“Eating wood.”
Nick nodded. “He actually did it. I was there and I saw him bite the edge off a table and chew it up. Then he swallowed it, the whole mouthful, and he collected three dollars off the slummer.”
“Slummer?”
“The playboy,” Nick said.
“What playboy?”
“The playboy from uptown,” Nick said. “Haven’t you seen him?”
Kerrigan shook his head.
“Sure,” Nick said. “You musta seen him. He always comes to Dugan’s.”
Kerrigan shrugged. “I hardly ever go in there, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Well, anyway, he’s one of them playboys who likes to go slumming. One night about a year ago he walked into Dugan’s and now he’s one of the regulars. Comes in two, three times a week and drinks himself into a coma. But some nights he only has a few and then he goes out looking for kicks.” Nick shook his head solemnly. “A queer proposition if I ever saw one. I’ve watched him, the way he looks at a woman. Like he ain’t satisfied, no matter how much he gets.”