“Oh, nerts to you,” she was saying to the third tourist, who had a rather swollen reddish face, a rusty-colored mustache, a white cloth hat with a green celluloid visor, and a trick of talking with a rather extraordinary movement of his lips as though he were eating something too hot for comfort.
“How charming,” said the green-visored man. “I’d never heard the expression actually used in conversation. I thought it was an obsolete phrase, something one saw in print in—er—the funny papers but never heard.”
“Nerts, nerts, double nerts to you,” said the lady wrestler lady in a sudden access of charm, giving him the benefit of her pimpled profile.
“How beautiful,” said the green-visored man.
“You put it so prettily. Isn’t it from Brooklyn originally?”
“You mustn’t mind her. She’s my wife,” the tall tourist said. “Have you two met?”
“Oh, nerts to him and double nerts to meeting him,” said the wife. “How do you do?”
“Not so badly,” the green-visored man said. “How do
“She does marvellously,” the tall one said. “You ought to see her.”
Just then Harry came in and the tall tourist’s wife said, “Isn’t he wonderful? That’s what I want. Buy me that, Papa.”
“Can I speak to you?” Harry said to Freddy.
“Certainly. Go right ahead and say anything you like,” the tall tourist’s wife said.
“Shut up, you whore,” Harry said. “Come in the back, Freddy.”
In the back was Bee-lips, waiting at the table.
“Hello, Big Boy,” he said to Harry.
“Shut up,” said Harry.
“Listen,” Freddy said. “Cut it out. You can’t get away with that. You can’t call my trade names like that. You can’t call a lady a whore in a decent place like this.
“A whore,” said Harry. “Hear what she said to me?”
“Well, anyway, don’t call her a name like that to her face.”
“All right. You got the money?”
“Of course,” said Bee-lips. “Why wouldn’t I have the money? Didn’t I say I’d have the money?”
“Let’s see it.”
Bee-lips handed it over. Harry counted ten hundred-dollar bills and four twenties.
“It should be twelve hundred.”
“Less my commission,” said Bee-lips.
“Come on with it.”
“No.”
“Come on.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“You miserable little crut.”
“You big bully,” Bee-lips said. “Don’t try to strong arm it away from me because I haven’t got it here.”
“I see,” said Harry. “I should have thought of that. Listen Freddy. You’ve known me a long time. I know she’s worth twelve hundred. This is a hundred and twenty short. Take it and take a chance on the hundred and twenty and the charter.”
“That’s three hundred and twenty dollars,” Freddy said. It was a painful sum for him to name as a risk, and he sweated while he thought about it.
“I got a car and a radio in the house that’s good for it.”
“I can make out a paper on that,” Bee-lips said. “I don’t want any paper,” Freddy said. He sweat again and his voice was hesitant. Then he said, “All right. I’ll take a chance. But for Christ’s sake be careful with the boat, will you Harry?”
“Like it was my own.”
“You lost your own,” said Freddy, still sweating, his suffering now intensified by that memory.
“I’ll take care of her.”
“I’ll put the money in my box in the bank,” Freddy said.
Harry looked at Bee-lips.
“That’s a good place,” he said, and grinned.
“Bartender,” someone called from the front.
“That’s you,” Harry said.
“Bartender,” came the voice again.
Freddy went out to the front.
“That man insulted me,” Harry could hear the high voice saying, but he was talking to Bee-lips.
“I’ll be tied up to the dock there at the front of the street. It isn’t half a block.”
“All right.”
“That’s all.”
“All right, Big Shot.”
“Don’t you big shot me.”
“However you like.”
“I’ll be there from four o’clock on.”
“Anything else?”
“They got to take me by force, see? I know nothing about it. I’m just working on the engine. I got nothing aboard to make a trip. I’ve hired her from Freddy to go charter fishing. They’ve got to hold a gun on me to make me start her and they’ve got to cut loose the lines.”
“What about Freddy? You didn’t hire her to go fishing from him.”
“I’m going to tell Freddy.”
“You better not.”
“I’m going to.”
“You better not.”
“Listen, I’ve done business with Freddy since during the war. Twice I’ve been partners with him and we never had trouble. You know how much stuff I’ve handled for him. He’s the only son-of-a-bitch in this town I
“I wouldn’t trust anybody.”
“
“Lay off me.”
“All right. Go out and see your friends. What’s
“They’re Cubans. I met them out at the roadhouse. One of them wants to cash a certified check. What’s wrong with that?”
“And you don’t notice anything?”
“No. I tell them to meet me at the bank.”
“Who drives them?”
“Some taxi.”
“What’s he supposed to think they are, violinists?”
“We’ll get one that don’t think. There’s plenty of them that can’t think in this town. Look at Hayzooz.”
“Hayzooz is smart. He just talks funny.”
“I’ll have them call a dumb one.”
“Get one hasn’t any kids.”
“They all got kids. Ever see a taxi driver without kids?”
“You are a goddamn rat.”