Page:Manhattan Transfer (John Dos Passos, 1925).djvu/55

Rh little mop, dip, rinse and pile in the rack for the longnosed Jewish boy to wipe. There was a lull. The Jewish boy handed Bud a cigarette. They stood leaning against the sink.

"Aint no way to make money dishwashing." The cigarette wabbled on the Jewish boy's heavy lip as he spoke.

"Aint no job for a white man nohow," said Bud. "Waitin's better, they's the tips."

A man in a brown derby came in through the swinging door from the lunchroom. He was a bigjawed man with pigeyes and a long cigar sticking straight out of the middle of his mouth. Bud caught his eye and felt the cold glint twisting his bowels.

"Whosat?" he whispered.

"Dunno Customer I guess."

"Dont he look to you like one o them detectives?"

"How de hell should I know? I aint never been in jail." The Jewish boy turned red and stuck out his jaw.

The busboy set down a new pile of dirty dishes. Twice round with the little mop, dip, rinse and pile in the rack. When the man in the brown derby passed back through the kitchen. Bud kept his eyes on his red greasy hands. What the hell even if he is a detective When Bud had finished the batch, he strolled to the door wiping his hands, took his coat and hat from the hook and slipped out the side door past the garbage cans out into the street. Fool to jump two hours pay. In an optician's window the clock was at twentyfive past two. He walked down Broadway, past Lincoln Square, across Columbus Circle, further downtown towards the center of things where it'd be more crowded.

She lay with her knees doubled up to her chin, the nightgown pulled tight under her toes.

"Now straighten out and go to sleep dear Promise mother you'll go to sleep."