Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/234

224 “Hey, Toyama, who’ve you been talking to?”

Another whose face he did not know, but who looked like a student and might be one of the union secretaries, edged over towards him.

“What?” Toyama glared at him angrily. “What business of yours is it who I’ve been talking to? Who are you, anyhow?”

It looked as if it would develop into a row. Out of the shops on both sides a crowd, ignorant of what it was all about, came streaming. “What’s happened?” “Who wants a fight?”

“You’re one of Nagai’s hounds, are you? You son of a bitch.”

With the efficiency committee within sight, a clean-up was started. About twenty of the Right-Wing element were raided in the upstairs of a noodle restaurant near the works and beaten up by the picketing squad.

The pickets, like a gale, swept through all the neighbourhood of the factory and every corner of the workers’ tenements. The atmosphere there, even after nightfall, was menacing.

”“ [sic]When I ask you not to” The girl clung on to the man’s arm and would not let go.

“You fool!” The man tried to get free from her, but she proved unexpectedly strong. “Do they say they’re going to beat me up? …