Panic in the Streets Page #8

Aw, no, Cap.

You know I wouldn't have nobody in here...

Look, we pulled three hoodlums out of here

last month. Now, who knew this man?

Nobody, Cap.

Honest, nobody.

The guy just comes in for a room and I...

Well, eh, just a minute.

- Just a minute. L... I just do remember.

- He just does remember.

- Yeah. A couple of guys were looking for him today.

- Who were they?

No, but I...

I don't know, honest.

I don't know.

Y- You got to believe me.

Why? Come on.

Let's get out of here.

You're gonna get both of us in trouble,

so why don't you be a nice fellow?

Why don't you take your big hands off me

and knock off?

- I'm warning you Neff. You hear me?

- I hear you. That's the trouble.

- I can't seem to tune you out.

- All right. That's enough.

Oh, Neff. I didn't know

you lived here too.

- I'm ready for your statement on this story now, Doctor.

- What story is that, Neff?

Oh, cut it out. You think I've been

walking around with my head in a bag?

You and the Public Health Service

turning this town upside down?

A murdered hoodlum, a ship in quarantine

and now a woman dead.

- An idiot could figure it out.

- You qualify. What do you figure?

I figure the guy had smallpox or cholera

or something like that.

And I want to know why this story

wasn't released to the press.

- Listen, you...

- Wait a minute, Warren.

Now, look, Neff.

It isn't smallpox,

and it isn't cholera.

It's plague...

pneumonic plague.

- Plague?

- That's why we can't let you have the story.

- You can't let me have it.

- That's right.

With a chance of an epidemic?

- I knew you guys were crazy...

- Wait a minute, Neff. Wait a minute.

Wait for what?

Somebody else to die?

Not much.

You've already wasted a day and a half.

I'm sorry, but I can't

let you print this story.

You can't let me print it.

Since when have you been making the rules?

- I represent the Public Health Service.

- Well, I represent the public...

...and they've got a right to know what's

going on, and no two-bit civil servant...

Regardless of your opinion,

I've got to do what I think is best.

Did you do what you thought was best

for that woman who just died?

If the doctor had known what was going on,

couldn't he have saved her? Couldn't he?

- I don't know.

- You don't know.

And because you don't know,

you don't want anybody else to know.

- Well, there's a chance we could contain...

- You bet there is!

And don't think for a minute that everybody

in this town isn't going to get it.

Aw, drop it. If your editor's got the story,

let him go ahead and print it.

- Well, my editor doesn't have it, but he's going to get it.

- Oh, he doesn't have it, eh?

What do you know?

- Take him.

- A pleasure.

- What do you think you're trying to pull?

- He speaks to no one.

- What's the charge?

- Loitering, public nuisance, anything you like.

- You're crazy! I'll have your badge for this, Warren!

- Take him out!

- You'll be walking a beat if you're lucky!

- Out!

If I'd been busted by every newspaperman

that tried to get my bars...

I'd be mopping floors

in the Hall ofJustice years ago. Come on.

- Can that reporter really make trouble for him?

- Trouble?

- Where you been living, mister?

- If that newspaper wanted to put the pressure on him...

...he'd be lucky if he could

get a job mopping floors.

Let's go, Bill.

Clint? I thought I heard you.

Don't come any closer, honey.

You better stay right there.

- Another contagion case, huh?

- Yep.

And another uniform to be decontaminated.

Some fun, huh?

You didn't catch it yourself, did you?

You look a little beat.

Yeah, I look

so good normally.

- I didn't pay it.

- You can pay it tomorrow.

No, I can't pay it tomorrow,

and I can't pay it the next day.

I spent the money. Now will you

please just forget about that bill?

When I get the dough, I'll pay it.

Just stop pestering me about it.

Clint, honey,

I didn't say anything.

Yeah, I know.

- Whenever you're tired you always seem to think I'm scolding you.

- Yeah, I... I'm sorry.

- And I wasn't.

- I know. I know you're right.

- What happened?

- I gave it to somebody.

Clint, I wasn't... I wasn't

talking about the money.

Oh. Well, anyway, I spent it

on something for the department.

- You can put in a voucher, or whatever they call them.

- Hm!

As far as I know, nobody's yet figured out a way

to get money back from the U.S. Government...

- quickly, that is.

- I'll make up the cot for you.

- No, I've got to go right out again, honey.

- Go right out?

Look, be a good kid

and make me some coffee, will you?

- How about some nice, hot soup?

- Just coffee, Nancy.

- But, Clint, you need...

- Coffee!

Nancy, I told you, I can't sleep.

I gotta take a shower and get out of here.

- Did you sleep last night?

- Last night?

Yeah. Oh, sure.

Guess I must have.

- Oh, I didn't call you, did I?

- That's all right.

I didn't think.

It's a plague case...

...pneumonic.

- Plague? Here in New Orleans?

- Yeah. A woman died of it tonight.

Whoever's carrying it's

still wandering around.

Well, at least

they have you.

You've been through it.

You know how to handle it.

Now, look, hon. Let's not

be little Miss Sunshine.

All right, all right.

We went through it in Cal...

- Why don't you lie down, just for an hour or two?

- No, no.

Gafney's waiting for me at the office.

He hasn't had any sleep either.

Gafney can wait.

He's younger than you are.

- Baby, Methuselah's younger than I am tonight.

- What's eating you anyway?

- Nothing.

- Come on.

I'm all right.

I'm just out of gas...

I'm tired

and I'm fed up.

Well, if you won't lie down, at least sit.

You're making me tired standing.

- Stick around, honey.

- I've got to get the coffee.

I'm just afraid if I sit down,

the next thing, I'll lie down.

If I lie down, sure as there are worms

in little green apples...

I'll fall asleep.

And if I fall asleep,

I'm dead.

Now you're cooking.

Just don't let me

fall asleep, will you?

I'll watch you.

You know, today I took

a perfectly nice guy... A cop...

...not the smartest guy in the world,

but who is?

So I push him around,

make a lot of smart cracks about him...

...and tell him off

all day long...

...and he winds up proving

he's four times the man I'll ever be.

- I don't believe it.

- Why do I do that?

- Hmm?

- You're tired now, Clint.

All right, so I'm tired.

But you know what I mean.

Yeah, I guess I do.

Yeah. I do the same thing

to you, don't I?

- Yes, you do.

- Well?

Well, Clint, you're not a kid anymore,

and you ought to stop thinking like one.

What do you mean?

Well, like those jobs

you're always talking about...

Arabian pipelines or expeditions to Chile

as medical advisor, or...

- You know.

- Yeah, what you want to say...

...is that I'm a bust now

and to forget about them.

- That's what you mean, isn't it?

- That's exactly what I don't mean.

You might get an offer like that tomorrow,

and you'd be perfect for it.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes