Drink it up, baby! Let's
see yuh sprint! Dig in and gain a lap! Dere she go-o-es [_This last in
the chanting formula of the gallery gods at the six-day bike race. He
slams his furnace door shut. The others do likewise with as much unison
as their wearied bodies will permit. The effect is of one fiery eye
after another being blotted out with a series of accompanying bangs._]

PADDY--[_Groaning._] Me back is broke. I'm bate out--bate--[_There is a
pause. Then the inexorable whistle sounds again from the dim regions
above the electric light. There is a growl of cursing rage from all
sides._]

YANK--[_Shaking his fist upward--contemptuously._] Take it easy dere,
you! Who d'yuh tinks runnin' dis game, me or you? When I git ready, we
move. Not before! When I git ready, get me!

VOICES--[_Approvingly._] That's the stuff!

Yank tal him, py golly!

Yank ain't affeerd.

Goot poy, Yank!

Give him hell!

Tell 'im 'e's a bloody swine!

Bloody slave-driver!

YANK--[_Contemptuously._] He ain't got no noive. He's yellow, get me?
All de engineers is yellow. Dey got streaks a mile wide. Aw, to hell
wit him! Let's move, youse guys. We had a rest. Come on, she needs it!
Give her pep! It ain't for him. Him and his whistle, dey don't belong.
But we belong, see! We gotter feed de baby! Come on! [_He turns and
flings his furnace door open. They all follow his lead. At this instant
the Second and Fourth Engineers enter from the darkness on the left
with Mildred between them. She starts, turns paler, her pose is
crumbling, she shivers with fright in spite of the blazing heat, but
forces herself to leave the Engineers and take a few steps nearer the
men. She is right behind Yank. All this happens quickly while the men
have their backs turned._]

YANK--Come on, youse guys! [_He is turning to get coal when the whistle
sounds again in a peremptory, irritating note. This drives Yank into a
sudden fury. While the other men have turned full around and stopped
dumfounded by the spectacle of Mildred standing there in her white
dress, Yank does not turn far enough to see her. Besides, his head is
thrown back, he blinks upward through the murk trying to find the owner
of the whistle, he brandishes his shovel murderously over his head in
one hand, pounding on his chest, gorilla-like, with the other,
shouting:_] Toin off dat whistle! Come down outa dere, yuh yellow,
brass-buttoned, Belfast bum, yuh! Come down and I'll knock yer brains
out! Y