From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [269]
“Suppose you have to,” Warden said. He looked at the long brown bottle dubiously, then upended it and drank. Then he screwed the cap back on and tossed it distastefully. “How’d you find all this out,” he said.
Without moving in the chair Stark raised his right arm languidly and caught the bottle. He let his arm fall dangling over the chair arm and let the bottle sit on the ground.
“Nem-mine how I found it out,” Stark said. “Nem-mine that. The thing is I know it. The thing is its a wonner the whole damn post dont know it. I tole you once to watch out for that stuff or you would get burnt. I tole you all about it. I know all about that stuff, I had some of it at Bliss.”
“Was it good?” Warden asked him thoughtfully.
“No,” Stark said. “Yes. I dont know. Fack is, I dint know enough then to be able to judge. But that aint the point. The point is—” He stopped and shook his head. “I thought you was a smart man,” he said.
Warden got up from the meatblock that was beside the chair and stepped around the chair and bent to get the bottle. There was a way to handle this. There was a way to handle everything. All you had to do was be careful. But then, who the hell wants to have to go around always being careful.
“I want to know how you found it out,” he roared suddenly, with unexpected violence, almost in Stark’s ear.
“I seen you down to the Alexander Young Hotel,” Stark said placidly. “Lessn a week ago. Probly ten thousand other dog soljers from Schofield seen you too. You must be nuts.”
“Probly,” Warden grinned at him savagely. He stepped back with the bottle hanging from his hand, his left hand. “And just what the fuck do you propose to do about it? Or have you decided yet?”
“So!” Stark said. “You dont deny it, do you?”
“Why the hell should I? You seen me, dint you?”
Stark drew himself up drunkenly formally in the camp chair and stared at the other woodenly. “I done already got my mind made up. What to do about it. Nothing you can say will change me. Its useless to try.”
“I aint tryin yet,” Warden said.
“Wont do you any good,” Stark said. “You might as well give up. If you cant take care of yourself, Firs Sarnt, somebody got to take care of it for you. And it looks like I’m elected.
“You aint leavin this heah tent tonight, Firs Sarnt,” Stark said solemnly, folding his arms to pronounce the sentence, “until you promise me on your word of honor as a soljer you wont have nothin more to do with that slut.”
“Haw!” Warden snorted. “My word of honor as a soljer, ’ey? Wont leave this tent, ’ey?”
“Aint you got no self respeck lef a tall?” Stark said. “Dont you respeck the organization yore servin in? Dont you respeck the un’form of yore country you wornd for so many yeahs? You ought to be ashamed. Yore a dis-grace to the chevrons on yore arm, Firs Sarnt.”
“Piss on that,” Warden snarled.
Stark shook his head. “Ats my last word. I got my mind made up. You aint leavin this tent till you promise. Ats my last word, Firs Sarnt.”
Warden snorted. “Last word, ’ey? Threatening me, ’ey?”
“Dont you know what she is?” Stark hollered violently. He waved his arms. “Cant you see what she’s doin to you? She’s terrible!” he hollered, “she’s awful. Oh, you dont know her like I do, Firs Sarnt. She’s a rotten goddam whoor, she’s worse than a whoor, she’s— She’s a goddam rich man’s daughter of a degenerate, thats what she is. Why, she would—” He clamped his mouth shut and folded his arms. “But I wont let her,” he said. “You’ll promise like I said, Firs Sarnt, or else.”
“Or else what?” Warden said.
“Take care,” Stark said. “Dont trifle with me, Firs Sarnt. I know you backwards and forwards. Preem warned me about you, Firs Sarnt, before he left. But I know how to handle you. Theres only one way to handle men like you. And I know how to do it.” He settled his folded arms into an even more final finality. “I’m waiting for you to promise,” he said.
Warden was still looking at him thoughtfully. Stark was drunk, and tomorrow he would forget all about it. And tomorrow Milt Warden would also still be seeing the same