From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [464]
“Okay, Top,” Andy said, and got on it.
Warden picked up the two pieces of the rifle contritely, the stock butt dangling limply from the sling. He had had that rifle four years; he had brought it into A Co with him, and taken it out of A Co with him into G. He had nosed out Sgt/Maj O’Bannon for Regimental high score with that rifle. He checked the action lovingly. It was all right. He could get a new stock, but the action could not have been replaced. He laid the two pieces down tenderly by the door, feeling a little better. Then he picked up the offensively unharmed, still virgin, War Department letter with its endorsements and tore it across, then across again, then across a third time, and scattered it over the floor. With the rest of the wreckage.
“They all check in okay, Top,” Andy said from the switchboard.
“Okay. Good. You still got two and a half hours of your shift to do yet. I’m going to bed.”
“Well, what about the Orderly Room? What about the wagon? Aint you going to clean it up any?”
“Let Ross do it,” he said, and got the pieces of his rifle and went out.
Outside, everything was still as death. After a while, after so long a time, there wasnt anything left but to go to bed. You went so long, and did so much, and were done so much, until finally there came a time when there was absolutely nothing anywhere left on earth to do but to go to bed.
Warden put the pieces of the rifle at the foot of his cot and went gratefully to bed.
In the morning they found Stark down on the beach sleeping peacefully in the sand with his tear-stained cheek resting on his trusty cleaver.
Warden, who was up fresh and early, had already taken it up with Lt Ross, who was furious (furious was no word to describe it), before they had even found Stark.
“You cant bust him, Lieutenant. He’s the only man we’ve got who can come anywhere near running the mess at all, with the men scattered all over hell’s half acre like they are.”
“The hell I cant bust him!” Lt Ross said furiously. “I’ll bust him if every manjack in this Company starves to death!”
“Who’ll you get to run the mess for you?”
“I dont give a damn who runs the mess for me!” Lt Ross said furiously. “Look at this place! My god, Sergeant, I cant let a man get away with a thing like that! We’ll never have any discipline! We’ve got to have discipline!”
“Sure, but we got to have food, too.”
“He can run the mess as a private!” Lt Ross said furiously.
“He wouldnt do it.”
“Then he can be court-martialed for malingering!” Lt Ross hollered furiously.
“You couldnt make that stick. You’re a lawyer, Lieutenant. You know you couldnt make it stick, to court-martial him for refusing to run the mess without the rating.”
“I cant let him get by with this!” Lt Ross said furiously.
“You just dont understand him, Lieutenant. He’s a funny guy. He goes on rampages like this every now and then. He did it once at Hickam Field before you got in the Company. He dont really mean any harm. And he never hurts anybody. He’s just a cook, thats all. Cooks and mess sergeants are just temperamental, thats all. You never saw a good mess sergeant that wasnt half crazy.”
“All right,” Lt Ross said furiously.
“You know you cant run the mess without him, Lieutenant.”
“All right!” Lt Ross said furiously.
“I’m only being realistic, Lieutenant. If we had a man could run the mess, I’d be the first to want him busted. But we havent got a man that can do it.”
“All right!” Lt Ross said furiously.
“Its for the good of the Compny, Lieutenant.”
“I know, I know,” Lt Ross said furiously. “For the good of the Company!”
“Your responsibility is to the Compny as a whole.”
“Okay,” Lt Ross said furiously. “Okay, okay. I know what my responsibility is.”
“Yes, Sir,” Warden said.
With that settled, he informed him of his decision not to accept a commission.
“What!” Lt Ross cried furiously. “But,