Fable, A - William Faulkner [155]
'I mean that suit,' the old Negro said. 'That policeman's suit. You just took it, didn't you?'
'I had to,' the runner said with that peaceful and terrible patience. 'I had to get out. To get back in too. At least back to where I hid my uniform. It used to be difficult enough to pass either way, in or out. But now it will be almost impossible to get back in. But dont worry about that; all I need-'
'Is he dead?' the old Negro said.
'What?' the runner said. 'Oh, the policeman. I dont know. Probably not.' He said with a sort of amazement: 'I hope not,' He said: 'I knew night before last-two nights ago, Tuesday night-what they were planning to do, though of course I had no proof then. I tried to tell him. But you know him; you've probably tried yourself to tell him something you couldn't prove or that he didn't want to believe. So I'll need something else. Not to prove it to him, make him believe it: there's not time enough left to waste that way. That's why I came here. I want you to make me a Mason too. Or maybe there's not even time for that either. So just show me the sign-like this-' He jerked, flicked his hand low against his flank, as near as he had been able to divine at the time or anyway remember now from the man two years ago on the day he joined the battalion. That will be enough. It will have to be; I'll bluff the rest of it through-'
Wait,' the old Negro said. Tell me slow,'
'I'm trying to,' the runner said with that terrible patience. 'Every man in the battalion owes him his pay for weeks ahead, provided they live long enough to earn it and he lives long enough to collect it from them. He did it by making them all Masons or anyway making them believe they are Masons. He owns them, you see. They cant refuse him. All he will need to do is-'
Wait,' the old Negro said. Wait.'
'Dont you see?' the runner said. 'If all of us, the whole battalion, at least one battalion, one unit out of the whole line to start it, to lead the way-leave the rifles and grenades and all behind us in the trench: simply climb barehanded out over the parapet and through the wire and then just walk on barehanded, not with our hands up for surrender but just open to show that we had nothing to hurt, harm anyone; not running, stumbling: just walking forward like free men-just one of us, one man; suppose just one man, then mul-tiply him by a battalion; suppose a whole battalion of us, who want nothing except just to go home and get themselves into clean clothes and work and drink a little beer in the evening and talk and then lie down and sleep and not be afraid. And maybe, just maybe that many Germans who dont want anything more too, or maybe just one German who doesn't want more than that, to put his or their rifles and grenades down and climb out too with their hands Thursday empty too not for surrender but just so every man could see there is nothing in them to hurt or harm either---'
'Suppose they dont,' the old Negro said. 'Suppose they shoot at us,' But the runner didn't even hear the 'us,' He was still talking.
'Wont they shoot at us tomorrow anyway, as soon as they have recovered from the fright? As soon as the people at Chaulnesmont and Paris and Poperinghe and whoever it was in that German aeroplane this afternoon have had time to meet and compare notes and decide exactly where the threat, danger is, and eradicate it and then start the war again: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow until the last formal rule of the game has been fulfilled and discharged and the last ruined player removed from sight and the victory immolated like a football trophy in a club-house show-case. That's all I want. That's all I'm trying to do. But you may be right. So you tell me,'
The old Negro groaned. He groaned peacefully. One hand came out from beneath the covers and turned them back and he swung his legs toward the edge of the bed and said to the youth in the dressing gown: 'Hand me my shoes and britches,'