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"Soldier," John Rau said, "you have to earn your advancement in rank."
He didn't say, By putting up with this shit. But that's what De
"Yes sir."
Now he said, "Corporal?"
And paused. De
"Yes sir?"
"You'll draw perimeter picket duty tonight, eight to twelve. See the first sergeant before the hour and he'll assign you to a post."
One more time.
"Yes sir."
John Rau looked out at his troops and then right away turned to him again. "But before you draw rations and prepare your meal, I want you to get your rifle."
It took De
"Soldier, did you hear what I just said?"
De
20
"JERRY WON'T EAT OUTSIDE," Robert said, "and A
"Get to do whatever they want," De
De
"For what?"
"Anything."
"Same as I'm offering you, man. Never having to stand in line again in your life."
"They coming back?"
"I told Jerry he has to spend the night out here at his command post. I want to see if Arlen's got the nerve to slip over here and fuck with him."
"What's Jerry say about that?"
"I only tell him he has to sleep here, not he's the bait. A
"So you'll be going back there tonight."
Robert didn't say yes or no, he told De
"Charlie says Arlen and his guys always get smashed they come to one of these. They're probably drinking right now."
"So either it jacks 'em up to become active," Robert said, "or they get shitfaced and don't even think of it."
"The next day they're hungover. Charlie says they take hits early in the battle and sleep till it's over. He says they're really good at taking hits."
Robert started to smile. "Come on, what're you telling me?"
"The way they go down. They practice getting shot."
Robert said, "I don't believe you," smiling just a little. "They practice? Go out in their yard and fall down? Sounds like a bunch of redneck Monty Pythons. Well, you know these dudes can be fu
"Tell me the truth," De
"I told you, was from a postcard old Broom Taylor gave me."
"But it's not your great-grandfather hanging from the bridge."
"It's somebody's."
"How many times have you used it?"
"Only since I'm here. See, I'm being truthful, 'cause I want you to trust me you come to make up your mind."
"I've already decided."
"No, you haven't, so don't tell me nothing yet."
"What I came to get is a rifle."
It turned on Robert's smile. "You want to be there tomorrow, don't you? In the woods."
De
Rau doesn't want to see me again without a rifle."
Robert turned his head to the tent next door, to his left. "Groove? Fix this man up with an Enfield. The cartridge box, the pouch, all the shit goes withit." He said to De
"You cook your own meals. We don't have to cure the salt pork, but he told us how, in case we want to fix it at home."
"Dry it out good, lot of salt, some molasses and a tangy hot sauce."
"Colonel Rau likes brown sugar."
"I have to think of what to do with him," Robert said. He looked up and then rose from the chair. "Here's your gun. You know how to shoot?"
De
Groove came with the Enfield, Groove wearing shades with the uniform pants, but no shirt covering his slim build.
Robert said, "He needs to know how to load it."
Groove held the rifle upright against him, the muzzle at his chest. He showed De
"You don't have teeth," Robert said, "you can't shoot. Now he pours the Elephant black powder down the barrel. See, the minie ball, the bullet's in there too, in the paper. You drop it down the muzzle and take your ramrod-see where it's attached Groove pulls it out and runs it down the barrel to tamp the ball in there good. Now he picks the gun up, opens the breech. Now he takes a percussion cap-you know what I'm saying? The thing makes it explode, and puts it on the nipple there. Groove, tell him how straight this gun shoots."
"Good up to nine hundred yards," Groove said. "What the man said taught me all this shit. You hit your enemy up to that distance with the fifty-eight slug? The motherfucker is dead."
Robert said, "We go
"I'm on picket duty tonight."
"Then you got what you need. You want, I could bring you a cold beer later on."
"I don't know where I'll be. I might as well sleep out there when I get off, in the camp."
"Don't let nobody spoon on you."
"Rau said something about spooning. I didn't know what he was talking about."
"It's what it sounds like. What they use to do. Cold night, a bunch of 'em would sleep fitting against each other on their sides. Nobody's washed or brushed their teeth in a month. Imagine the stinky smell. Like swamp gas hanging over you. Imagine some dude's bone sticking in your back all night."
De
"I may as well," Robert said, "I don't plan to see General Kirkbride-" He stopped and said, "Hey, shit, I forgot to mention, he came by here a while ago on his horse. Jerry was gone by then. He wants to know where I'm at. Groove and Cedric tell him they haven't seen me. Walter says, `Soon as you do, send him down to my camp. I finish my ride, I want him to rub down my horse.'"
"Where were you?"
"In the tent having a smoke. But then later I'm thinking: he didn't come to get his horse rubbed down, that was his excuse to get next to me. The man's nervous from the bug I put in his ear and wants to talk."
"What'd you tell him?"
"Was out here, the day before this got going. I told him I knew he was in the drug business. See, then I put the bug to him. `Where you want to be when Arlen goes down?' The man's the only one we met isn't all the way stupid."
"John Rau isn't either," De
"That's what I said before, I have to think about."
De