To Have And Have Not

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
one of the largest yachts, a handsome, black, bar*
quentine rigged three-master, a sixty-year-old grain
broker lay awake worrying about the report he
had received from his office of the activities of the
investigators from the Internal Revenue Bureau.
Ordinarily, at this time of night, he would have
quieted his worry with Scotch highballs and have
reached the state where he felt as tough and regard-
less of consequences as any of the old brothers of the
coast with whom in character and standards of
conduct, he had, truly, much in common* But his
doctor had forbidden him all liquor for a month,
for three months really, that is they had said it
would kill him in a year if he did not give up alcohol
for at least three months, so he was going to lay off
it for a month; and now he worried about the call
he had received from the Bureau before he left town
asking him exactly where he was going and whether
he planned to leave the United States coastal waters.
He lay, now, in his pyjamas, on his wide bed, two
pillows under his head, the reading light on, but he
could not keep his mind on the book, which was an
account of a trip to Galapagos. In the old days he
had never brought them to this bed. He'd had
them in their cabins and he came to this bed after-
wards. This was his own stateroom, as private to
him as his office* He never wanted a woman in his
room. When he wanted one he went to hers, and
when he was through he was through, and now that
he was through for good his brain had the same