Damned sure!. That was all I needed!. We met at the Haymarket… He gets in front of me at the ticket window. He puts a pound on Chatterton. And it wasn’t the favorite!
… It surprised me a little about him… I didn’t make any remark!.. He was the one who buttonholed me. I let him start talking..
'Say, Cascade!. Don’t you know anything? There’s a war on, my dear fellow!.. There’s a war on!.. ’
A dumb remark.
'Again?’ I said. That gets him! It’s a peculiarity of his! Always the same gag since he saw my certificate!.. discharged, class of ’87. that I did my time. my seven years! that I’m not going to start all over!. I’m not bugs! like the others!.. that kind of gab, nuts to that!. they know me at the Consulate. at the Yard too!. Besides I’ve got my albumin.. with a checkup and everything.. just let ’em try and kick me out!.. that Matthew won’t get my hide, he’d sure like to see me yanked in!. For me to clear out! Ha! Small-timer!.. he’d treat me to a drink in Waterloo!. after that. he can have the cuties!.. Big-shot dealer and everything! The police don’t worry them!. hypocrites!. All the gals in bunches for the Corsicans!. for the Belgians!. for anyone!. Ah! that matter! Business fine!.. I know what that fox’s got in the back of his mind! I haven’t been on the Strand since yesterday! Beg your pardon!. No fog!. He says to himself. he’ll be drunk like the others. They’re all wacked up at the moment. they’re all bitten by the war!.. I’m going to make him ashamed!.. He’ll beat it!..Zim! Boom! Patriotic, those frogs! Beg your pardon!..A bone!. Just wait!
'Your papers!’ he asks. he’s getting sore. my papers? Papers are in order I’ll have you know!. Mr. Cascade!.. Papers!.. Papers!..
'Here, Inspector.’
'All real Frenchmen enlist!’ he starts off, looking at me.
'I agree!.. I agree!.. I grant you, Inspector!.. I’m not contradicting.. They leave their places to the clients.. Seems to be the fashion!.. But that’s pure nuts, isn’t it? Stark madness! in my opinion!. Don’t you think so Inspector?’
‘I don’t think so, Cascade!.. I don’t think so!.. ’
'The pretty war’ll go on without me, Inspector!. I feel comfortable with you, Inspector!.. No reason for me to leave you!’ And I just keep jabbering away at him!..
Ah! he says to himself.. It’s the death of the horse!..
He stands there dreaming!.. He starts hearing spirits!.. Just stands there sniffling!. Ah! the phony!. I act childish. I know the Yard all right!. dopes, but doublecrossers and stubborn!..
We talk for a while. He puts it another way..
'Yes! It’s a terrible war!’
That makes him sigh.
'Those Bodies are real savages!.. Did you see the Mirror this morning? Those photos? That atrocity? The way they cut off children’s hands?’
'Ah! It’s true, Inspector. All too true!’
'Got to kill those brutes, Cascade!’
'That’s right, Inspector!’
‘I’d go myself if I were free!.. Ah! how I wish I were free!
like you!. If I hadn’t my job!. Ah! if I were free!’ And then a shitload of sighs. the louse!
'I’m sick, Inspector! Haven’t you seen my certificate? Not strong! Delicate! Sensitive legs!’
'Sick!’ he says, 'but turbulent!’
Ah! I feel it coming. I see it’s getting fishy. I’ve annoyed him!
'Me turbulent, Inspector?.. Ah! I wouldn’t like to be that! Oh no!.. *
Ah! I protest.
'Quite well behaved I suppose?’
He’s skeptical.
‘Absolutely, Inspector! ’
What’s coming next?
'No violence? No breach of the law?’
'Oh, not at all, Inspector!’
'And what about your gang, Mr. Cascade?’
Ah! here it comes!
'My gang? my gang?…’ I’m startled. The first news! What’s he insinuating?..
'Oh! it’s going to get you into trouble! What an outfit! What riffraff, Mr. Cascade!. What a gang you’ve got!.. What reckless people! Oh! I just don’t understand you. With such roughnecks!. Ah! I’m warning you, my dear Cascade, in all sympathy!’
