"All the guys," Sam Jeffries said, "keep tellin' ya if ya want a swell time, go there, if ya belong to th' Merchant Marine. Free drinks, free eats, maybe even a girl trun in. Joe here believes everything anybody tells "im."
"Sometimes," Joe said, with the air of a great philosopher, "it turns out that way."
"Yeh!" Sam snorted. "Remember in Kobe how that—"
"Aw, that," Joe broke in. "He was ribbin' us."
Simon slipped in smoothly and took the conversation over. "How is the Orient?"
"Still shot to hell," Sam said. "Gonna be a long time before all them buildings go up again."
"Did you hear about Cookie's, even there?"
"Yeah, you know, guys on other ships."
"And you've never been to Cookie's before?"
"No."