he second paragraph, the author expounds on the damage done to Nick without saying who caused it. The cause emerges in the third paragraph with Nick's reference to "That lousy crut of a brakeman" (Hemingway 129).
The combative tone of the short story develops early as Nick remembers how he was thrown off the train by the brakeman, who uses a ploy that appeals to the innocence of the young man: "He had fallen for it. What a lousy kid thing to have done. They would never suck him in that way again" (Hemingway 129). Nick vows never to be taken for a fool like that again. He expresses his own combative spirit by indicating that he will fight back--"He would get him some day" (Hemingway 129). The combative tone carries through in the figure of Ad, a man who fou
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