Books › Blue Book v055 n01 [1932-05], 1932 › scan 33
Scan 33
Blue Book v055 n01 [1932-05], 1932
30 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of him the street became very much like the bay of Biscay with a norther lashing it. The dog's head before Mr. O'Grady's tortured vision became large, distorted, like an image in a Coney Island comic mirror, multiplied, assuming ridiculous and fantastic shapes.
3Mr. O'Grady passed a hard hand across an harassed brow. "Whoo," said Mr. O'Grady. "Whoo!"
5The dog whined piteously. Mr. O'Grady, fondling its head erratically, made vast efforts to catch his rapidly shortening breath. The dog whined again. Mr. O'Grady leaned forward and held his head in his hands. Darkness, which was not darkness at all, but a hideous night of many colors, reeled before his bewildered eyes.
7"Whoo," puffed Mr. O'Grady again.
9But despite the weird sensations racking him, he became approximately alert. For near by some one was laughing. Moreover, Mr. O'Grady had reason to believe the laughter was directed at himself. He heard distinctly a voice, and a cockney voice at that, say something about a "drunk mick an' a bloody dahrg."
11There was nothing particularly derogatory about that, but Mr. O'Grady had ideas. Besides, Mr. O'Grady never had taken kindly to the English. Looking in the direction of these remarks, he saw at least three—how many more it was impossible for him to tell, as they changed positions with precision each time he shifted his eyes—men clad almost as he was himself. And he saw the unmistakable ruddy complexion and narrow features of the cockney seaman. Mr. O'Grady's visage grew grim.
13"Were you limejuishers," he said threateningly, "shpeakin' o' me an' my pal?"
15The cockneys hesitated a moment. "Yuss," one of them finally said, "we was…. An' what's yer to do about it?"
17Mr. O'Grady made no comment. With all of his diminishing faculties for concentration, he made what he believed was a withering attack in the direction of the cockneys, arms flailing. He saw fists, more numerous than he had ever witnessed before, fly at him in showers; he felt dull jolts that gave his anesthetized flesh no pain at all; he felt his own whirling fists connect—and then he felt no more….
19He became conscious of a sound much like that of the second string in the treble register of a violin. The sound became monotonous. It came closer. It came, in fact, to within a few inches of his right ear. And then Mr. O'Grady felt something warm and soft lick his face. That brought him to, with a start. He sat up abruptly, and really believed, for the moment, that his head was going to fly from his shoulders. He groaned. He rocked from side to side, and then he opened his eyes. And there, once more, he saw the dog. It was the dog's whining that had reminded Mr. O'Grady of the violin. The dog, evidently beside itself, was tugging at Mr. O'Grady's shirt.
21"My frien'!" said Mr. O'Grady.
23The dog barked joyously. Mr. O'Grady, sick and sore, got to his feet unsteadily. There were bruises and lumps on his jaws, and his turned-up nose felt the size of a football. He looked around through slit-like eyes and found himself in a dark street just, he knew from the noise and lights around the corner, a short distance from the Sudanese café. He did not bother, then, to reason how he got where he was. He did not bother much about anything. He lurched miserably around the corner and found a carriage. For Mr. O'Grady felt that he ought, above anything else, to get back to his ship and bunk.
25But with him, in the carriage, traveled the dog. Once more it dozed peacefully, its head in his lap.
27Mr. O'Grady reached the jetty and was sculled to his ship, the dog his fellow-passenger. As he climbed, with effort, the ladder, hauling himself up along the rope-rail, he heard the chronometer strike eight bells. Midnight! No one would be aboard yet, he knew. At the top of the ladder there was not even the watchman employed by the agents. But that only pleased Mr. O'Grady—he did not want to see the watchman. He staggered across the deck and to his cabin amidships, where, with the dog beside him, he sank into his bunk with vast relief. A profound sleep crept over him….
29How long he slept he did not know. He only knew that he was vastly annoyed when, near by, he heard the sound that resembled the second string of a violin's treble register. And he knew that his annoyance was increased by a tugging at his shirt and a warm tongue licking his face. Too sleepy to come full awake, and drifting back, he turned over on his side. But then he started
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