Something was going to have to be done about the pimps, I reckoned. Something plumb drastic.

I finished eating and went up to the men’s lounge. I washed my hands and face at the sink, nodding to the fella that was sittin’ on the long leather bench.

He wore a classy black-and-white checked suit, high-button shoes with spats and a white derby hat. He gave me a long slow look, letting his eyes linger for a moment on my pistol belt and gun. He didn’t smile or say anything.

I nodded at the paper he was reading. “What do you think about them Bullshevicks?” I said. “You reckon they’ll ever overthrow the Czar?” -

He grunted, still not saying anything. I sat down on the bench a few feet away from him.

The fact was, I wanted to relieve myself. But I wasn’t sure that I ought to go on into the toilet. The door was unlocked swinging back and forth with the motion of the train, and it looked like it must be empty. Still, though, here this fella was, and maybe that’s what he was waiting for. So even if the place was empty, it wouldn’t be polite to go in ahead of him.

I waited a little while. I waited, squirming and fidgeting, until finally I couldn’t wait any longer.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Were you waiting to go to the toilet?”

He looked startled. Then ,he gave me a mean look, and spoke for the first time. “That’s some of your business?”

“Of course not,” I said. “I just wanted to go to the toilet, and I thought maybe you did, too. I mean, I thought maybe someone was already in there, and that’s why you were waiting.”

He glanced at the swinging door of the toilet; swinging wide now so that you could see the stool. He looked back at me, kind of bewildered and disgusted.

“For God’s sake!” he said.

“Yes, sir?” I said. “I don’t reckon there’s anyone in there, do you?”

I didn’t think he was going to answer me for a minute. But then he said, yeah, someone was in the toilet. “She just went in a little while ago. A naked woman on a spotted pony.”

“Oh,” I said. “But how come a woman’s using the men’s toilet?”

“On account of the pony,” he said. “He had to take a leak, too.”

“I can’t see no one from here,” I said. “It’s funny I couldn’t see ‘em in a little place like that.”

“You calling me a liar?” he said. “You saying a naked woman on a spotted pony ain’t in there?”

I said, no, of course not. I wouldn’t say nothing like that. “But I’m in kind of a hurry.” I said. “Maybe I better go up to one of the other cars.”

“Oh, no, you don’t!” he said. “No one’s calling me a liar and getting away with it!”

“I’m not,” I said. “I didn’t mean it that way at all. I just—”