Can you get us some?"
George considered.
"Sure. Maybe I can. It may be half an hour, though."
"All right," agreed Carrol, "we'll wait"
At this Rose started to sit down in a convenient chair, but was hailed
to his feet by the indignant George.
"Hey! Watch out, you! Can't sit down here! This room's all set for a
twelve o'clock banquet."
"I ain't goin' to hurt it," said Rose resentfully. "I been through the
delouser."
"Never mind," said George sternly, "if the head waiter seen me here
talkin' he'd romp all over me."
"Oh."
The mention of the head waiter was full explanation to the other two;
they fingered their overseas caps nervously and waited for a
suggestion.
"I tell you," said George, after a pause, "I got a place you can wait;
you just come here with me."
They followed him out the far door, through a deserted pantry and up a
pair of dark winding stairs, emerging finally into a small room
chiefly furnished by piles of pails and stacks of scrubbing brushes,
and illuminated by a single dim electric light. There he left them,
after soliciting two dollars and agreeing to return in half an hour
with a quart of whiskey.
"George is makin' money, I bet," said Key gloomily as he seated
himself on an inverted pail. "I bet he's making fifty dollars a week."
Rose nodded his head and spat.
"I bet he is, too."
"What'd he say the dance was of?"
"A lot of college fellas.
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