20
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Sure," said Ike. Then he turned red. "I got the mlSSUSwith
me ....
You'll have to pay her fare too."
He didn't like the look the fink gave him. "A henpecked hus-
band .... That's great .... That's what we want, good steady married
men that won't walk out on us." "Say, Mister Riley, this ain't a
scabbin' job, is it?" Riley looked Ike straight in the eye with that
nasty look he had. "Take it or leave it," he said. "I've not got time
to talk philosophy with nobody."
"All right," said Ike. He went around and resigned at the Rail-
way Express and drew a couple of dollars they still owed him and
that night he and Jinny went down to the train. She was carrying
a floor lamp she'd won at a shooting gallery and he had their ratty
wicker suitcase in one hand and a paper package under his arm.
The fink was waiting for them with the tickets.
After he'd settled Jinny in the daycoach h~ went back to the
smokingcar to take a look at the bunch. The minute he saw them he
knew it was a scab job, a worselooking bunch of scissorbills he never
had seen. They were drinking and yelling and raising cain right there
in the smokingcar. Ike felt worse than he'd ever felt in his life, but
what the hell could he do? Looked like it was scab money or no
money.
He went into the toilet and took out the red card he still carried
in his inside pocket and tore it up and dropped it down the johnny.
He stood there a minute looking at .himself in the cracked mirror. He
looked pale and thin and he had circles under his eyes from not sleep-
ing last night but he didn't look very different from how he'd always
looked. He looked himself right in the eye and whispered "Ike Hall,
you're a married man and a skunk." Then he sat do"m on the johnny
and covered his face with his hands that were sore and rough from
baggage smashing in K.C. The train made a cheery racket over the
ties in the windy night. Now and then from way up ahead the enginr
hooted at him. " Just a lousy scabbin' scissorbill."
