Chapter 2

And he did not have the five — he feared that this particular five was forever out of range. Other means must be found to keep the wolf from the two doors of his coupe. Pat left the lot with despair in his heart, stopping only momentarily to get gas for the car and gin for himself, possibly the last of many drinks they had had together.

Next morning he awoke with an aggravated¹ problem. For once he did not want to go to the studio. It was not merely Gyp McCarthy he feared — it was the whole corporate² might of a moving picture company, nay³ of an industry. Actually to have interfered⁴ with the shooting of a movie was somehow a major delinquency, compared to which expensive fumblings on the part of producers or writers went comparatively unpunished.

On the other hand zero hour for the car was the day after tomorrow and Louie, the studio bookie, seemed positively⁵ the last resource and a poor one at that.

Nerving himself with an unpalatable snack from the bottom of the bottle, he went to the studio at ten with his coat collar turned up and his hat pulled low over his ears. He knew a sort of underground railway through the make-up department and the commissary kitchen which might get him to Louie’s suite⁶ unobserved.

Two studio policemen seized him as he rounded the corner by the barber shop.

‘Hey, I got a pass!’ he protested, ‘Good for a week — signed by Jack⁷ Berners.’

‘Mr Berners specially⁸ wants to see you.’

Here it was then — he would be barred from the lot.

‘We could sue you!’ cried Jack Berners. ‘But we couldn’t recover.’

‘What’s one take?’ demanded Pat. ‘You can use another.’

‘No we can’t — the camera jammed. And this morning Lily Keatts took a plane to England. She thought she was through.’

‘Cut the scene,’ suggested Pat — and then on inspiration, ‘I bet I could fix it for you.’

‘You fixed⁹ it, all right!’ Berners assured him. ‘If there was any way to fix it back I wouldn’t have sent for you.’

He paused, looked speculatively¹⁰ at Pat. His buzzer¹¹ sounded and a secretary’s voice said ‘Mr Hilliard’.

‘Send him in.’

George Hilliard was a huge man and the glance he bent¹² upon Pat was not kindly¹³. But there was some other element besides anger in it and Pat squirmed doubtfully as the two men regarded him with almost impersonal¹⁴ curiosity — as if he were a candidate for a cannibal’s frying pan.

‘Well, goodbye,’ he suggested uneasily.

‘What do you think, George?’ demanded Berners.

‘Well —’ said Hilliard, hesitantly, ‘we could black out a couple of teeth.’

Pat rose hurriedly and took a step toward the door, but Hilliard seized him and faced him around.

‘Let’s hear you talk,’ he said.

‘You can’t beat me up,’ Pat clamoured. ‘You knock my teeth out and I’ll sue you.’

There was a pause.

‘What do you think?’ demanded Berners.

‘He can’t talk,’ said Hilliard.

‘You damn right I can talk!’ said Pat.

‘We can dub¹⁵ three or four lines,’ continued Hilliard, ‘and nobody’ll know the difference. Half the guys you get to play rats can’t talk. The point is this one’s got the physique and the camera will pull it out of his face too.’

Berners nodded.

‘All right, Pat — you’re an actor. You’ve got to play the part this McCarthy had. Only a couple of scenes but they’re important. You’ll have papers to sign with the Guild¹⁶ and Central Casting and you can report for work this afternoon.’

‘What is this!’ Pat demanded. ‘I’m no ham —’ Remembering that Hilliard had once been a leading man he recoiled¹⁷ from this attitude: ‘I’m a writer.’

‘The character you play is called “The Rat”,’ continued Berners. He explained why it was necessary for Pat to continue his impromptu¹⁸ appearance of yesterday. The scenes which included Miss Keatts had been shot first, so that she could fulfil an English engagement. But in the filling out of the skeleton it was necessary to show how the gangsters¹⁹ reached their hide-out, and what they did after Miss Keatts dove from the window. Having irrevocably appeared in the shot with Miss Keatts, Pat must appear in half a dozen other shots, to be taken in the next few days.

‘What kind of jack is it?’ Pat inquired.

‘We were paying McCarthy fifty a day — wait a minute Pat — but I thought I’d pay you your last writing price, two-fifty for the week.’

‘How about my reputation?’ objected Pat.

‘I won’t answer that one,’ said Berners. ‘But if Benchley can act and Don Stewart and Lewis and Wilder and Woollcott, I guess it won’t ruin you.’

Pat drew a long breath.

‘Can you let me have fifty on account,’ he asked, ‘because really I earned that yester —’

‘If you got what you earned yesterday you’d be in a hospital. And you’re not going on any bat. Here’s ten dollars and that’s all you see for a week.’

‘How about my car —’

‘To hell with your car.’

1 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

2 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

3 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。

4 interfered   

v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉

参考例句：

• Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 positively   

adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实

参考例句：

• She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
• The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。

6 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

8 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

9 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

10 speculatively   

adv.思考地，思索地；投机地

参考例句：

• He looked at her speculatively. 他若有所思的看着她。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She eyed It'speculatively as a cruel smile appeared on her black lips. 她若有所思地审视它，黑色的嘴角浮起一丝残酷的微笑。 来自互联网

11 buzzer   

n.蜂鸣器；汽笛

参考例句：

• The buzzer went off at eight o'clock.蜂鸣器在8点钟时响了。
• Press the buzzer when you want to talk.你想讲话的时候就按蜂鸣器。

12 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

13 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

14 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。

15 dub   

vt.（以某种称号）授予，给...起绰号，复制

参考例句：

• I intend to use simultaneous recording to dub this film.我打算采用同期录音的方法为这部影片配音。
• It was dubbed into Spanish for Mexican audiences.它被译制成西班牙语以方便墨西哥观众观看。

16 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

17 recoiled   

v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• She recoiled from his touch. 她躲开他的触摸。
• Howard recoiled a little at the sharpness in my voice. 听到我的尖声，霍华德往后缩了一下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 impromptu   

adj.即席的，即兴的；adv.即兴的(地)，无准备的(地)

参考例句：

• The announcement was made in an impromptu press conference at the airport.这一宣布是在机场举行的临时新闻发布会上作出的。
• The children put on an impromptu concert for the visitors.孩子们为来访者即兴献上了一场音乐会。

19 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。