La Bagarre
“Not eating supper, Allison?” asked Hayes one evening.
“No.”
“Is it your tooth bothering you again?” asked Kearns sympathetically.
Allison replied by giving him a sour look.
“I thought the major told you not to throw your cigarette stubs around,” said Garrett.
“I reckon I can throw them wherever I please,” said Allison hotly.
His tooth was bothering him, which made him crosser than usual.
“It’s a dangerous habit,” remarked Ross.
“So is smoking in bed,” said Kearns who, for all he wanted to stay on Allison’s good side, could not resist the temptation of sharing an anecdote. “I once heard of a man who burned the house down smoking in bed.”
“I only do it to keep warm since you insist on having the window open all night,” said Allison, although he knew quite well that he did not only smoke in bed at night.
“I only keep the window open because you smoke.”
“Dah,” said Allison, who could not think of anything else to say.
“I wouldn’t say smoking is so very bad as my brother Michael does it,” continued Kearns. “It’s just that it ought to be done in moderation, like everything else.”
“Pass the salt,” interjected Renhard.
Allison was sick of being sermonized on his smoking and said so.
“Then don’t throw your cigarette ends about,” said Garrett.
Supper being over, most of the men dispersed to different parts of the barracks. Besides Renhard and Allison, Kearns and Hayes remained, as did Woodward, who was still eating.
“Ruddy job, that balloon-strafing, isn’t it?” asked Renhard of nobody in particular. “Did you get yours down, Allison?”
“No.”
“Too bad. How many passes did you make?”
“How many was I supposed to make? I made one.”
“You should go back again if it doesn’t catch fire the first time,” Kearns interposed, forgetting for the moment his resolve to keep Allison in a good mood. “Make as many passes as you can, so that at least the balloon will be full of holes and they’ll have to repair it.”
“I couldn’t make another pass,” replied Allison defensively. “I was surrounded by Archie and ground fire.”
“So were all of us. It’s part of balloon-strafing. That’s why lots of men won’t go on that kind of job, and I can’t say I blame them.”
“Well I went on it, so you can’t say I’m afraid,” said Allison, bridling.
“I didn’t,” said Kearns. “You needn’t get all upset.”
“Well, you practically did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“He did, didn’t he, Renhard?”
“No I didn’t—did I, Hayes?”
“If you think I’m a coward why don’t you have it out with me?” asked Allison, starting up.
“Anytime you choose,” retorted Kearns, leaping to his feet.
“All right, gentlemen,” said Woodward sternly. “That’s enough.”
“If you think I’m going to accept an insult from a dirty Irishman—” began Allison.
“A what?” cried Kearns. “You’ll pay for that, all right!”
But he had no need to protect himself for Hayes popped up like a peppercorn in defense of his friend.
“You will watch your language, Allison,” he said, “and you will take back what you said about Kearns, here.”
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back with a bloody nose and Allison was standing smugly observing him. Allison did not enjoy his victory for long, though.
“Bully!” cried Kearns, hitting Allison a solid right to the jaw, and Allison found himself, after a moment of confusion, at the opposite side of the room with his head spinning. Kearns leaped upon him and Allison, rallying, threw him off and sent him smashing into a table and upsetting several chairs.At this the other men in the room came to life. Renhard leaped to his feet shouting “that’s the stuff!” Hayes made a move to rush at Allison but Woodward caught him by the back of his Sam Browne belt and hauled him into a chair.
“That’s enough! Break it up!” he shouted to the other two, but they paid no attention.
Kearns had recovered and leaped at Allison again and the two lay struggling on the floor in a confusion of arms and legs. The next minute they were on their feet again and objects went flying about as they fought from one side of the room to the other. Woodward bravely attempted to break up the fight several times but was thrown back each time with several bruises. Hayes and Renhard were no help at all for each cheered his respective favorite and it was all Woodward could do to keep them out of the fight itself.
At last Kearns hit Allison a good one and sent him reeling through the open door into the arms of Randolph who had opened it preparatory to coming in.
“Hullo? What’s all this?” he said.The major was right behind him, for he had been out inspecting several malfunctioning engines.
“What’s going on?” he asked, although it was perfectly obvious.
He looked at Kearns and Allison. Kearns had the good grace to look ashamed of himself.
“Lts. Allison and Kearns, report to my office immediately,” said the major and went into it himself.
The two culprits reluctantly followed. The rest of the men looked at each other in dismay. They had been expecting something like this, but it made the incident no less dreadful when it actually happened.
There had been disagreements between the men before. Kearns, in fact, from a mixture of his lively tongue and Irish temper, had fallen out at least once with nearly everybody at the airdrome (save Woodward, who never said enough to argue with anyone). But then, Kearns was such a good-hearted fellow that he would never be angry with anybody for long and any quarrels were soon made up. But a fight—there had never been an all-out fight at the airdrome. There had been friendly tussles among the men, but Kearns and Allison had certainly not been friendly. The way that they had gone at each other you would have thought it was a hand-to-hand combat in the trenches.
Ten minutes passed and Allison and Kearns emerged from the major’s office looking slightly deflated. Pitt followed them out.
