U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [243]
turned out that he wished he was a naked brown shep-herd boy sitting on a hil side playing a flute in the sunlight going to Genoa was easy enough the streetcar went there Genoa the new town we'd never seen ful of marble doges and breakneck stairs marble lions in the moon-light Genoa was, the ancient ducal city burning?
al the marble palaces and the square stone houses and the campaniles topping hil s had one marble wal on fire bonfire under the moon
the bars were ful of Britishers overdressed civilians strol ing under porticoes outside the harbor under the
-150-Genoa moon the sea was on fire the member of His Majesty's Intel igence Service said it was a Yankee tanker had struck a mine? been torpedoed? why don't they scut-tle her?
Genoa eyes flared with the light of the burning
tanker Genoa what are you looking for? the flare
in the blood under the moon down the midnight streets in boys' and girls' faces Genoa eyes the question in their eyes
through the crumbling stone courts under the Genoa
moon up and down the breakneck stairs eyes on fire under the moon round the next corner ful in your face the flare of the bonfire on the sea
11,000 registered harlots said the Red Cross Publicity Man infest the streets of Marseil es
JOE WILLIAMS
It was a lousy trip. Joe was worried al the time about Del and about not making good and the deckcrew was a bunch of soreheads. The engines kept breaking down. The Higginbotham was built like a cheesebox and so slow there were days when they didn't make more'n thirty or forty miles against moderate head winds. The only good times he had was taking boxing lessons from the second en-gineer, a fel ow named Glen Hardwick. He was a little wiry guy, who was a pretty good amateur boxer, though he must have been forty years old. By the time they
-151-got to Bordeaux Joe was able to give him a good workout. He was heavier and had a better reach and Glen said he'd a straight natural right that would take him far as a lightweight.
In Bordeaux the first port official that came on board tried to kiss Cap'n Perry on both checks. President Wilson had just declared war on Germany. Al over the town nothing was too good for Les Americains. Evenings when they were off Joe and Glen Hardwick cruised around to-gether. The Bordeaux girls were damn pretty. They met up with a couple one afternoon in the public garden that weren't hookers at al . They were nicely dressed and looked like they came of good families, what the hel it was wartime. At first Joe thought he ought to lay off that stuff now that he was married, but hel , hadn't Del held out on him. What did she think he was, a plaster saint?
They ended by going to a little hotel the girls knew and eating supper and drinking beaucoup wine and champagne and having a big party. Joe had never had such a good time with a girl in his life. His girl's name was Marceline and when they woke up in the morning the help at the hotel brought them in coffee and rol s and they ate break-fast, both of 'em sitting up in bed and Joe's French began to pick up and he learned how to say C'est la guerre and On les aura and Je m'en fiche and Marceline said she'd always be his sweetie when he was in Bordeaux and cal ed him petit lapin.
They only stayed in Bordeaux the four days it took 'em to wait their turn to go up to the dock and unload, but they drank wine and cognac al the time and the food was swel and nobody could do enough for them on account of America having come into the war and it was a great old four days.
On the trip home the Higginbotham sprung leaks so bad the old man stopped worrying about submarines al-together. It was nip and tuck if they'd make Halifax.
-152-The ship was light and rol ed like a log so that even with fiddles on they couldn't keep dishes on the messtable. One dirty night of driving fog somewhere south of Cape Race, Joe with his chin in his peajacket was taking a turn on the deck amidship when he was