hoarse shouts , a gunshot , and then we were in the hallway and then skittering along the cobblestoned alley worn slick by the tread of ten thousand feet , warthrop 's hand like a vise around my forearm , avoiding elizabeth street , zigzagging through the narrow arteries bisecting the tenements , old men sitting at round tables playing cards and sipping grappa and boys pitching pennies against sooty walls and far-off laughter and the face of a beautiful girl in a third-story window , and warthrop 's breath heavy in my ear : `` you have done it now , you fool . ''