Looking at them in the brighter
light of the bar, as they clamoured for drinks, I wondered uneasily if they weren’t pr0stitutes: the four of them had the hard, glittering eyes, the strident voices, the easy familiarity of
the better class of street-walker. The Idea startled me.
Looking at the men, I saw now they weren’t in a much
batter class.
Berry could have been a bookie’s tout, Joe a
small-time boxer, Louis anything: a gigolo possibly.
I couldn’t place Dix. He was obviously an American.
There was something about him that warned me he could be
dangerous. As he lolled against the bar, chewing gum, a
whisky in his hand, his small dark eyes glittering as he kept
looking sideways at Gloria, he reminded me of a typical
gangster you see on the movies.
“Harry dances divinely,” Gloria announced. “Ed, you’ll
have to look to your laurels.”
“That so? I should care.” He half turned, leaning his back
against the bar to stare at me. “I’ll show you something you
can’t do, pally.”
He pushed himself away from the bar, went over to the
fireplace and picked up a heavy steel poker.
“Ed is about to show off,” Gloria said and laughed.
He held the poker in his massive hands, bent it into a
hoop, and then without any apparent effort straightened it
again.
“Can’t do that, can you, pally?”
I shook my head.
“That takes some doing.”
He tossed the poker with a clatter into the fireplace and
came back to the bar. “For heaven’s sake!” Gloria said crossly, “do you have to
show off and spoil my poker? We all know you’re the strongest
man in the world.”
An ugly gleam jumped into Dix’s eyes.
“Talk when you’re spoken to, smartie pants, or you’ll get
a slap where it’ll do you the most good.”
Gloria’s face hardened, but she forced a laugh. “What a
way to talk! Do you still live in a cave, Eddie?”
He caught her wrist, swung her round and slapped her
behind all in one swift movement. The loud whack of his hand made a pistol shot noise.
Gloria screamed sharply.
I felt blood rush into my face. My fists closed, and I set
myself to throw a punch at him but Joe hastily stepped
between us, his back to me, facing Dix.
“Aw, Ed, that’s no way to treat a lady,” he said mildly,
moving to the right as I tried to get around him, blocking me off again.
“Forget it,” Dix said, eyeing me over Joe’s head. “She’s
too ready with her smart cracks.”
“Oh, shut up, the lot of you!” Gloria exclaimed. “You’re
nothing better than a heavy-fisted ape, Ed.” She rubbed her
seat, grimacing. “I bet you’ve left your finger-prints on me.”
“I bet I haven’t,” Dix said, suddenly grinning. “Let’s have
a look.”
“Really, Ed!” She turned to Louis. “Put a record on, and
let’s dance.”
The tension died down and the others began to dance.
Gloria slipped into my arms and I steered her away from the
others.
“Did he hurt you?”
She laughed.
“You mustn’t mind Ed. He’s a bit free with his hands, but
he means nothing by it. You looked as if you were going to
start a fight.”
I was still pretty steamed up.
“I was going to sock him.”
“Don’t ever do that Harry. He’s much too strong and
slick. He’s been in the ring with men like Baksi and Mauriello back in the States.
Don’t ever think you could handle him.
Even Joe, who used to be a pro., wouldn’t fight him.”
“All the same, if he hits you again, I’m going to hit him.”
She looked up at me, her eyes sparkling.
“I believe you would, Harry, but he didn’t mean anything.”
We had more drinks, more dancing and still more drinks.
Berry got a little tight. I was getting a little tight myself.
I wasn’t used to drinking whisky, and every time a record stopped, I found a fresh drink standing on the bar for me; and they were powerful ones.
An argument started up suddenly in a comer between
Berry and Madge. She was as tight as he was, but not as tight as he seemed to want her to be.
He was trying to pull her into another room when Gloria
saw what was going on.
“Ed! Please go over and break that up. I don’t care what
he does to her outside my flat, but I’ll be d@mned if he does it in my bedroom!”
Dix grinned lazily.
“So what? Let the man alone.”
“If you don’t break it up, I’m going to!”
He shrugged and went over to Berry.
“He’s just an animal when he gets liquor in him,” Gloria
said to me, wrinkling her nose.
Dix said something to Berry, who let go of Madge and
sat down, scowling. Dix came back to the bar.
“Ed, isn’t it time you had a talk with Harry?”
“Okay. Let’s go into the other room, Harry.”
“Don’t lie on my bed, please, like you did last time,”
Gloria said.
“What’s a bed for but to lie on?”
He jerked his head at me and I followed him across the
room. As I passed Berry he said with a sneering grin, “Are you
two girls going to powder your noses?”
Dix turned and reached Berry’s side with the swiftness of
a streak of lightning. He slapped Berry’s face before Berry could get his arm up to protect himself. He hit Berry so hard, Berry fell off the settee on to the floor.
“Ed!” Gloria screamed.
The other girls backed quickly against the wall, out of the
way. Louis and Joe stood motionless. Louis looked scared, while Joe grinned, thrusting his hands into his trousers pockets.
Dix stood over Berry who lay on his side looking up at
him, one side of his white face a flaming red.
“What did you say, you punk?” Dix asked in a
dangerously quiet voice.
“I didn’t say anything,” Berry said, not moving.
“Then don’t say anything.”
Dix eased his massive shoulders under his full draped
coat and toned to me.
“Come on; let’s talk.”
He went into the other room without looking back. Still
startled and a little shaken by the unbelievable speed at which
he had moved across the room to hit Berry, I followed him and
shut the door.
I found myself in a lavishly furnished bedroom of blue
and silver decor. A double bed with a quilted headboard of
blue satin stood by one wall. Walnut built-in cupboards
covered another wall. There was a huge mirror, lighted by strip
lamps that took up most of the third wall, and a dressing-table, covered with bottles of lotions, perfumes and boxes of creams faced the bed.
Dix was wandering around the room, his hands in his
pockets.
“Some joint, isn’t it? How would you like to sleep in all
these frills?”
“I wouldn’t, but most girls would.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s right. Park fanny somewhere. I
want to talk to you.”
He went over to the bed and stretched out on it. He
groped for a cigarette, threw me one and lit up. “Gloria tells me you own a big garage in Eagle Street. Did she tell you I’m looking for a West End Agency?”
“She mentioned it.”
“Eagle Street would suit me. Think you could handle it?”
“I don’t see why not. What exactly would I have to do?”
“Not much at first.
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