The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck

  "They're out behind the fence," said Annie.

  "Tell them to come in."

  And while Annie went out, Molly got up and smoothed her hair and she shook her head, trying to be alive again. There was a little sound in the passage. Two tall, blond young men entered. They were dressed in pea-jackets and dark turtle-neck sweaters. They wore stocking caps perched on their heads. They were wind-burned and strong and they looked almost like twins, Will Anders and Tom Anders, the fishermen.

  "Good evening, Molly. You've heard?"

  "Annie told me. It's a bad night to go."

  Tom said, "It's better than a clear night. The planes see you on a clear night. What's the Mayor want, Molly?"

  "I don't know. I heard about your brother. I'm sorry."

  The two were silent and they looked embarrassed. Tom said, "You know how it is, better than most."

  "Yes; yes, I know."

  Annie came in the door again and she said in a hoarse whisper. "They're here!" And Mayor Orden and Doctor Winter came in. They took off their coats and caps and laid them on the couch. Orden went to Molly and kissed her on the forehead.

  "Good evening, dear."

  He turned to Annie. "Stand in the passage, Annie. Give us one knock for the patrol, one when it's gone, and two for danger. You can leave the outer door open a crack so you can hear if anyone comes."

  Annie said, "Yes, sir." She went into the passage and shut the door behind her.

  Doctor Winter was at the stove, warming his hands. "We got word you boys were going tonight."

  "We've got to go," Tom said.

  Orden nodded. "Yes, I know. We heard you were going to take Mr. Corell with you."

  Tom laughed bitterly. "We thought it would be only right. We're taking his boat. We can't leave him around. It isn't good to see him in the streets."

  Orden said sadly, "I wish he had gone away. It's just a danger to you, taking him."

  "It isn't good to see him in the streets," Will echoed his brother. "It isn't good for the people to see him here."

  Winter asked, "Can you take him? Isn't he cautious at all?"

  "Oh, yes, he's cautious, in a way. At twelve o'clock, though, he walks to his house usually. We'll be behind the wall. I think we can get him through his lower garden to the water. His boat's tied up there. We were on her today getting her ready."

  Orden repeated, "I wish you didn't have to. It's just an added danger. If he makes a noise, the patrol might come."

  Tom said, "He won't make a noise, and it's better if he disappears at sea. Some of the town people might get him and then there would be too much killing. No, it's better if he goes to sea."

  Molly took up her knitting again. She said, "Will you throw him overboard?"

  Will blushed. "He'll go to sea, ma'am." He turned to the Mayor. "You wanted to see us, sir?"

  "Why, yes, I want to talk to you. Doctor Winter and I have tried to think--there's so much talk about justice, injustice, conquest. Our people are invaded, but I don't think they're conquered."

  There was a sharp knock on the door and the room was silent. Molly's needles stopped, and the Mayor's outstretched hand remained in the air. Tom, scratching his ear, left his hand there and stopped scratching. Everyone in the room was motionless. Every eye was turned toward the door. Then, first faintly and then growing louder, there came the tramp of the patrol, the squeak of their boots in the snow, and the sound of their talking as they went by. They passed the door and their footsteps disappeared in the distance. There was a second tap on the door. And in the room the people relaxed.

  Orden said, "It must be cold out there for Annie." He took up his coat from the couch and opened the inner door and handed his coat through. "Put this around your shoulders, Annie," he said and closed the door.

  "I don't know what I'd do without her," he said. "She gets everywhere, she sees and hears everything."

  Tom said, "We should be going pretty soon, sir."

  And Winter said, "I wish you'd forget about Mr. Corell."

  "We can't. It isn't good to see him in the streets." He looked inquiringly at Mayor Orden.

  Orden began slowly. "I want to speak simply. This is a little town. Justice and injustice are in terms of little things. Your brother's shot and Alex Morden's shot. Revenge against a traitor. The people are angry and they have no way to fight back. But it's all in little terms. It's people against people, not idea against idea."

  Winter said, "It's funny for a doctor to think of destruction, but I think all invaded people want to resist. We are disarmed; our spirits and bodies aren't enough. The spirit of a disarmed man sinks."

  Will Anders asked, "What's all this for, sir? What do you want of us?"

