"An infidel!" one yelled. The jabbering stopped abruptly. They wheeled in a group after the white man. The white man heard the shout. He saw the sudden movement through the corners of his eyes. He leaped forward from the curb. A car coming fast down 127th Street burnt rubber in an ear-splitting shriek to keep from running him down. Seen in the car's headlights, his sweating face was bright red and muscle-ridged; his blue eyes black with panic; his gray-shot hair in wild disorder. Instinctively he leaped high and sideways, away from the oncoming car. His arms and legs flew out in grotesque silhouette. At that instant Sonny came abreast of the Arabs and shot at the leaping white man while he was still in the air. The orange blast lit up Sonny's distorted face and the roar of the gunshot sounded like a fusillade. The big white man shuddered and came down limp. He landed face down and in a spread-eagled posture. He didn't getup. Sonny ran up to him with the smoking pistol dangling from his hand. He was starkly spotlighted by the car's headlights. He looked at the white man lying face down in the middle of the street and started laughing. He doubled over laughing, his arms jerking and his body rocking. Lowtop and Rubberlips caught up. The eight Arabs joined them in the beams of light. "Man, what happened?" Lowtop asked. The Arabs looked at him and began to laugh. Rubberlips began to laugh too, then Lowtop. All of them stood in the stark white light, swaying and rocking and doubling up with laughter. Sonny was trying to say something but he was laughing so hard he couldn't get it out. A police siren sounded nearby.

2

The telephone rang in the captain's office at the 126th Street precinct station. The uniformed officer behind the desk reached for the outside phone without looking up from behind the record sheet he was filling out. "Harlem precinct, Lieutenant Anderson," he said. A high-pitched correct voice said, "Are you the man in charge?" "Yes, lady," Lieutenant Anderson said patiently and went on writing with his free hand.