"
The crowd's curiosity served effectively to clear that passage.
Lanigan's captive went along, sullenly unresisting. There was no
opportunity for rebellion in that mob that opened a narrow passage
grudgingly, only to pack together again in a solid mass. But certain men
whom Krylovensky passed or men who caught his eye by swift motions spat
whispers at him in a language that Lanigan did not understand.
"Is it three cheers that your brother rattlesnakes are giving ye in the
natural hissing way of 'em?" inquired the captor. "They're a fine bunch!"
With his hand twisted tightly into the slack of the man's coat and the
torn shirt, the ex-sergeant forced the prisoner up the short stairs that
conducted to the platform; Demeter followed.
Tobacco smoke streamed up in whirls from the banked faces that filled the
hall from side to side, and the eddying clouds floated in strata above the
rows of heads. Lanigan peered sternly at the crowd through the haze. "Here
I am back! And I'm thanking the good saints for the few mouthfuls of fresh
air I got outside and the news I got, and for this here I found and
fetched along. I need him. I was on a jury once, in a murder case, and
they had the tool that done the job and the lawyers tagged it Exhibit A.
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