From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [303]
“You hit the man, didnt you?” Lt Culpepper cried. “My god, man!”
“Sure I hit him. And do it again, too.”
“If you hit him, you are guilty. Thats open and shut. Why try to hide the truth?”
“I wont plead guilty, Lootenant,” Prew said.
“Jesus Christ!” Lt Culpepper said. “I never saw such a stubborn bastard. You’ll deserve all you get. You got no more gratitude than a fish. If you dont give a damn for yourself, you might at least think of me. I didn’t ask to be appointed your defense counsel.”
“I know it,” Prew said. “And I’m sorry about it.” He did not look up from his shoes, but his face was still set just as stolidly as ever.
Lt Culpepper sighed. He put his Parker 51 pencil back in his pocket with his Parker 51 pen and put the confession paper and the doodle paper back in the briefcase and closed the zipper and stood up. “All right,” he said. “Just the same, you think it over. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Prew got up from the bunk with him. Lt Culpepper shook his hand.
“Chin up,” he said.
Prew watched him hustle back out through the line of bars with the open door of bars, past the guard corporal who saluted, back into the other world with his new yellow briefcase with the zipper on three of its sides. Then Prew got the old deck of cards out from under the pillow.
He had played five games and come within an ace of running one of them out when The Warden came into the office on the other side of the line of bars with the open door of bars. The Warden was carrying the clean suit of fatigues the OD had requested from the Company to replace the dirty ones he said were beginning to stink so bad it was hurting the morale of the guard, although this was an exaggeration.
“I have to have a goddam permit to give this monstrous criminal his goddam clean clothes?” The Warden said to the guard corporal, “or can I do it informal like this?”
“What?” the corporal said guiltily, trying to cover the comic book with his arm. “Oh,” he said. “Thats all right. Go right on back, Sergeant. You didnt need to bring them yourself, Sergeant.”
“Who the fuck would bring them,” the Warden snorted, “if I dint bring them myself.”
“I dont know,” the corporal said defensively. “I just said——”
“What’re you reading?” The Warden snorted viciously. “The story of J Edgar and Mel Purvis and the Stool Pigeon In Red? Dont tell me you want to grow up to be a G Man too? If the whole next generation becomes G Men who they going to find to arrest?”
“What?” the corporal said. He took his arm off the comic book. It was The Batman. “Oh,” he laughed, “I see. Thats pretty good, Sarge.” He closed the comic book and put it in the desk drawer guiltily. “Just passin the time was all,” he said defensively.
“Aint you going to search this bindle?” The Warden said. “Maybe I got a couple files in there.”
The corporal looked at him dumbly. Then he laughed, and shook his head.
“You’re sure you trust me now,” The Warden said. “How you know I aint a cop-killer in disguise?”
“Thats pretty good,” the corporal laughed. “I dont know,” he laughed. “Maybe you are. Go right on back, Sarge, if you want.”
Milt Warden snorted disgustedly and walked down between the two rows of cots that were empty now in the afternoon and the corporal wiped his face off with his hand.
“I dont know what I want to waste my wit on dumb jerks like that for,” Warden grunted disgustedly as he threw the fatigues on the cot. He looked at the hand spread out on the blanket. “You beating him?” he said.
“Not yet,” Prew said.
“Well, dont worry, kid. You’ll have plenty time yet to practice.”
“Aint they got a date fixed for the trial yet?” Prew said collecting the cards. “Jesus Christ.”
“No,” Warden said, “I mean after you leave here.”
“Oh,” Prew said. “But maybe they wont let me play sol in the Stockade.” He got up and began to strip off the musty stale fatigues. By god, they did smell bad at that.
“Probly not,” Warden said, watching him. “They’ll make you wear your GI underwear though. The trial’s for next Monday,” he said, “just come through while ago. Thats four days yet. Maybe