U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [534]
-535-women with uncombed hair and hands distorted with work, the boys with their heads battered and bleeding from the clubs of the Coal and Iron Police, the photograph of a miner's body shot through with machinegun bul ets. She got up and took two or three swigs from a bottle of gin she kept in the medicinecloset in the bathroom. The gin burned her throat. Coughing she went back to bed and went off into a hot dreamless sleep. Towards morning Don woke her getting into the bed.
He kissed her. "Darling, I've set the alarm for seven.
. . . Be sure to get me up. I've got a very important com-mitteemeeting. . . . Be sure and do it." He went off to sleep again right away like a child. She lay beside his big-boned lanky body, listening to his regular breathing, feel-ing happy and safe there in the bed with him. Eddy Spel man got through with his truck again and
distributed his stuff to several striking locals U.M.W. in the Pittsburgh district, although he had a narrow squeak when the deputies tried to ambush him near Greensburg. They'd have nabbed him if a guy he knew who was a
bootlegger hadn't tipped him off. The same bootlegger helped him out when he skidded into a snowdrift on the hil going down into Johnstown on the way back. He was laughing about it as he helped Mary pack up the new ship-ment. "He wanted to give me some liquor. . . . He's a good fel er, do you know it, Miss Mary?. . . Tough kinder. . . that racket hardens a fel er up. . . but a prince when you know him. . . .'Hel , no, Ed,' his
name's Eddy too, I says to him when he tries to slip me a pint, 'I ain't goin' to take a drink until after the revolu-tion and then I'l be ridin' so high I won't need to.'" Mary laughed. "I guess we al ought to do that, Eddy.
. . . But I feel so tired and discouraged at night some-times." "Sure," said Eddy, turning serious. "It gits you down thinkin' how they got al the guns an' al the money an' we ain't got nothin'."
-536-"One thing you're going to have, Comrade Spel man, is a pair of warm gloves and a good overcoat before you make the next trip."
His freckled face turned red to the roots of his red hair.
"Honest, Miss Mary, I don't git cold. To tel the truth the motor heats up so much in that old pile of junk it keeps me warm in the coldest weather. . . . After the next trip we got to put a new clutch in her and that'l take more jack than we kin spare from the milk. . . . I tel you things are bad up there in the coalfields this winter."
"But those miners have got such wonderful spirit," said Mary.
"The trouble is, Miss Mary, you kin only keep your spirit up a certain length of time on an empty stumick." That evening Don came by to the office to get Mary for supper. He was very cheerful and his gaunt bony face had more color in it than usual. "Wel , little girl, what would you think of moving up to Pittsburgh? After the plenum I may go out to do some organizing in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Mestrovich says they need some-body to pep 'em up a little." Eddy Spel man looked up from the bale of clothes he was tying up.
"Take it from me, Comrade Stevens, they sure do."
Mary felt a chil go through her. Don must have no-ticed the pal or spreading over her face. "We won't take any risks," he added hurriedly. "Those miners take good care of a fel er, don't they, Eddy?""They sure do. . . . Wherever the locals is strong you'l be safer than you are right here in New York.""Anyway," said Mary, her throat tight and dry, "if you've got to go you've got to go."
"You two go out an' eat," said Eddy. "I'l finish up I'm bunkin' here anyway. Saves the price of a flop.
. . . You feed Miss Mary up good, Comrade Stevens. We don't want her gettin' sick. . . . If al the real partymem-bers worked like she does we'd have. . . hel , we'd have
-537-the finest kind of a revolution by the spring of the year." They went out laughing, and walked down to Bleecker Street and settled happily at a table in an Italian restau-rant and ordered up the seventyfivecent dinner and a bottle of wine. "You've got a great admirer in Eddy," Don said, smiling at her across the table.