Page:Manhattan Transfer (John Dos Passos, 1925).djvu/298

 "Sure I did Joey."

"Oh pipe down fellers," said Segal. "I was just stringin Joey along."

"Well I think Segal you ought to be secretary, cause you know about office work"

"Office work?"

"Sure," said Joe puffing his chest out. "We're goin to have desk space in the office of a guy I know It's all fixed. He's goin to let us have it free till we get a start. An we're goin to have office stationery. Cant get nowhere in this world without presentin things right."

"An where do I come in?" asked Sid Garnett.

"You're the committee, you big stiff."

After the meeting Joe O'Keefe walked whistling down Atlantic Avenue. It was a crisp night; he was walking on springs. There was a light in Dr. Gordon's office. He rang. A white faced man in a white jacket opened the door.

"Hello Doc."

"Is that you O'Keefe? Come on in my boy." Something in the doctor's voice clutched like a cold hand at his spine.

"Well did your test come out all right doc?"

"All right positive all right."

"Christ."

"Dont worry too much about it, my boy, we'll fix you up in a few months."

"Months."

"Why at a conservative estimate fiftyfive percent of the people you meet on the street have a syphilitic taint."

"It's not as if I'd been a damn fool. I was careful over there."

"Inevitable in wartime"

"Now I wish I'd let loose Oh the chances I passed up.

The doctor laughed. "You probably wont even have any symptoms It's just a question of injections. I'll have you sound as a dollar in no time Do you want to take a shot now? I've got it all ready."

O'Keefe's hands went cold. "Well I guess so," he forced