Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [30]
The Lieutenant did not look particularly pleased with this summary of the Major’s activities.
“Hello, this the M.P.’s? Purvis? Listen, I want you to come down here. I got a mob to break up. Bring your Colt along. I think if you fire six into the air, that’s all well need to send ‘em home... We’re down at the port, over by the breakwater on the western side. Okay, hurry down.”
The Major thanked Lieutenant Livingston for the use of the phone.
Lieutenant Livingston said: “Uh, Major, seems to me this fishing racket is more or less a Navy deal, isn’t it?” The Major said: “Yeah, I’ll be back to see you, I’m in a hurry now. Thanks for the phone, Captain. See you later.”
As the Major and Giuseppe passed the crowd on the way back to the Tina, Giuseppe said to the crowd: “As a friend, I advise you to go home.”
People in the crowd, delighted with the mystery of the Major’s hurried visit to the Port Captain’s office, mocked Giuseppe. “Poor Ribaudo Giuseppe,” they said, “speaking two languages has weakened his head.”
“All right,” Giuseppe said, “I have advised you as a friend.”
At the Tina, Tomasino was sullen again. “I see you gave your hired crowd their instructions,” he said. “Go ahead, take me, what have I to lose?”
Major Joppolo said: “They will all go home soon, Tomasino. I have given instructions for them to be sent home. Now, about the fishing. Do you think you could get together crews for five or six boats?”
Tomasino said: “Who is to be the protector of these crews? What criminal?”
“Protector?”
“To whom do the fishermen have to pay tribute this time?
“Don’t mock me, fisherman. What are you talking about?”
“Hah,” said Tomasino, a man who could be amused with the most gruesomely sad face. “Hah, does the man of authority pretend he doesn’t understand the system of protection?”
Major Joppolo spoke harshly: “What are you talking about, fisherman?”
Tomasino was shaken. “Protection,” he said. “Before you came we had to pay protection money to Enea, the Supervisor of the Fisheries, an evil man. In return he `protected’ us. Hah, Fiorentino said one time that he did not feel the need of protection, and the next week his boat, the pretty Mattina, burned up as it lay at its mooring.”
The Major said: “There will be no such thing under the Americans, Tomasino. That’s the kind of thing we want to eliminate. “
Tomasino said: “You are lying to me. There is a trick.” At this moment Captain Purvis swung into the port area in his jeep. He jumped out and ran into the delighted crowd, shouting as he ran: “Scram, you bastards. Get the hell out of here.”
He pulled out his automatic and fired six shots into the air.
The crowd broke instantly. “The Germans, the Germans,” one shouted.
“The Fascists have come back,” someone else shouted.
“It’s all over,” a woman screamed.
“I’ve been wounded,” a man moaned. Of course he had not been. All of Captain Purvis’s shots went into the air.
Within twenty seconds the entire crowd had disappeared into the streets of Adano, and there was nothing left at the head of the Molo di Ponente except the smoke from Captain Purvis’s Colt. The Captain got into his jeep and drove off.
Tomasino was alarmed by the shots. “You have come to shoot me,” he shouted, springing to his feet. “I knew there was a trick. You want to kill me.”
But Major Joppolo calmed him. “That was just to get rid of the crowd. I don’t want anything except to send you out fishing, Tomasino.”
Tomasino said: “There is a trick,” but he sat down again.
The Major said: “Tomasino, we will need about half a dozen boats. Can you help arrange this?”
“To whom will the tribute be paid? How much will it be?”
“You won’t have to pay any tribute to the Americans, Tomasino.”
“No protection. No tribute. I do not believe it. And how much tax must we pay on the gross weight of our catch?”
“There will not be any tax on your catch, Tomasino. You will only have to pay the regular taxes. It is true that your profit will be limited to fifteen per cent of what you take in. The rest you must spend in wages to