From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [284]
“At ole po-lice dawg’s been nosin aroun for a couple weeks now. Bout time he got a break,” Sgt Henderson grinned in his high thin lazy Texas drawl. “That goddam Bloom, will he be surprised when ole Lady drops a littah of po-lice dawgs on his pillah.”
“I never did like that son of a bitch Bloom anyways,” Sgt Wilson said grimly, as he knelt to hold her forelegs. Sgt Champ Wilson always said everything grimly, inside the ring or out. Sgt Champ Wilson was a grim guy. He had to be. He was the champion lightweight of the Hawaiian Department. You did not carry an honor like that lightly. He held Lady’s forelegs grimly.
There were men scattered all over the company yard, working and loafing. There were details on the porch repacking the barrels of the watercooled machineguns that Leva had decided he might as well have done today, since they were working. There were details in the street and at the garbage racks and across the street in the quad where they were working on the tents. Before long Henderson and Wilson had quite a crowd around them, offering advice and encouragement.
Bloom’s dog was a little part-terrier mongrel. There were always plenty of stray dogs drifting around any Army post, because everybody always fed them to get to pet them, but Bloom wanted his own dog. He had found this one over by the Post Beergarden and brought her home and named her Lady and religiously begged scraps from the cooks who would have fed her anyway to get to pet her, so that he could feed her three times a day himself and win all her affection. Just as religiously, but with an even greater vigor that almost amounted to affronted outrage, he drove off all the male dogs that ventured into the company area. The big police dog from F Company next door was his especial enemy.
It became one of the biggest jokes in the Company. And Lady herself, who was a meek frightened-faced little bundle of nerves that carried her tail perpetually between her legs, did not help it any. She was completely devoid of any military sense, and it was a delight to the formation to watch Bloom bellow and curse and threaten Lady as she meekly with her tail tucked between her legs tried to follow him out to drill morning after morning.
Lady was no virgin, it was obvious her morals were no better than the average, and she did not mind the big police dog half as much as Bloom did, but now they had frightened her. The police dog was willing but he was too tall for her, without Lady’s cooperation. And Lady was not cooperating. Lady could have stood up at full height under his belly without touching him, but she was hunkering down as low as Sgt Henderson would let her. Sgt Wilson held her front legs grimly while Sgt Henderson tried to elevate her stern. The police dog jumped around barking excitedly and pawing the air vainly. The circle of onlookers cheered and offered more advice. Everybody thought it would be a big joke on Bloom.
“Hell,” Sgt Henderson grinned up at the audience. “Ats nothing. Ah was in Fort Sam, we had a ole sarnt was in Mexico with Pershing use to take his ole bird dawg into San Antone over payday and get him laid. This whore charged twenty for the dawg and five apiece for every guy who watched. Regular price for a piece was three bucks. At gal made herself a fortune and retard the next yeah.”
Lady made a lunge and almost got loose and Sgt Henderson had to turn his attention back to the job at hand.
All of them had heard similar exciting stories about dogs and horses. There was a Russian Jew in L Company who swore he had