"'To the lazaretto. Smallpox.'"
For a moment, while he was being lifted into the ambulance, the victim's
face was visible. A loud cry was heard in the crowd. It came from a ragged,
wild-looking man, whose unkempt beard made him look much older than I
afterward found him to be. As the ambulance hurried off, he ran after it,
shouting:
"'I must see that man! Stop! I must ask him something!'
"But he tripped upon a horse-car track, and when he had staggered to his
feet, the ambulance was out of sight.
"I ran into the hotel and asked the clerk about the lazaretto patient. He
was a young European--an Englishman--they thought, who had arrived from the
East two days ago, and whose condition had just been discovered.
"Coming out, I went to the tramp who had cried out at the sight of the ill
man. I found him seated on the curbstone, weeping like a child. I asked him
why he wished to see the smallpox victim, and said that I could get him
admission to the lazaretto, if he would tell me what he knew, and wouldn't
let any other reporter have the story.
"He jumped up eagerly.
"'It's this,' he said.
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