Michael Mayer - Time Trippers The Nights of the Round Table

“Shut UP!” Derby Hat implored, groaning in pain held down by Tora-san.

The leader, who was very young, glared angrily with hard eyes at the guy who called him Bugsy. He waved his hand to us indicating he was friendly. I thrilled with anticipation - the famous ‘Bugsy’ Ben Siegel himself!

He looked at Derby Hat and said “Well, well, well….if it isn’t Abe Atell causing all this trouble - can’t stay away from baseball, can you?” He had a heavy New York accent, but he clearly was trying hard to speak properly. “Shooting too….” He shook his head sadly.

Seeing that Cagney had Derby Hat’s five ‘boys’ covered with a .38, Bugsy walked over to the guy who called him Bugsy and smiled. He turned to us, smiled, shrugged his shoulders, turned to the guy and said, “I don’t think we’ve been introduced…” then socked him in the jaw, knocking him to the floor. “The name is Ben, BEN!” and kicked him once. “Sorry Abe, your boys aren’t trained very well, are they? Are they TRYING to be insulting?!”

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced… The name is Ben, BEN!”

“No, Ben, no, the big ape didn’t know no better….”

Ben addressed Tora-san, who still holding down Derby Hat, who was none other than Abe Atell, ex-boxer and key figure in the Black Sox scandal, the 1919 World Series fix still working for Rothstein.

“You, let him go… please.”

Tora-san, glaring at Abe, slowly let him go. Abe’s eyes were wide with fear and pain.

“Ben… Benny… it was all a mistake… ”

“Abe,” Ben said with increasing anger, “Rothstein, Meyer, Lucky and me, we trust you with our liquor imports, give you a big piece of the action, and what do you do? Go off on your own with this crazy scheme, which’ll bring down so much heat on us. Now I get a call from Rothstein, dragging me out of a party…….Abe, Abe, where are your brains at?” Ben was yelling by now.

“Benny,” Abe pleaded, “We ain’t done no harm. ”

“Abe… don’t say ain’t.” Ben said suddenly quiet. “That’s ignorant.”

“OK, whatever you say Benny.”

“Abe, we need to have a little talk.”

“No Ben, no! I promise nuttin’ like this will ever happen again, honest!” Abe pleaded.

I shouted for the kids. Jonathan came out followed by Pat and his little gang, cool as you please.

“You guys…” I said in anger. “Where’s Lauren?!”

“She went with two of the gang, Skinny and Mose to get the cops…” Jonathan replied with confidence.

“You guys took a terrible chance… you are in so much trouble… but I’ve never been more pleased to see anyone in my life,” I said hugging them. Harpo grinned.

“I pretended to be a Federal Agent, Lito - Elliot Ness!” Jonathan said proudly. “Are you the Federal Agents?” he asked Ben innocently.

Ben’s two gangsters nudged each other grinning. “Federal Agents… get him!”

“No sport, we’re the cavalry.” Ben replied smiling.

“OK, you with the gun, you can put it down now. Thanks for saving me a lot of trouble.” Ben said to Cagney, who gratefully lowered his gun.

“Thanks pal,” Cagney said relieved, wiping some sweat off his brow. “I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could hold these jokers off.”

Pat and his gang emerged. “Hi, Uncle Jimmy!” he said.

Cagney smiled yet looked angry. “Well, well, as I live and breathe - I might have known. I oughta whale the tar out of you or have your old man do it - what’dya mean getting involved with mugs like these - you mighta been killed! C’mere!” He hugged Pat.

“Aww, we was alright.” Pat replied.

Ring addressed Ben: “You wouldn’t be by any chance THE Bugs… I mean Ben Siegel?”

“The same.” Ben replied, smiling. “Ben, just call me Ben, OK?” Before I could stop him, Jonathan asked Ben with his big, wide mischievous grin:

“How come that guy called you Bugsy?”

Ben smiled. “Well… I guess I’m famous for losing my temper easy…and some people don’t have any manners!” he said looking at Abe and his boys.

At that moment Lauren, Skinny and Mose arrived with the old officer and two more cops.

“See!” she said righteously. “We weren’t lying!!”

The astonished policemen goggled at Babe Ruth and the crews of the Cowboys, Cagney and our rescue party, ‘Bugsy’ and his two well-dressed cronies with their pistols trained on a very chastened Abe and his boys. The old policeman removed his cap and scratched his head.

“Well, I’ll be! Sure and yez were tellin’ the truth, so ye were!” He held out his hand to Babe who shook it with a smile. “Mr. Ruth, sure and it’s a pleasure. If it wasn’t for these kids…well………tis an honor t’ meet you anyways. O’Malley’s the name!”

“Officer, I can’t thank you enough!” Ruth replied.

We introduced ourselves, and the officer was really surprised when we introduced Tora-san in his black uniform.

“The Japanese Navy is it? Sure t’was a brave thing ye did, so it was - ye might ha’ been killed.”

Tora-san grinned like the warrior he was.

“He’s a Samurai…a Japanese knight.” Jonathan added enthusiastically.

Tora-san smiled and modestly denied it. “Iya… chigaimasuyo…” (No…it’s different, I don’t deserve that honor ).

Lauren chimed in: “And these are the Knights of the Round Table!” pointing at Dottie, Benchley, Ring and Harpo.

Benchley laughed: “Why….to be sure, are we not gallant knights after this adventure? Ha! Well said, little girl.”

Dottie laughed, “I just wonder which one of us is Sir Galahad, the virtuous white knight?”

They all laughed.

“And who might you be?” O’Malley addressed Ben.

“Elliot Ness, Federal Agent, Treasury Department….” Ben said cool as you please. He winked at Jonathan. “We’ve got this covered, officer. We’ve been working on this case for some time trying to catch these bootleggers,” Ben said with confidence. “We happen to know that these cases of ‘Olive Oil’ in fact contain liquor, Haig & Haig imported scotch,” he nodded at the box Abe shot with his gun, leaking scotch at an alarming rate. One of his ‘agents’ opened it, removed a bottle and held it up for everyone to see.

Benchley, Dottie, Harpo and Ring were all looking wide-eyed at this little exchange. The brazenness of his claim, pretending to be a government prohibition agent in front of the police took my breath away. Guess they didn’t call him ‘Bugsy’ for nothing!

“That rescue effort by these citizens and these brave kids took a lot of guts.” Ben said coolly.

“The credit really goes to these kids,” Ring said. “That was some risky stunt you pulled riding the back of that car. Your grandpa was really worried, but thanks to you we managed to rescue the Babe.”

Tora-san grinned at Jonathan and patted his head saying “Hontoh ni ninja ni natte iru yo! You- real - Ninja now!!”

Jonathan grinned and tried a couple of kicks at Tora-san for fun, which he parried with a grin.

“Looks like we have a couple of heroes!” I said with a smile.

Benchley observed that this called for a drink in celebration.

Ruth turned to us and said, “I owe maybe my life to you guys - if it wasn’t for them kids buying you guys the time - you shoulda heard them - bravest thing I ever heard.” Ruth said. “And you, Ring, Mike, and I don’t know you,” he said nodding at Cagney who introduced himself and scruffy Pat Murphy and his gang, all grinning crooked smiles. “I have you guys to thank and, say, and what’s his name the Jap…I mean Japanese officer?” Ruth said pointing at Tora-san. “He almost got shot….”