Page:Manhattan Transfer (John Dos Passos, 1925).djvu/184

172 "Let's see that's six hours and a half. I guess that'll do. But Stan what the hell are you doing here?"

"You havent got a little nip of liquor anywhere have you Herf? Dingo and I are extraordinarily thirsty. We came all the way from Boston and only stopped once for gas and water. I havent been to bed for two days. I want to see if I can last out the week."

"Kerist I wish I could last out the week in bed,"

"What you need's a job on a newspaper to keep you busy Herfy."

"What's going to happen to you Stan " Jimmy twisted himself round so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed " is that you're going to wake up one morning and find yourself on a marble slab at the morgue."

The bathroom smelled of other people's toothpaste and of chloride disinfectant. The bathmat was wet and Jimmy folded it into a small square before he stepped gingerly out of his slippers. The cold water set the blood jolting through him. He ducked his head under and jumped out and stood shaking himself like a dog, the water streaming into his eyes and ears. Then he put on his bathrobe and lathered his face.

Flow river flow Down to the sea,

he hummed off key as he scraped his chin with the safety-razor. Mr. Grover I'm afraid I'm going to have to give up the job after next week. Yes I'm going abroad; I'm going to do foreign correspondent work for the A. P. To Mexico for the U. P. To Jericho more likely, Halifax Correspondent of the Mudturtle Gazette. ''It was Christmas in the harem and the eunuchs all were there. ''

from the banks of the Seine To the banks of the Saskatchewan.

He doused his face with listerine, bundled his toilet things into his wet towel and smarting ran back up a flight of