From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [260]
“You’re one hell of a glutton for punishment,” Warden said. “To stay up all night when you dont have to.”
“Maybe I like it,” Stark said. “Whats it to you?”
“You’re drunk,” Warden said.
“So’re you,” Stark said.
“Sure,” Warden grinned savagely. “And about to get drunker. Wheres your goddam bottle?”
“Maybe I had a reason for gettin rid of him,” Stark hinted darkly. He leaned back in the chair and pulled the bottle out from between a utensil chest and the tent wall, and tossed it up to Warden. “Wheres your bottle?” he said.
“Back at the CP,” Warden lied. “Empty.”
“Yeah?” Stark said broodingly. “Well have a drink of mine then.”
“Thanks,” Warden said. “I will.”
“You’re going to need it,” Stark said. “I want to talk to you.”
“Save it,” Warden said, around the bottle. “I’m on vacation. And not in no mood to listen to greaseball complaints. You and your goddam kitchen like a couple dry hole old maids. I dont feel like talking official.” He handed back the bottle.
“This aint official,” Stark said ominously. “This is private. I hear you got yourself a new girl friend,” he said.
Warden was on his way to the meatblock to sit down. He did not stop. He did not even pause. He went on and sat down casually, thinking it was just as if somebody had flipped on the dial of a radio. He could feel the old wide angle range tuning in his mind come on and begin to warm up and give off signals, but it was having a hard fight with the static of the red mist of outrage that had been in his brain all evening. He lit himself a cigaret, wondering abstractedly which would win. After he sat down and got himself all comfortably fixed and crossed his legs, he said, “Yeah? Where’d you hear that?”
Stark was still staring at him broodingly. “Oh,” he said mellowly, “I got ways of findin things out.”
“Yeah?” Warden said. “Well suppose you utilize them same ways to find out how to mind your own fucking business.”
“Suppose I dont want to,” Stark said. Without getting up he moved his right arm and tossed the bottle. Warden caught it.
“Suppose you have to,” Warden said. He looked at the long brown bottle dubiously, then upended it and drank. Then he screwed the cap back on and tossed it distastefully. “How’d you find all this out,” he said.
Without moving in the chair Stark raised his right arm languidly and caught the bottle. He let his arm fall dangling over the chair arm and let the bottle sit on the ground.
“Nem-mine how I found it out,” Stark said. “Nem-mine that. The thing is I know it. The thing is its a wonner the whole damn post dont know it. I tole you once to watch out for that stuff or you would get burnt. I tole you all about it. I know all about that stuff, I had some of it at Bliss.”
“Was it good?” Warden asked him thoughtfully.
“No,” Stark said. “Yes. I dont know. Fack is, I dint know enough then to be able to judge. But that aint the point. The point is—” He stopped and shook his head. “I thought you was a smart man,” he said.
Warden got up from the meatblock that was beside the chair and stepped around the chair and bent to get the bottle. There was a way to handle this. There was a way to handle everything. All you had to do was be careful. But then, who the hell wants to have to go around always being careful.
“I want to know how you found it out,” he roared suddenly, with unexpected violence, almost in Stark’s ear.
“I seen you down to the Alexander Young Hotel,” Stark said placidly. “Lessn a week ago. Probly ten thousand other dog soljers from Schofield seen you too. You must be nuts.”
“Probly,” Warden grinned at him savagely. He stepped back with the bottle hanging from his hand, his left hand. “And just what the fuck do you propose to do about it? Or have you decided yet?”
“So!” Stark said. “You dont deny it, do you?”
“Why the hell should I? You seen me, dint you?”
Stark drew himself up drunkenly formally in the camp chair and stared at the other woodenly. “I done already got my mind made up. What to do about it. Nothing you can say will change me. Its useless to try.”
“I aint tryin yet,” Warden said.
“Wont do you any good,” Stark said. “You m