U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [86]
"You can't can't you?" roared the colonel, and gave the ordinanza a push; one of the lieutenants stuck his foot out and the ordinanza tripped over it and fel . Everybody laughed and the colonel gave him a kick; he had gotten to his hands and knees when the colonel gave him a kick in the seat of his pants that sent him flat to the floor again. The officers al roared, the Ordinanza crawled to the door with the colonel running after him giving him little kicks first on one side and then on the other, like a soccerplayer with a footbal . That put everybody in a good humor and they had another drink of strega al around. When they got outside Serrati, who'd been laughing with the rest, grabbed Dick's arm and hissed in his ear, "Bestie, . . . sono tutti bestie." When the other officers had gone, Serrati took them up to see Sardinaglia who was a tal longfaced young man who liked to cal himself a futurista. Serrati told him what had happened and said he was afraid the Americans had been disgusted. "A futurist must be disgusted at nothing except weakness and stupidity," said Sardinaglia sententiously. Then he told them he'd found out who the bel a ragazza was real y sleeping with . . . with the ordinanza. That he said disgusted him; it showed that women were al pigs. Then he said to sit down on his cot while he played them the march of the medical colonels. They declared it was fine. "A futurist must be strong and disgusted with noth-ing," he said, stil tril ing on the mandolin,
"that's why I admire the Germans and American mil ionaires." They al laughed. Dick and Steve went out to pick up some feriti to evacu--204-ate to the hospital. Behind the barn where they parked the cars, they found the ordinanza sitting on a stone with his head in his hands, tears had made long streaks on the dirt of his face. Steve went up to him and patted him on the back and gave him a package of Mecca cigarettes, that had been distributed to them by the Y.M.C.A. The ordinanza squeezed Steve's hand, looked as if he was going to kiss it. He said after the war he was going to America where people were civilized, not bestie like here. Dick asked him where the girl had gone.
"Gone away," he said. "Andata via."
When they got back to the section they found there was hel to pay. Orders had come for Savage, Warner, Ripley and Schuyler to report to the head office in Rome in order to be sent back to the States. Feldmann wouldn't tel them what the trouble was. They noticed at once that the other men in the section were looking at them suspiciously and were nervous about speaking to them, except for Fred Summers who said he didn't understand it, the whole frig-ging business was a madhouse anyway. Sheldrake, who'd moved his dufflebag and cot into another room in the vil a, came around with an I told you so air and said he'd heard the words seditious utterances and that an Italian intel i-gence officer had been around asking about them. He wished them good luck and said it was too bad. They left the section without saying goodby to anybody. Feldmann drove them and their dufflebags and bedrol s down to Vicenza in the camionette. At the railroad station he handed them their orders of movement to Rome, said it was too bad, wished them good luck, and went off in a hurry without shaking hands.
"The sons of bitches," growled Steve, "you might think we had leprosy." Ed Schuyler was reading the military passes, his face beaming. "Men and brethren," he said, "I am moved to make a speech . . . this is the greatest graft yet . . . do you gentlemen realize that what's happening
-205-is that the Red Cross, otherwise known as the goose that lays the golden egg, is presenting us with a free tour of Italy? We don't have to get to Rome for a year.""Keep out of Rome til the revolution," suggested Dick. "Enter Rome with the Austrians," said Ripley.
A train came into the station. They piled into a first class compartment; when the conductor came and tried to explain that their orders read for second class transportation, they couldn't understand Italian, so