I didn’t see what he was driving at.
Then he starts telling me things… in detail.. the low-down tricks. the business of the hat. La Vaillance. your fight and everything. some stinker that cop!. Oh! Sister! what hot air!. I don’t say anything. I listen to him. I see what’s coming. He’s looking for trouble!. He’s been given orders, the rat!. They want to pin anarchism on me!.. That way they can deport me!. Not a word of truth!. But that’s enough!.. They invent, that’s all!.. Anything goes when the cops are after you!.. Just keep your mouth shut!.. I stop dead!. I play dumb!. I plead guilty, not proud. If I make a wrong move, I’m a goner!.. he’ll pull me in! I’m sure he’s got a warrant for me!. He’s warning me and means business!
'I don’t want to see them at La Vaillance! Your friends!’ 'Very well, very well, Inspector!.. They’re hoodlums! You’re right!. Mustn’t let ’em get away with anything!’
I agree with him.
'Neither one of them!’
'Of course not! ’
'Who’s the young one? with the arm like that?’
'He’s one of the war casualties, Inspector! A boy who’s suffered a lot. A victim of the present horrors!’
'Is Boro a victim of the present horrors too?’
He’s getting sarcastic.
'That’s his tenth offense!. And I’m sure it’s not over! He still has bombs!. I’m sure he’s still making them!. You know something about it, don’t you, Mr. Cascade? You associate with awful people! Gallows birds!. An abuser of freedom!. I’m ashamed for your sake, Mr. Cascade!’
'Oh! Inspector, if I may say so! the quietest man in the Borough!.. where there’re still some pretty bad eggs! Just between us, Inspector! let’s admit, without any hard feelings!’ That’s a stone for his garden.
'I don’t want to see them in the pubs any more!. Neither of them!. You get me?’
He doesn’t look as if he understands..
He’s obstinate!.. A swine!.
All the same, God damn it, I protest!..
'Still and all, they’re not anarchists! ’
'Damn you, Cascade! What do you need?’
'The young one’s not an anarchist!.. He doesn’t know what it is!’
He disgusts me! What a stupid accusation!
'We’ll see about that, Mr. Cascade! We’ll see!’
Stubborn, the louse! He was getting nasty!.. better not insist!.. Soon as you cross him he gets vicious. All his whiskey goes to his nose!.. Couldn’t touch him then with kid gloves!. And yet he’s got dough!. I know what he’s been costing me for fourteen years!.. He was able to build himself a house, I’m telling you, and a nice one! with my handouts!.. It’s a hell of a long time I’ve been greasing him!. In exchange he’s nabbed me only twice!.. And for two jail terms where I was perfectly innocent!.. Just plain unjust! A clean alibi! A shame! It was Tatave’s women who’d given the guy a shakedown!. Not mine! Ah! Not at all! He knew all about it, the louse! Only I owed him for a dozen matters! That squared him!.. He’d never been able to pin anything on me!
.. Had to get me!.. For honor’s sake!.. I think he’d have lost his job!. They all kidded him at the Yard! That was in Pretty-Eye’s time! Ah! there were out-of-town jobs in those days!. Boys, things were moving then!. They did a cottage a week!.. in cahoots with the maids!.. They’d bring back three or four hundred pounds!.. That was youth for you!.. They’d jump from one town to another!.. Those maids were the death of their bosses!.. Pretty-Eye, some good-looking kid!. Only the swellest homes!. Practically invited guests!. You realize?. Matthew was boiling in his pants!. all pissed up!. I had to take the rap for Tatave!. It couldn’t last forever!. He even warned me!. Got to get you, Cascade! Got to get you! Put in eleven months for Tatave!.. seven and four.. That was my share!.. I saved Matthew’s honor for him! I lost thirty-five pounds!. So I know the guy a little!.. We’ll settle accounts later on.. There’s nothing lost I’m telling you! For the time being I was nice! Didn’t want to sour things!. I shifted the conversation!. I said to him, 'Inspector, I see you’re putting something on Chatterton. It’s a good horse!. I’m not denying it!.. but. after all!..’