Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [80]
The Kent-Yale voice was a little strained as it said: “Yeah, funniest thing, you know that motor ship I was having raised?”
“Yes indeed,” the Major said, “that sure was a swell idea you had.”
The Kent-Yale voice was unsure of itself: “Yeah, but this morning I was just getting the workmen going on unloading it, when they all up and ran away. Do you think I wasn’t paying them enough, or what? I don’t know much about these wops. What do you think the trouble was?”
The crowd outside the Palazzo was beginning to get anxious again, and it hummed. The crier shouted it down again.
The Major said: “You haven’t had any casualties or anything like that down there, have you?”
“Just two crazy bastards who fell in the water and couldn’t swim. We’re giving them artificial respiration.” “You haven’t had anything that would make you think there was a gas attack on, have you?”
“Say, are you crazy? What the hell are you trying to do, pull my leg?”
“No, Captain, not at all. The reason your workmen ran out on you was because some agitator told them there was a gas attack on and they all got scared.”
“Is that a fact? Well, gee, I’m glad it’s nothing I did.” “I’ll try to have your workmen back to you in an hour.” “Golly, thanks a lot, fellow. That sure takes a load off my mind.”
“Well,” the Major said, “I want to thank you for going to work on that thing so fast. The Navy sure can get things done when it tries.”
“Aw, that’s nothing,” the Lieutenant said. “Say, how about coming down this afternoon and having that drink with me?”
“Don’t mind if I do. Matter of fact, I’ve got a little problem I want to talk to you about. You seem to be the only guy that can get anything done around here.”
“Be glad to help you if I can,” the Lieutenant said. “Five thirty?”
“Make it six,” the Major said. “Doubt if I can get away before six.”
“Six it is. Thanks a lot for fixing me up.” “Thank you, Captain, you’re the fixer.”
Lieutenant Livingston shook his head as he hung up, and he thought, you sure can’t tell about a guy from the first impression....
The Major went out on the balcony again and said: “I have definite information that there is no poison gas attack going on or expected. You are perfectly safe.”
There were shouts of disbelief.
The Major said: “Look: I can breathe deeply and it has no effect on me at all.” And he heaved two or three exaggeratedly big breaths.
A voice shouted: “It is all very well to breathe on a balcony. The danger is in the street.”
“Very well,” the Major said: “I will come down in the street with you and show you.” And he went down into the street and breathed deeply there.
By this time Fatta was convinced by the solicitude of his wife and friends that he had been gassed. “I am paralyzed from the waist down,” he shouted.
Major Joppolo shouted back: “That is nothing new, lazy Fatta.” The crowd laughed. The people were beginning to be with the Major.
One of the workers said: “I smelled it plainly at the corner of the Via Barrino and the Via Dogana.”
“All right,” the Major said, “come with me.”
And he led the huge crowd down the Via Dogana to the corner of Via Barrino. There he stood on the curb and breathed deeply. “All you smelled here,” he shouted, “was the fish market three doors down.”
Another of the workers shouted: “I smelled it at the corner of Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Favemi, near the Cathedral.”
So they all went to that corner, and the Major breathed deeply again, and he shouted: “All you smelled here was the fumes from the sulphur refinery. If you look you can see the yellow smoke coming toward us.”
Another shouted: “I smelled it in the alleyway called Piccolo.”
But the Major shouted back: “I am not going to spend all morning sniffing at this town. I am already too familiar with the smells. That was probably horse dung that you smelled.”
Another workman shouted: “But the center of the at-tack was `ûie harbor. That is where L11 C gas really WaS.’ So the Major