Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/68

58 From among the fishermen and sailors came a loud voice, “Bloody lies! If that was true I’d have been director before now!” and again everyone laughed.

Afterwards the lecturer said that he had been ordered by the company to lay special stress on places like that to bring the moral home to the men.

The last picture showed the company’s different factories and offices. Many workers were depicted working “industriously.”

When the movies had finished they drank the sake given to celebrate the ten thousandth can.

Not having testedtasted [sic] sake for ages and being worn out, the men soon became drunk. Dense clouds of tobacco smoke hung round the dim electric light. The air was thick and stuffy. Stripping off their clothes, twisting towels round their heads, sprawling about crosslegged or tucking the bottoms of their kimono up to their waists, they shouted out all sorts of things in chorus. Sometimes fish fights developed.

This did not stop till after midnight.

One fisherman came rolling like a great sack down the stairs. His clothes and right hand were smothered in blood.

“A knife! A knife! Get me a knife!” he cried, crawling along the floor. “Where’s that devil Asakawa gone. He’s not there. I’m going to kill him!”

He was one of the fishermen whom the boss had ordered to be beaten. He seized a poker and, blind with rage, rushed out again. No one stopped him.