U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [466]
bigger down here than they ever dreamed of. And the Administration al fixed up. This is goin' to be big, little girl, the biggest thing you ever saw and I'm goin' to let you in on it. We'l be on easystreet from now on. And when you're on easystreet you'l al forget poor old Charley Anderson the boy that put you wise."
"Oh, it's so cold," moaned Eileen. "Let's go back. I'm shivering." Charley leaned over and put his arm round her shoulders. As he turned the car swerved. He wrenched it back onto the concrete road again. "Oh, please do be care-ful, Mr. Anderson. . . . You're doing eightyfive now.
. . . Oh, don't scare me, please."
Charley laughed. "My, what a sweet little girl. Look, we're down to forty just bowlin'
pleasantly along at forty. Now we'l turn and go back, it's time little chickens were in bed. But you must never be scared in a car when I'm driving. If there's one thing I can do it's drive a car. But I don't like to drive a car. Now if I had my own ship here. How would you like to take a nice trip in a plane? I'da had it down here before this but it was in hock for the repair bil s. Had to put a new motor in. But now I'm on easystreet. I'l get one of the boys to fly it down to me. Then we'l have a real time. You an' me an' Margo. Old Margo's a swel girl, got an awful temper though. That's one thing I can do, I know how to pick the women." When they turned to run back towards Miami they saw the long streak of the dawn behind the broad barrens dotted with dead pines and halfbuilt stucco houses and closed servicestations and dogstands.
"Now the wind's behind us. We'l have you back before you can say Jack Robinson." They were running along beside a railroad track. They were catching up on two red lights. "I wonder if that's the New York train." They
-368-were catching up on it, past the lighted observation car, past the sleepers with no light except through the ground-glass windows of the dressingrooms at the ends of the cars. They were creeping up on the baggagecar and mail-cars and the engine, very huge and tal and black with a little curling shine from Charley's headlights in the dark. The train had cut off the red streak of the dawn. "Hel , they don't make no speed." As they passed the cab the whistle blew. "Hel , I can beat him to the crossin'." The lights of the crossing were ahead of them and the long beam of the engine's headlight, that made the red and yel ow streak of the dawn edging the clouds very pale and far away. The bar was down at the crossing. Charley stepped on the gas. They crashed through the bar, shat-tering their headlights. The car swerved around sideways. Their eyes were ful of the glare of the locomotive head-light and the shriek of the whistle. "Don't be scared, we're through," Charley yel ed at the girl. The car swerved around on the tracks and stal ed. He was jabbing at the starter with his foot. The crash wasn't anything. When he came to he knew right away he was in a hospital. First thing he began wondering if he was going to have a hangover. He couldn't move. Everything was dark. From way down in a pit he could see the ceiling. Then he could see the peak of a nurse's cap and a nurse leaning over him. Al the time he was talking. He couldn't stop talking.
"Wel , I thought we were done for. Say, nurse, where did we crack up? Was it at the airport? I'd feel better if I could remember. It was this way, nurse . . . I'd taken that little girl up to let her get the feel of that new Boeing ship . . . you know the goldarned thing. . . . I was sore as hel at somebody, must have been my wife, poor old Gladys, did she give me a dirty deal? But now after this airport deal I'l be buyin' an' sel in' the whole
-369-bunch of them. Say, nurse, what happened? Was it at the airport?" The nurse's face and her hair were yel ow under the white cap. She had a thin face without lips and thin hands that went past his eyes to smooth the sheet under his chin.
"You must try and rest," she said. "Or else I'l have to give you another hypodermic."
"Say, nurse, are you a Canadian? I bet you're a Canadian."