Chapter 22

IN the middle of the avalanche of mail which old Caco. pardo poured at Major Joppolo, another letter came which interested the Major. It said:

At one or two kilometers from the beach o f the sea in sector o f Adano, in shallow water, with the tops o f masts out o f sealevel, is king the motor ship Anzio.

Real proprietor Galeazzo Ciano, son in law of Mussolini, who made the alliance with Hitler, a ridicoulos minister for Foreignes A Affaires. f aires.

The ship had taken the cargo of nafta f to and lubricating oils for Trieste, at Adano, & then completed TEN THOUSAND tons of crude sulphur at Vicinamare. Retourning in the waters of Adano, in the way to Trieste, neared, to this harbour, & whilest awaiting communications from the semaphore, was hit at the stern by a torpedo o f a submarine, which evidently has watched his loadings at Adano and Vicinamare.

A cloud o f white smoke (sulphuric anidride ) developped at once & the master, very capable seaman, tried at full speed, steering at zigzag, to reach the shallow waters beside Molo di Levante (breakwater) when a second torpedo, perhaps at the tunnel o f the propollershaft, f t, sung she.

The cargoes are the great value for the civil life o f Adano & other towns in the neighbour hood.

I am informed o f the presance in this harbour o f a floating dock, which, yesterday, is said, has taken from the bottom of the sea, a small smack, sunk in a recent bombardment o f british plains.

Abstraction o f other political considerations, I beg, that you submit to the consideration o f H.E. the Admiral o f naval forces in these waters, the convenience o f oisting in the floting dry dock the Anzio, discharging on shore the cargoes, so urgent here for the civil normal life. I f so, I would like to sell the sulphur, at profit to Adano and cause o f all free menkind.

Respectfully,

M. Cacopardo.

The phrase “at profit to Adano” caught Major Joppolo’s eye. He was having a little trouble meeting his Public Assistance payments out of income from fines and out of moneys left over from other projects. Perhaps if the Navy would be willing to raise the Anzio, he could sell the cargo and use the proceeds for Public Assistance. It was worth a try.

Major Joppolo had not had occasion to talk with Lieutenant Livingston of the Navy since the day he politely blackmailed him into letting the fishermen go out. As he called up this time, he remembered that other conversation, and he decided that a new tactic might be advisable.

The Kent-Yale voice said: “Livingston, Port of Adano.”

Major Joppolo said: “Hello, Captain, this is Joppolo. Say, I just called to tell you that a lot of people have told me that this whole town’s grateful to you.”

The Kent-Yale voice was suspicious. “What for?” it asked.

The Major said: “For being able to eat fish. You’d be amazed at what a difference it makes around here. A lot of people have come in and asked me to thank the man down at the Navy, and I guess that’s you. Just this morning old Bellanca, the guy I have as mayor now, asked me if he ought to write you a personal letter of thanks.”

Lieutenant Livingston expressed a warming interest: “Is that a fact?”

Major Joppolo said: “Yeah, I told him I’d thank you for him. I want to thank you for myself, too. Boy, it makes a difference to get some fresh fish after weeks on end of nothing but C Rations.”

Lieutenant Livingston grew cordial. “Yeah,” he said, “those C Rations sure are terrible.”

Major Joppolo said: “I have fish every day for lunch now, and every mouthful I take, I say a little word of thanks to the Navy for sending the fishermen out”

Lieutenant Livingston was in the bag. “As a matter of fact,” he said, “we had some fish down here at the Navy Club last night. It was all right, too. Did you know I’A organized a little Club down here? Took over a little house, just a place for the officers who come into this hell-hole to drop in at.” The Kent-Yale voice was lowered to a confidential murmur. “I got ahold of some Scotch, a few cases. Come on down and have a drink some time.”

Major Joppolo said: “I sure will. I feel like I could use one every once in a while.”

The Lieutenant said: “God, so do I. This place is such a dump.”

Major Joppolo did not like to hear his town referred to in that way, but he was doing a job just now, so he said: “It sure gets boring, doesn’t it?”

The Lieutenant said: “Boring? Say, if they ever give this old world an enema, this is where they’ll put the tube in.”

Major Joppolo did not get the point, and so he did not laugh as the Lieutenant would have liked him to, but he said: “But you Navy fellows certainly do get yourselves fixed up nice.”

“Well,” the Lieutenant said modestly, “we figure it doesn’t hurt any to live comfortably.”

“Well,” the Major said, “just called up to thank you for that fish deal. You certainly have made yourself a popular fellow with these Italians.”

“Nothing to it,” the Lieutenant said, “glad to help ‘em out.”

“Well, anyhow, thanks a million... Oh say, before I hang up, I just happened to think. I heard the other day of another way you could use your initiative and earn yourself some more friends, and do a hell of a lot of good in the bargain.”

“How’s that?” said Lieutenant Livingston, rising like a famished trout to a well-cast dry fly.

“Have you seen those masts sticking up out of the water near the breakwater on the east side of the harbor? Well, I heard that they belong to a little motor ship that has a cargo of sulphur and some other stuff this town really needs. I just thought that maybe one of these weeks when your floating dry dock isn’t too busy, you could raise her and the town would have the cargo and you’d probably have to drop your job and be mayor, you’d be so damn popular.”

“Say,” the Lieutenant said, “that’s a hell of a fine idea. I’ll have to get permission, but that shouldn’t be hard. Thanks a lot for the idea.”

“I called up to thank you,” the Major said. “I’m going to take you up on that Scotch invite one of these days.” “Sure thing, any time,” the Lieutenant said.

When he had hung up, the Lieutenant thought to himself, what a good guy, you never can tell about a meatball until you get to know him.