“Who does he think,” he demanded, sniffing, spasmodically and wiping his nose with the back of his sturdy wrist, “he is, a cop or something?”

He collapsed, kicked spasmodically on his back while four officers stood over him and, shortly afterward, stopped breathing.

At the moment, however, “our apparatus runs only spasmodically, and a good share of the time we have it dismantled for repairs and alterations.”