From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [311]
“Aa, shut up,” Hanson said disgustedly. “Dint you hear what the guy just said?”
“Sure,” Turnipseed said stubbornly. “But does that prove it?”
“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Hanson said.
Prew stepped back from his shelf. “Hows that?” he said.
“Pretty good,” Hanson said grudgingly.
“It looks perfect to me.”
“Me too,” Hanson said. Then he grinned that grin. “But I aint personally guaranteeing it for you, bud.”
“Lets move, men,” Turnipseed suggested. “Somebody liable come around.”
They took him out through into the hall again. They went back past the other barracks doors, back the way they had first come. Prew noticed each barrack was a completely separate wing. Between the outside barracks and the middle one there were yard spaces of about ten feet.
“Yeah,” Hanson grinned, watching him, “the middle wing’s for recalcitrants.”
“Bolsheviks,” Turnipseed grinned.
“Fuckups,” Prew grinned.
“Ats right,” Hanson grinned. “Got two searchlights trained on them yard spaces where they come out in the open, see? Like a defile, see? Never turned off at night.”
“Be pretty hard to get out of there,” Prew said conversationally.
“Pretty hard,” Hanson grinned.
“How many machineguns?” Prew asked sociably.
“One on each,” Hanson grinned. “But there plenty more around if they needed.”
“Efficient,” Prew said.
Turnipseed snorted. “Efficient,” he said. “I guess.”
“Shut up you dumb fuck Turniphead you,” Hanson grinned affectionately. He touched Prew on the arm with his grub hoe handle delicately. “Stop here, bud,” he said.
Prew stopped, feeling he had come off pretty well in that exchange, they werent bad joes at all, feeling again the old, good toughness in him that made him think maybe he would come out of this without a smudged reputation after all.
They were standing in front of the bulletin board.
In the center of the bulletin board, holding the place of honor among the mimeographed memorandums and sheets of detailed instructions about inspections, was a Robert Ripley “Believe It Or Not” that had been clipped from a newspaper. The clipping was brittle and yellow with age. It had been mounted on cardboard to preserve it, and there was a black border of cardboard around it on the bulletin board it caught the eye instantly.
Hanson and Turnipseed were grinning down at him proudly, like the old nigger guides conducting a party around the sacred environs of Mount Vernon Virginia as if they personally owned it. Prew stepped up to the board.
The chief subject of the clipping was a bust drawing in the familiar style of Mr Ripley, of John Dillinger grinning behind his dark moustache he had grown shortly before he died. Prew remembered having seen the newsfoto it was drawn from. Under it was the legend, in Mr Ripley’s familiar block printing and equally familiar Gabriel Heatterish style.
THE FIRST PLACE WHERE FORMER PUBLIC ENEMY #1 JOHN DILLINGER EVER SERVED TIME IN PRISON WAS IN THE POST STOCKADE AT SCHOFIELD BARRACKS IN THE TERRITORY OF HAWAII, WHERE THE SCHOFIELD BARRACKS MILITARY POLICE COMPANY RUNS WHAT IS SAID TO BE THE TOUGHEST JAIL IN THE U S ARMY. IT WAS SO TOUGH THAT JOHN DILLINGER UPON BEING RELEASED FROM IT SWORE TO HAVE VENGEANCE UPON THE WHOLE UNITED STATES SOMEDAY, EVEN IF IT KILLED HIM.
Under this, neatly printed in small letters with a pencil, were the words
WHICH IT DID
Prew looked again at the pencilled words “which it did” and the black border of one inch cardboard. A flaming rage burned up fiercely through him like fire sucked up a flue, burning out the soot and cleansing it so it will draw well. There was a cool calm solace of protection in the unreasoning rage. But his mind was functioning enough to recognize it was a false protection.
The two giants still grinned down at him, waiting. He felt he must not say something debasing.
“Great stuff,” he said. “Why show it to me?”
“Show it to every new man,” Hanson grinned. “Major Thompson’s orders.”
“You’d be surprised,” Turnipseed grinned, “all the differnt reactions we get from this clipping.”
“Very illuminatin,” Hanson grinned. “Some guys fly into a regular