Carmella Commands
“He sure does,” answered Dixon, guiding the car skillfully through the heavy downtown traffic. Tommaso looked toward Mr. Barrington, and the latter nodded.
“Money. Dig. Talk first,” he said, taking quick note of Dixon’s method of international speech.
“Doty Street,” said Tommaso. “I get for talk.”
Dixon turned the machine toward Little Italy without orders from his employer, and presently slowed down and stopped in front of the yellow cottage. But Tommaso, instead of going into his own house, hurried to the door of his next neighbor, Mrs. Alibrio. Dixon and his employer saw the two in earnest conversation at the door. Then the woman disappeared, and Tommaso returned to the car.
“She come queeck. She talk.” To Dixon his voice seemed unnatural, as if he had just emerged from his first trip in an airplane. Or as if, perhaps, he had undergone a queer social adventure. Dixon wondered that he had not sought Carmella. But his thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Barrington’s attitude.
“Tell her to be quick!” he growled.
Tommaso turned on him abruptly.
“She queeck if she want. I f she not queeck, we wait.”
Dixon glanced covertly at his employer. The glance convinced him that he was not discharged on the spot, although the Barrington smile had turned into a scowl. Dixon turned then to Tommaso.
[146]
