To Have And Have Not

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
He was steering to the westward now to go in to
lay up for the day in the mangroves by Woman
Key where he would not see anybody and where
the boat was to come out to meet them.
'You're going to be all right/ he told the nigger.
6I don't know/ the nigger said. 'I hurt bad/
Tm going to fix you up good when we get in to
the place,* he told him. 'You aren't shot bad.
Quit worrying.*
Tm shot/ he said. 'I ain't never been shot
before. Any way I'm shot is bad.'
'You're just scared.'
'No, sir. I'm shot. And I'm hurting bad. I've
been throbbing all night/
The nigger went on grumbling like that and he
could not keep from taking the bandage off to look
at it.
'Leave it alone/ the man who was steering told
him. The nigger lay on the floor of the cockpit and
there were sacks of liquor, shaped like hams, piled
everywhere. He had made himself a place in them
to lay down in. Every time he moved there was the
noise of broken glass in the sacks and there was the
odour of spilled liquor. The liquor had run all over
everything. The man was steering in for Woman
Key now. He could see it now plainly.
€I hurt/ the nigger said. 'I hurt worse all the
time.'
Tm sorry, Wesley/ the man said. 'But I got to
steer.'
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