To Have And Have Not

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
He put his hand in his pocket and reached the
money out toward me. I reached for it and grabbed
his wrist with the money in his hand, and as he came
forward on the stern I grabbed his throat with the
other hand. I felt her start and then churn ahead as
she hooked up and I was plenty busy with Mr. Sing,
but I could see the Cuban standing in the stern of
the boat holding the sculling oar as we pulled away
from her through all the flopping and bouncing
Mr. Sing was doing. He was flopping and bouncing
worse than any dolphin on a gaff.
I got his arm around behind him and came up on
it but I brought it too far because I felt it go. When
it went he made a funny little noise and came
forward, me holding him throat and all, and bit me
in the shoulder. But when I felt the arm go I
dropped it. It wasn't any good to him any more
and I took him by the throat with both hands, and
brother, that Mr. Sing would flop just like a fish,
true, his loose arm flailing. But I got him forward
on to his knees and had both thumbs well in behind
his talk-box, and I bent the whole thing back until
she cracked. Don't think you can't hear it crack,
either.
I held him quiet just a second, and then I laid
him down across the stern. He lay there, face up,
quiet, in his good clothes, with his feet in the cock-
pit; and I left him.
I picked up the money off the cockpit floor and
took it up and put on the binnacle light and counted
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