From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [199]
Jake preferred to ignore that one. He had gained a temporary advantage, and he had changed the subject; that was enough for now. But it was outrageous that he should even have to struggle with Holmes, he a Lieutenant Colonel. “If he doesnt come around soon,” he told Holmes coldly, “you have to break him. Have no choice. Throw the book at him, so that at least by winter and the Bowl Season he will be ready to talk turkey.”
“Yes,” Holmes said doubtfully. He had sensed the Brigadier’s favor in that last crack about the boxing, but he did not know whether he had enough collateral to plunge. “But I don’t think it will work that way,” he said, deciding to risk it. “I don’t think you can break this man.”
“Ha!” Jake said. He looked at the General. “Of course you can break him.”
“You can break any man,” Sam Slater said coldly. “You are an officer.”
“Thats right,” Jake said stoutly. “I remember when I served here at Schofield as a Captain and John Dillinger was a private. If there ever was an honest to God maverick that couldnt be broken, there was one. But by God they broke him. They broke him right here in the Post Stockade. I bet you he served most of his enlistment in the Post Stockade, by God,” Jake said indignantly. “Thats when he swore he’d get even with the United States if it was the last thing he ever did.”
“That doesnt sound like they broke him,” Holmes said, unable to back out now. “From the way he went after he got out of here, I would say they never broke him.”
“Oh yes they did,” Jake said. “J E Hoover and his boys broke him. They broke him right in two, that night in Chicago. Just like they broke Prettyboy Floyd and the rest of them.”
“They killed him,” Holmes said. “Not broke him.”
“Its the same thing,” Jake said indignantly. “What the hell ’s the difference?”
“I dont know,” Holmes said, deciding to give up. “None, I guess.” But he knew he did not believe that. It was in his voice.
“No,” Sam Slater said. “Jake’s wrong. There is a great deal of difference. They never broke Dillinger. You might as well be honest, Jake, and give him his due.”
Jake Delbert’s face thickened redly.
“You cant understand that,” Sam Slater said deliberately. “But I can understand him. And I think Dynamite here can.”
Jake sat down in his chair and raised his drink up to his reddened face and sipped it, and Sam Slater stared back at him unmoved. “But the important thing is they did kill him, like they always kill them. The only thing wrong with Dillinger was he was an individualist, and you cant understand that, Jake. But thats why they had to kill him. Crime never pays, see?” he grinned.
Holmes felt vastly relieved, but then as Slater spoke he had a vivid mental picture, suddenly, of how a little difference of opinion in thought, just like this one, say between a private and a noncom, could inextricably lead a man to the Stockade, and from there—unless the opinion in him changed, unless they broke him—lead him on step by irrevocable step to where he sat in a Chevrolet sedan on a sideroad at night holding a snub nosed .38 in an angry frightened hand and waited for the shots to pour out of the darkness into him at any moment, all this occurring in a peaceful nation not at war. It was an overpoweringly weird idea that made him shiver. He just managed to catch himself from thinking that it might even have been himself and then remembered what Slater had said about some boys could not shoot birds. He felt a curiously unreal quality about everything around him. The power of thought, he told himself, all from such an innocent beginning.
“Captain,” Jake said to him chokingly, “I’m positively instructing you to give this man Prewitt the goddam book, if he doesnt come around before its too late for him to train for Smokers.”
“I’ve meant to do that all along, Sir,” Holmes said, “except that perhaps I’ve thought it might not be necessary.” He felt a little sorry for the poor old bugger.
“It’ll be necessary,” Jake said brutally. “You can take my word for that. And that is a direct order, Captain.” He sat back in his chair.
Holmes, h