Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [249]
“Are you predicting that Commander Queeg will perjure himself on the stand?”
“I’m not predicting anything.”
“Is there a possibility that you imagined this story, which can’t be confirmed or refuted except by the other interested party, to bolster your magnificent defense that you know more psychiatry than psychiatrists?”
“I didn’t imagine it.”
“But you still imagine your diagnosis of Captain Queeg is superior to the doctors’?”
“Only-only about Queeg on the morning of the typhoon,” Maryk stammered. There was sweat on his brown forehead.
“No more questions,” Challee said sarcastically.
Maryk looked to his counsel. Greenwald shook his head slightly, and said, “No re-examination.” The exec came off the stand with a stunned expression. Blakely adjourned the court after Greenwald told him that the last defense witness, Captain Queeg, would appear in the morning.
CHAPTER 36
Queeg Versus Greenwald
The defense counsel introduced as evidence photostatic copies of Maryk’s fitness reports, and then called Queeg. The ex-captain of the Caine, taking the stand, was as debonair and assured as he had been on the first day. The exec marveled again at the change wrought by sunshine, and rest, and a new blue uniform. Queeg was like a poster picture of a commanding officer of the Navy.
Greenwald lost no time in getting to the attack. “Commander, on the morning of December 19, did you have an interview in your room with Lieutenant Maryk?”
“Let’s see. That’s the day after the typhoon. Yes, I did.”
“Was it at your request?”
“Yes.”
“What was the substance of that interview?”
“Well, as I say, I felt sorry for him. I hated to see him ruining his life with one panicky mistake. Particularly as I knew his ambition was to make the Navy his career. I tried as hard as I could to show him what a mistake he had made. I recommended that he relinquish command to me, and I offered to be as lenient as I could in reporting what had happened.”
“What was his response?”
“Well, as you know, he persisted in the course that led to this court-martial.”
“You say you felt sorry for him. Weren’t you worried about the effect of the episode on your own career?”
“Well, after all, I knew the verdict of the doctors would turn out as it did. I can’t say I was very worried.”
“Did you offer not to report the incident at all?”
“Of course not. I offered to report the incident in the most extenuating way I could.”
“How could you have extenuated it?”
“Well, I thought there were extenuating circumstances. A rough situation where a junior officer might well lose his head. And there was the rescue, which he brought off well under my direction. I was assuming mainly that by restoring command to me he’d acknowledge the error. It was the only course at that point that might have saved him.”
“You never offered not to report the incident?”
“How could I? It was already recorded in the logs.”
“Were the logs in pencil, or typed, or what?”
“That would make no difference.”
“Were they in pencil, Commander?”
“Well, let’s see. Probably they were-QM log and OOD rough log always are. I doubt the yeoman would have gotten around to typing smooth logs in all the excitement.”
“Did you offer to erase the incident from the penciled logs and make no report at all?”
“I did not. Erasures aren’t permitted in penciled logs.”
“Lieutenant Maryk has testified under oath, Commander, that you made such an offer. Not only that, but you begged and pleaded and even wept to get him to agree to erase those few pencil lines, in return for which you promised to hush up the incident completely and make no report.”
“That isn’t true.” Queeg spoke calmly and pleasantly.
“There isn’t any truth in it at all?”
“Well, it’s a distortion of what I told you. My version is the exact truth.”
“You deny the proposal to erase the logs and hush up the story?”
“I deny it completely. That’s the part he made up. And the weeping and the pleading. That’s fantastic.”
“You are accusing Mr. Maryk of perjury?”
“I’m not accusing him. He’s accused of enough as it stands. You’re likely