jonathan said confidently. “I wanna have some fun and we gotta rescue Babe Ruth somehow. We’ll figure it out. Hey, look at us - like an Indiana Jones movie!” he said grinning. “Hang on!”
They were hanging on the speeding car enjoying the ride as the car screeched around the block now heading west down 52nd street after we gave up the chase.
“Jonathan, we’re going to get lost….this is crazy.”
“No way, we can find our way back easy - Manhattan’s a grid and I got some nickels for the El anyway.”
“What if the gangsters find us? I’m scared.”
“We’ll slip off before they know it, besides they won’t hurt a little kid - they just want to talk to the Babe - didn’t you hear?” Jonathan said. “They’ll just think we’re a couple of kids hopping a ride… don’t worry…this is fun! Heeeheeeeee!”
After a wild ride, the car was bumping down the cobblestones of 10th Avenue along the railroad tracks. They turned right onto 29th Street and stopped in front of a warehouse with a squeal of brakes. Jonathan nudged
