ore. You wait till you git your knees
pushed under the mahogany and the head waiter scatters the glasses
around your plate, and you lamp the dames--"

He stopped abruptly, his jaw going slack with dismay. "Only we ain't
got the scenery for no such place as the Frolic," he mourned. "Lookin'
the way we do, we'd be eyed suspicious if we went to grab a tray in
Boos Brothers! Some Main Street waffle joint is about our number,
unless--"

"A waffle joint sounds good to me," Johnny said. "I didn't come out
here to spend money. I'm here to make it."

"That's all right, bo. I ain't going to hit any flowery path either.
But listen, old top. We've had a hard day, and before that a bunch of
'em. We've earned one good meal, ain't we? That ain't going to hurt
nobody, bo. Just to celebrate our arrival and git the taste of the
desert out of our mouths. I'll say we've earned it. And it needn't
cost so much. And listen here, bo. I know a place on Main where we
can rent the scenery. Lots of fellers do that, and nobody the wiser.
I don't mean open-face coats, neither. Just some good clothes that
have got class will do fine. And we can git a shave there, and go to
the Frolic and have some regular chow, bo, and listen to the tra-la-la
girlies warble whilst we eat. Come on. Be a regular guy for oncet!"

"Do regular guys wear borrowed clothes? Not where I come from, they
don't."

"Aw, them hicks! Well, you can buy what you want, if that suits you
better. I'll take you to a place that keeps open evenings. There'll
be time enough. The Frolic don't hardly git woke up till ten or
'leven, anyway."

"At that it will be closed for the night before we arrive," Johnny
stated morosely. "It's a wonder to me you let the ocean stop you,
Bland.

"Why didn't you go on and light in Japan? We could have caught a boat
back then, instead of walking."

Once more Bland protested and explained and defended himself. But
Johnny had already drifted off into troubled meditation rendered
somewhat vague and inconsequential by his rapid changes of financial
condition, moods, environment--the brief ecstasy of his triumphant
flight that had so ridiculous a climax. Small wonder that Bland's
whining voice failed to register anything but a dreary monotone of
meaningless words in Johnny's ears. Small wonder that Johnny's
thoughts dwelt upon little worries that could have no possible bearing
upon the big things he meant to do.

How much