Jimmy dodged the blow and then both men sprang for him. The first one
Jimmy caught on the point of the chin with a blow that put its recipient
out of the fight before he got into it, and then his companion, who was
the larger, succeeded in closing with the efficiency expert.
Inadvertently, however, he caught Jimmy about the neck, leaving both his
intended victim's arms free with the result that the latter was able to
seize his antagonist low down about the body, and then pressing him
close to him and hurling himself suddenly forward, he threw the fellow
backward upon the cement sidewalk with his own body on top. With a
resounding whack the attacker's head came in contact with the concrete,
his arms relaxed their hold upon Jimmy's neck, and as the latter arose
he saw both his assailants, temporarily at least, out of the fighting.

Jimmy glanced hastily in both directions. There was no one in sight.
His boardinghouse was but a few steps away, and two minutes later he was
safe in his room.

"A year ago," he thought to himself, smiling, "my first thought would
have been to have called in the police, but the Lizard has evidently
given me a new view-point in regard to them," for the latter had
impressed upon Jimmy the fact that whatever knowledge a policeman might
have regarding one was always acquired with the idea that eventually it
might be used against the person to whom it pertained.

"What a policeman don't know about you will never hurt you," was one way
that the Lizard put it.

When Jimmy appeared in the shop the next morning he noted casually that
Krovac had a cut upon his chin, but he did not give the matter a second