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They ordered drinks, and Slug talked to one of the bouncers. He told the girls to wait, and they all said yes, dearie.

They followed a bouncer with cauliflower ears along an aisle of tables, out a doorway, and down a narrow, dim hall-way. They heard a mingled echo of moans, curses, indistinct sounds.

“It’s as soundproof as we can get it,” the bouncer said.

He opened a door. They were struck by an alcoholic stench, and drunken exclamations. The lights were shot on and they saw a bare room where drunks were crowded all over the floor.

The gang laughed at one drunk who snored in a corner, his belly rising and falling, his mouth wide open. Other drinks rolled on the floor, raved, and one sat playing with his toes, his shoes beside him.

“Like a booby hatch,” Slug said, with a smile.

“Say, are they sick?” drawled Vinc.

“Don’t mind that chump,” Slug said, when the bouncer looked curiously at him.

A thin guy crawled towards them on his hands and knees, bumping others, falling over one bloated fat fellow. He told them he had to crawl because he was having a terrible time with his feet; every time he tried to walk, his left foot got ahead of his right one. He braced himself along the wall, and with effort. He walked in zigzags, and then turned, and told them to judge for themselves if his right foot didn’t always keep getting ahead of his left one.

“Siddown!” the bouncer said.

The guy crawled away. A fellow who had been sleeping suddenly lifted himself from the hips, and heaved; he fell back in his own vomit. Two guys in a corner tried to drown out the room by singing She’s My Lulu.

“Jesus, let’s go. That odor will kill me,” said Studs.

A blond boy of about eighteen let out an insane shriek, and dashed towards them, stepping on the face of an unconscious drunk. He fell on his knees before them, and loudly begged that he be saved from the snakes. It was funny. He arose, clapped his hands to his ears, and yelled. He fell before the bouncer, and repeated his entreaties to be saved from the snakes; pointing dramatically in back of them. He crawled to the wall, still shrieking. The bouncer jerked out a blackjack and neatly put him to sleep. His face was pale and sickly in the artificial illumination.

A husky fellow rolled over to them, and yelled he’d been rolled.

“Fade!” the bouncer commanded.

“Give me my money back, you sonofabitches, or I’ll.. ..” The bouncer cracked him in the jaw; he fell on top of a sleeping Polack.

“Mother! Mama! Your little boy needs you. He’s sick. Mama in heaven, Mama,” a fat fellow moaned on his knees in a corner.

“Jesus, they’re blind,” Slug said with a laugh.

“We got to do something with them,” the bouncer said, turning off the light, and shutting the door. Two bouncers, with padded shoulders, passed, carting a drunk along the hallway.

“Boys will be boys!” Red said.

“Makes you want to puke,” Studs said.

“Say, Studs, why do they do that?” Curley asked, innocently.

“Shut up!”

“Say, Red...”

“Curley, you talk too goddamn much,” Red interrupted.

The bouncer explained, in answer to Red’s question, that they dumped them out in the morning.

“Say, most of the guys who work here look like they bought their faces at a second-hand auction,” Studs said.

They returned to their tables. The girls were there. Slug whispered to a big, angular-faced, high-cheeked, blond Polack in pink teddies.

“Gimme the dough now,” she said, pronouncing her words as Slug did.

He whispered to Studs, Doyle, and Red. They handed him some change. He slipped two bills to the Polack broad.

“Hello, Vincent,” she cooed, draping herself on his lap.

“Say, how did you know my name?” he asked, as drinks were set down on the table.

“Vincent, a little love-bird whispered it in my ear.”

Vinc turned from the girl and called to Shrimp. Haggerty was busy telling the girl on his lap that he got tired of his wife, and needed a change. Vinc yelled to him. He turned.

“Do you want to go to the Michigan with me tomorrow afternoon, and see the picture?”

They roared. Studs told his girl that the goof had water on the brain; born that