Bell for Adano, A - John Hersey [98]
Gargano’s face fell. “But-Mister-Major,”-he said, plat= ing his hands together in the attitude of prayer, “tomorrow night is the party. I would be bitter if I had to miss the The Major said: “Gargano, the children of Adano are much more important than any party.”
Gargano raised his hands in resignation. “Yes, Mister Major,” he said.
Chapter 36
THE DAY of the party came, and many things happened. At about 9:30 in the morning, a U.S. Navy truck pulled up in front of the Palazzo. A Chief Petty Officer and five men unloaded a crate from it onto the sidewalk, and the Chief went inside and delivered a note for Major Victor Joppolo.
Major Joppolo was busy at his desk, and had not noticed the truck. He opened the note and read:
“Dear Major:
“The U.S. Navy is delighted to be able to do the U.S. Army a favor. Here is your bell...”
The Major jumped up and shouted: “Where is it?” Zito the usher said: “Where is what, Mister Major?” The Major said: “The bell! The bell! They have brought us our bell.” And he ran out on the balcony just in time to see the Navy truck pull away. He saw the crate sitting there on the sidewalk.
Major Joppolo shouted down to an M.P. in front of the Palazzo. “Hey, stand guard over that box, don’t let anybody walk off with that.”
The M.P. grumbled out loud, but not loud enough for Major Joppolo to hear: “From t1iC way them sailors was Joppolo gruntin’ and groanin’, don’t strike me that nobody’s goin’ to strut off with that thing.”
The Major hurried back inside, and he said to Zito: “How long did you say it took them to take the old bell down, Zito?”
Zito said: “They had to use six sets of block and tackle. It took them two days to get it down. Then one day to crate it.”
The Major said: “I can’t wait that long.”
He went to the phone and called up the Engineers. “Major Harvey, please... Major? This is Joppolo. Say, I wonder if you could arrange to do this town a big favor. We’ve got a delicate job to do, and I’m afraid the workmen we could round up to do it would take ages and maybe hack it. The job is raising a new bell on the clock tower of the Town Hall here. I guess it would take about eight men, and if you’ve got a good strong block and tackle, and maybe a tow truck to haul out the tackle and raise the bell... You can? That’s swell. Can they start right in? What time you think they could get here? Okay, I’ll be on hand at eleven thirty to tell them what to do. Don’t know how to thank you, Major.”
Major Joppolo was excited. He called up Lieutenant Livingston and thanked him for his part in getting the bell. “Why hell,” he said, “it ought to be up this afternoon. Maybe we can ring it for the party tonight. You’re coming, aren’t you?”
“Wouldn’t miss it, Major.”
“Well, see you there, Captain. Thanks a hell of a lot “Don’t mention it. Say, there’s just one thing, Major.” “What’s that?”
“I’m a Lieutenant. It takes a long time to get to be a Captain in the Navy.”
“Is that a fact?” the Major said. “Well, you ought to be a Captain soon,” and he hung up.
He picked up the note and finished it:
“Thought you might be interested to know a little more about Corelli and the background o f the bell. Toot Dowling, who, by the way, was very generous to give up his bell - I don’t think it would hurt to write him a letter about it (U.S.S. Corelli, care Postmaster, New York) -Toot told me a little about Corelli. He said his full name was Vincent Corelli and he had a destroyer in the last war. I had it a bit wrong the other day. What happened was that Corelli was on escort duty in the North Atlantic, and this Italian freighter got in a hell of a storm and broke down. Corelli left his station with a convoy and he went and took off all the Italians with :breeches buoy although