“Captain Woodward and Captain Randolph,” he said politely, “the major would like to see you for a moment if you don’t mind.”
“Ah, yes, you two,” the major said when they had entered. “I’d like a word with you. This is bad business, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, sir,” said the two captains.
The major sighed.
“Well, how did it start? I was unable to get a straight answer from those two. You were present, I think, Woodward?”
“Yes sir.”
“Well?”
“I don’t like to say for sure,” said Woodward, “but I believe Allison is to blame. He made a point out of an insignificant remark of Kearns’s.”
“Insignificant, eh? Is this their first disagreement?”
Randolph and Woodward looked at each other without saying anything.
“Randolph, you’re their flight leader. Have you had any trouble with them before?” asked the major.
“I have noticed Allison dislikes Kearns, sir.”
“Does he? Why?”
Randolph hesitated.
“I think it’s because he has a prejudice against the Irish, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“He as much as said so several times.”
“I see.”
The major knit his brows.
“This is a serious offense in light of the last order,” he said. “If I could only be sure Allison started it. Kearns apparently came out of the fight on top and that looks bad. I hate to lose two good men at once, but I’ve no choice but to report the matter to General Headquarters. I only hope they realize our desperate situation and adopt a lenient course of action.”
He took up his pen and cleaned it.
“Thank you, gentlemen, that is all; dismissed.”
They departed.
There was no living with Allison after that incident. Kearns, afraid of the punishment for fighting, stayed as far away from him as possible and the rest of the men, fed up with his sulks, tacitly ignored him. In fact, the only two who made any effort at being nice to him were Randolph and Renhard.
“I don’t see why you can’t play a game of cards or something instead of just sitting there looking mad,” said Renhard, addressing the reprobate behind one of the hangars the next afternoon.
“I hate bridge.”
“Who says you have to play bridge? Whist’s a good game, or rummy, or solitaire… all right, maybe not, but what’s the good in moping? Thinking over losing that fight won’t change anything.”
Allison threw his cigarette away viciously.
“Why don’t you mind your own business?” he asked.
“Mind my own business? You’re the one who’s always following me about everywhere.”
Allison looked taken aback.
“I following you about?” he asked lamely.
“You’re not exactly a professional sneak, old boy.”
“Well, you’re a sneak anyway. What where you doing in the major’s office earlier?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I forgot something in there?” asked Renhard.
“No.”
“Ahh, I didn’t think you would.”
“You’re a spy aren’t you?” Allison demanded. “I suspected you from the first. What’s your real name?”
“Reinhardt.”
Allison nearly fell over backwards. He had expected Renhard to of course deny it, but there he sat, looking calmly at Allison as if he had just said any ordinary thing.
“Oh—really? Well, what’s your first name?” asked Allison, recovering himself.
“Berthold, you snoop, and yes, I used to have a moustache.”
Allison glanced around. There was nobody nearby and the few fellows working about the airdrome were too far away to hear the conversation.
“Why are you telling me all this?” he asked. “What’s your game?”
“Game?” asked Renhard innocently.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll rat on you?”
“Oh, no. I’m not worried about you.”
“Why not? What’s to keep me from blabbing?”
“Why should you blab? How would it profit you?”
“Profit me? Why, why should I let a dirty skunk like you get away? You’d probably turn us all in to the Huns.”
“So?”
Allison stared, too confused to argue further.
“What makes you think,” Renhard continued, “that the Germans are bad and the Americans good? What has America ever done for you?”
“Nothing, but—”
“So what do you owe it?”
Silence.
“Besides, I need your help. I meant to let you in the know sooner or later or, believe me, you wouldn’t be around now to spill the beans. I knew what you were up to, snooping in my rucksack.”
“You mean you would have murdered me?”
“One can’t be too scrupulous in my job. Yes, you would have met with an ‘accident’.”
“What made you think I would help you?”
“Let’s say I’m a good judge of human character. Besides, I happen to know a piece of information that will send you to the quarries for two weeks: Dupond—remember?”
“I’m in trouble for that fight yesterday too, you know.”
“Well, if you want me to spill my information that’s all very well but it knocks out any hope that HQ will be lenient with you. And you’ll owe a pretty penny for wrecking that bar, too.”
“Look,” said Allison, “I don’t care a hang for America—never did. But I still can’t go against the others.”
“So you’ll turn me in instead, eh? You owe me more than any of them.”
“That is true…”
Renhard could see him wavering.
“There’s money in it too—two thousand dollars, if you choose to be of assistance.”
“Look here,” said Allison, his color mounting, “friendship’s one thing, but if you think I’ll turn traitor for pay, you—”
But Renhard knew how to play a trump.
“No I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t even think you’d do it to save your own skin, but I know you’ll do what I want because it’s the chance you’ve been waiting for—to get even with a certain person.”
An evil look came into Allison’s eye.
“Can’t talk here,” he said.
He glanced over at the armory.
“Come on,” he said, getting up.
The two men entered the low building and shut and bolted the door.
“Now,” said Allison, “you were saying…”
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