"He was a wonder though; just sat in his office, and kept the ship
owners waitin' in line, swearin' bitter and refined cuss-words about
'ignorant fiend' and 'cussed pedagogue,' which last, for Kink's
enlightenment, means a kind of Hebrew meetin'-house.

"These here details my new friend give me, ending with a eulogy on
Oily Heegan, the Idol of the Idle.

"'If he says starve, we starve,' says he, 'and if he says work, we
work. See! Oh he's the goods, he is! Let's go down by the
river--mebbe we'll see him.' So me and Murdock hiked down Water
Street, where they keep mosquito netting over the bar fixtures and
spit at the stove.

"We found him, a big mouthed, shifty, kind of man, 'bout as cynical
lookin' in the face as a black bass, and full of wind as a toad fish.
I exchanged drinks for principles of socialism, and doin' so happened
to display my roll. Murdock slipped away and made talk with a
friend, then, when Heegan had left, he steers me out the back way
into an alley. 'Short cut,' says he 'to another and a better place.'

"I follers through a back room; then as I steps out the door I'm
grabbed by this new friend, while Murdock bathes my head with a
gas-pipe billy, one of the regulation, strike promotin' kind, like
they use for decoyin' members into the glorious ranks of Labour.

"I saw a 'Burning of Rome' that was a dream, and whole cloudbursts of
shootin' stars, but I yanked Mr. Enthusiastic Stranger away from my
surcingle and throwed him agin the wall. In the shuffle Murdock
shifts my ballasts though, and steams up the alley with my