Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [42]
He leaned back in his chair, and put his feet up on his desk again. As he did so, he knocked some papers on the floor.
“Oh, hell,” he said, “I suppose I might as well clean up my goddam desk. Got to do it sooner or later.”
He reached down on the floor and picked up the stray papers. He began to sort and arrange papers in piles, and he threw some away, and he got up and put some away in his files. He read some of them aloud to Corporal Schultz, who was not in the least interested.
In due course he picked up a purple slip, and he said: “Hell’s bells, what’s this?” And he read: “On July 19, orders were received from General Marvin, Forty-Ninth Division, to keep all mule carts out of the town of Adano. Guards were posted at bridge over Rosso River and at Cacopardo Sulphur Refinery. Order carried out. On July 20, guards were removed on order of Major Victor Joppolo...”
Captain Purvis banged the flat of a hand down on the table. “Goddamit!” he shouted.
“Hey, Schultz,” he said. “Where’s Trapani?”
“Said he was just stepping out for a couple of minutes, sir, said he’d be right back. Anything I can do, sir?” “No, goddamit. Wait till I get that Trapani “ Trapani came in in a few minutes.
“Hey, you, come over here,” Captain Purvis said as soon as he arrived.
“Yes, sir,” Trapani said.
“What’s this?” the Captain said, and he held out the purple slip.
Trapani took it and looked at it. “That’s the report on the mule cart situation, sir,” Trapani said coolly. “You told me to make out a report, remember?”
“You’re damn right I remember, and where did I tell you to send it?”
“It was to go to G-one of the Division, sir.”
“Well goddamit, why didn’t you send it?”
“I put it on your desk for approval, sir.”
Captain Purvis huffed and puffed. He knew very well he didn’t pay as much attention to his desk as he ought to. “Well, damn it to hell, let’s send it out of here. I want to personally see you put that thing in the pouch for Division.”
Sergeant Trapani sat right down and addressed an envelope, and put the slip in it, and put the envelope in the pouch which was to leave the next afternoon by courier for Division headquarters. He addressed the envelope to the wrong person at Division, but then, Captain Purvis didn’t notice that.
Chapter 13
A PERSPIRING courier brought a note to Major Joppolo’s office.
It said in English: “I got to seen you in the immediate.” And it was signed M. Cacopardo.
Not five minutes behind the courier, Cacopardo himself showed up, all dressed for traveling. He had leather gauntlets on, and goggles up on his forehead, and he carried a green parasol in his right hand.
The eighty-two-year-old man trotted the length of Major Joppolo’s office, leaned forward over his desk, looked over his shoulder at Giuseppe and Zito, then looked at the Major and said in a loud whisper: “I got to talk alone.”
Major Joppolo asked his interpreter and usher to step outside.
“I have received a secret messages from the Mafia,” the old man said, still whispering loudly. “I have the military secrets of where are the German troops. You must send your soldiers, Mister Major.”
Major Joppolo said: “I have no soldiers, I’m just the administrator of Adano.”
Cacopardo said: “I got to go to the General. I am ready. “
Major Joppolo said: “Just a minute, Mister Cacopardo, I can’t send every Tom, Dick and Harry to see General Marvin. You’ll have to give me some evidence that your information is good.”
Old Cacopardo reached into his jacket and pulled out a piece of tissue paper. He unfolded it on Major Joppolo’s desk. “See,” he said, “here is Pinnaro, here is the hills before Pinnaro, here is the Germans. Element here of Forty-Third Panzers, something here out of Hermann Goring. I have all the details.”
Major Jop olo decided at once that the chances of the old man’s information being right were good enough so that he ought to send him forward to the Division.
“I will send you to the General, Mister Cacopardo,” he said, “but I want to warn you. The General is a very impatient