U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [465]
-365-I got on the boat to come up to New York and got to pal in' with, a Florida cracker . .
. he was a funny guy.
. . . We went up to New York together. He said the
thing to do was get over an' see the war, so him and me like a pair of damn fools we enlisted in one of those volun-teer ambulance services. After that I switched to aviation. That's how I got started in my line of business. Miami didn't mean a thing to me then."
"Wel , Flagler gave me ma start," said Cassidy. "And I'm not ashamed to admit it . . . buyin' up rightofway for the Florida East Coast. . . . Flagler started me and he started Miamah."
That night when they got in sunburned and a little
drunk from the day on the Gulf Stream they tucked al the options away in the safe in Judge Cassidy's office and went over to the Palms to relax from business cares. Margo wore her silver dress and she certainly looked stunning. There was a thin dark Irishlooking girl there named Eileen who seemed to know Cassidy from way back. The four of them had dinner together, Cassidy got good --and tight and opened his mouth wide as a grouper's talking about the big airport and saying how he was going to let the girls in on some lots on the deal. Charley was drunk, but he wasn't too drunk to know Cassidy ought to keep his trap shut. When he danced with Eileen he talked earnestly in her ear tel ing her she ought to make the boy-friend keep his trap shut until the thing was made public from the proper quarters. Margo saw them with their heads together and acted the jealous bitch and started mak-ing over Cassidy to beat the cars. When Charley got her to dance with him she played dumb and wouldn't answer when he spoke to her.
He left her at the table and went over to have some drinks at the bar. There he got into an argument with a skinny guy who looked like a cracker. Eddy Palermo, with an oily smile on his face the shape and color of an olive,
-366-ran over and got between them. "You can't fight this gentleman, Mr. Anderson, he's our county attorney. . . . I know you gentlemen would like each other . . . Mr. Pappy, Mr. Anderson was one of our leading war aces." They dropped their fists and stood glaring at each other with the little wop nodding and grinning between them. Charley put out his hand. "Al right, put it there, pal," he said. The county attorney gave him a mean look and put his hands in his pockets. "County attorney' s --t," said Charley. He was reeling. He had to put his hand against the wal to steady himself. And he turned and walked out the door. Outside he found Eileen who'd just come out of the ladies' room and was patting back her sleek hair in front of the mirror by the hatchecking stand. He felt choked with the whiskey and the cigarsmoke and the
throbbing hum of the band and the shuffle of feet. He had to get outdoors. "Come on, girlie, we're goin' for a ride, get some air." Before the girl could open her mouth he'd dragged her out to the parkinglot. "Oh, but I don't think we ought to leave the others," she kept saying. "They're too goddam drunk to know. I'l bring you back in five minutes. A little air does a little girl good, especial y a pretty little girl like you." The gears shrieked because he didn't have the clutch shoved out. The car stal ed; he started the motor again and immediately went into high. The motor knocked for a minute but began to gather speed. "See," he said, "not a bad little bus." As he drove he talked out of the corner of his mouth to Eileen. "That's the last time I go into that dump. . . . Those little cracker politicians fresh out of the turpentine camps can't get fresh with me. I can buy and sel 'em too easy like buyin' a bag of peanuts. Like that bastard Farrel . I'l buy and sel him yet. You don't know who he is but al you need to know is he's a crook, one of the biggest crooks in the country, an' he thought, the whole damn lot of 'em thought, they'd put me out like they did
-367-poor old Joe Askew. But the man with the knowhow, the boy who thinks up the gadgets, they can't put him out. I can outsmart 'em at their own game too. We got somethin'