Read Online From Here to Eternity by James Jones - Free Book Online Page B

fight Regimental this year, you'll be eligible for Company Smokers in the fall. "Have you seen any of our boys in the Bowl this year?" he asked. "We've got some good ones, I'm confident we'll keep the trophy. I'd like to get your opinion on a couple of them." "I havent been to any of the fights this year, Sir," Prew said. "What?" Holmes said, not believing it. "You havent?" He stared at Prew a moment curiously, then looked at Warden knowingly. He picked up a freshly sharpened pencil from his desk and studied it. "Why is it," Capt Holmes said softly, "that you've been in the Regiment a whole year, Prewitt, and nobody knew a thing about it? I should have thought you would have come around to see me, since I am the boxing coach and since we're the Division champions." Prew moved his weight from one foot to the other and took one deep breath. "I was afraid you'd want me to go out for the squad, Sir," he said. There it is, he thought, its out now, you've got it now. Now he can carry the ball. He felt relieved. "Of course," Holmes said. "Why not? We can use a man as good as you are. Especially since you're a welterweight. We're poor in that division. If we lose the championship this year, it will be because we lost the welterweight division." "Because I left the 27th because I had quit fighting, Sir," Prew said. Again Holmes looked at Warden knowingly, this time apologetically, as if now he could believe it since he'd heard it from the man himself, before he spoke. "Quit fighting?" he said. "What for?" "Maybe you heard about what happened with Dixie Wells, Sir," Prew said, hearing Warden lay his papers down, feeling Warden grinning. Holmes stared at him innocently, eyes wide with it. "Why, no," he said. "What was that?" Prew went through the story for him, for both of them, standing there with his feet one foot apart and his hands clasped behind his back, and feeling all the time he spoke it was superfluous, that both of them already knew all about the deal already, yet forced to play the role that Holmes had set for him. "Thats too bad," Holmes said, when he had finished. "I can understand why you might feel that way. But those things happen, in this game. A man has got to accept that possibility when he fights." "Thats one reason why I decided I would quit, Sir," Prew said. "But on the other hand," Holmes said, much less warmly now, "look at it this way. What if all fighters felt like that?" "They dont, Sir," Prew said. "I know," Holmes said, much less warmly still. "What would you have us do? Disband our fighting program because one man got hurt?" "No, Sir," Prew said. "I didnt say.. ." "You might as well," Holmes said, "say stop war because one man got- killed. Our fighting season is the best morale builder that we have off here away from home." "I dont want it disbanded, Sir," Prew said, and then felt the absurdity to which he had been forced. "But I dont see," he went on doggedly, "why any man should fight unless he wanted to." Holmes studied him with eyes that had grown curiously flat, and were growing flatter. "And that was why you left the 27th?" "Yes, Sir. Because they tried to make me go on fighting." "I see." Capt Holmes seemed all at once to have lost interest in this interview. He looked down at his watch, remembering suddenly he had a riding date with Major Thompson's wife at 12:30. He stood up and picked up his hat from the IN file on his desk. It was a fine hat, a soft expensive unblocked Stetson, with its brim bent up fore and aft, its four dents creased to a sharp point at the peak, and it bore the wide chinstrap of the Cavalry, instead of the thin strap authorized for the Infantry that went behind the head. Beside it lay his riding crop he always carried. He picked that up, too. He had not always been an Infantryman. "Well," he said, with very little interest, "theres nothing in the ARs that says a man must be a boxer if he doesnt want to. You'll find that we wont put any pressure on you here, like they did in