“I once won a boy's swimmin' race at Coney,” said the Kid. Andrews did not answer.
“Were you in the swimmin' team or anything like that, Skinny, when you went to school?”
“No.... It would be wonderful to be in the water, though. I used to swim way out in Chesapeake Bay at night when the water was phosphorescent.”
Andrews suddenly found the Kid's blue eyes, bright as flames from excitement, staring into his.
“God, I'm an ass,” he muttered.
He felt the Kid's fist punch him softly in the back. “Sergeant said they was goin' to work us late as hell tonight,” the Kid was saying aloud to the men round him.
“I'll be dead if they do,” muttered Hoggenback.
“An' you a lumberjack!”
“It ain't that. I could carry their bloody bags two at a time if I wanted ter. A feller gets so goddam mad, that's all; so goddam mad. Don't he, Skinny?” Hoggenback turned to Andrews and smiled.
Andrews nodded his head.