To Have And Have Not

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
on to the third rail in front of the Aurora-Elgin
train, his overcoat pocket full of unsaleable combina-
tion eggbeaters and fruit juice extractors. Just let
me demonstrate it, madame. You attach it here, screw
down on this little gadget here. Now watch. No, I don't
want it. Just try one. I don't want it. Get out.
So he got out on to the sidewalk with the frame-
houses, the naked yards and the bare catalpa trees
where no one wanted it or anything else, that led
down to the Aurora-Elgin tracks.
Some made the long drop from the apartment or
the office window; some took it quietly in two-car
garages with the motor running; some used the
native tradition of the Colt or Smith and Wesson;
those well-constructed implements that end insom-
nia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bank-
ruptcy, and blast an exit from intolerable positions
by the pressure of a finger; those admirable
American instruments so easily carried, so sure of
effect, so well designed to end the American dream
when it becomes a nightmare, their only drawback
the mess they leave for relatives to clean up.
The men he broke made ail these various exits
but that never worried him. Somebody had to lose
and only suckers worried*
No he would not have to think of them nor of the
by-products of successful speculation. You win;
somebody's got to lose, and only suckers worry.
It would be enough for him to think about how
much it would be better if he had not been quite so
33*