  "We want to fight them and we can't," Orden said. "They're using hunger on the people now. Hunger brings weakness. You boys are sailing for England. Maybe nobody will listen to you, but tell them from us--from a small town--to give us weapons."

  Tom asked, "You want guns?"

  Again there was a quick knock on the door and the people froze where they were, and from outside there came the sound of the patrol, but at double step, running. Will moved quickly toward the door. The running steps came abreast of the house. There were muffled orders and the patrol ran by, and there was a second tap at the door.

  Molly said, "They must be after somebody. I wonder who this time."

  "We should be going," Tom said uneasily. "Do you want guns, sir? Shall we ask for guns?"

  "No, tell them how it is. We are watched. Any move we make calls for reprisal. If we could have simple, secret weapons, weapons of stealth, explosives, dynamite to blow up rails, grenades, if possible, even poison." He spoke angrily. "This is no honorable war. This is a war of treachery and murder. Let us use the methods that have been used on us! Let the British bombers drop their big bombs on the works, but let them also drop us little bombs to use, to hide, to slip under the rails, under tanks. Then we will be armed, secretly armed. Then the invader will never know which of us is armed. Let the bombers bring us simple weapons. We will know how to use them!"

  Winter broke in. "They'll never know where it will strike. The soldiers, the patrol, will never know which of us is armed."

  Tom wiped his forehead. "If we get through, we'll tell them, sir, but--well, I've heard it said that in England there are still men in power who do not dare to put weapons in the hands of common people."

  Orden stared at him. "Oh! I hadn't thought of that. Well, we can only see. If such people still govern England and America, the world is lost, anyway. Tell them what we say, if they will listen. We must have help, but if we get it"--his face grew very hard--"if we get it, we will help ourselves."

  Winter said, "If they will even give us dynamite to hide, to bury in the ground to be ready against need, then the invader can never rest again, never! We will blow up his supplies."

  The room grew excited. Molly said fiercely, "Yes, we could fight his rest, then. We could fight his sleep. We could fight his nerves and his certainties."

  Will asked quietly, "Is that all, sir?"

  "Yes." Orden nodded. "That's the core of it."

  "What if they won't listen?"

  "You can only try, as you are trying the sea tonight."

  "Is that all, sir?"

  The door opened and Annie came quietly in. Orden went on, "That's all. If you have to go now, let me send Annie out to see that the way is clear." He looked up and saw that Annie had come in. Annie said, "There's a soldier coming up the path. He looks like the soldier that was here before. There was a soldier here with Molly before."

  The others looked at Molly. Annie said, "I locked the door."

  "What does he want?" Molly asked. "Why does he come back?"

  There was a gentle knocking at the outside door. Orden went to Molly. "What is this, Molly? Are you in trouble?"

  "No," she said, "no! Go out the back way. You can get out through the back. Hurry, hurry out!"

  The knocking continued on the front door. A m
an's voice called softly. Molly opened the door to the kitchen. She said, "Hurry, hurry!"

  The Mayor stood in front of her. "Are you in trouble, Molly? You haven't done anything?"

  Annie said coldly, "It looks like the same soldier. There was a soldier here before."

  "Yes," Molly said to the Mayor. "Yes, there was a soldier here before."

  The Mayor said, "What did he want?"

  "He wanted to make love to me."

  "But he didn't?" Orden said.

  "No," she said, "he didn't. Go now, and I'll take care."

  Orden said, "Molly, if you're in trouble, let us help you."

  "The trouble I'm in no one can help me with," she said. "Go now," and she pushed them out of the door.

  Annie remained behind. She looked at Molly. "Miss, what does this soldier want?"

  "I don't know what he wants."

  "Are you going to tell him anything?"

  "No." Wonderingly, Molly repeated, "No." And then sharply she said, "No, Annie, I'm not!"

  Annie scowled at her. "Miss, you'd better not tell him anything!" And she went out and closed the door behind her.

  The tapping continued on the front door and a man's voice could be heard through the door.

  Molly went to the center lamp, and her burden was heavy on her. She looked down at the lamp. She looked at the table, and she saw the big scissors lying beside her knitting. She picked them up wonderingly by the blades. The blades slipped through her fingers until she held the long shears and she was holding them like a knife, and her eyes were horrified. She looked down into the lamp and the light flooded up in her face. Slowly she raised the shears and placed them inside her dress.

  The tapping continued on the door. She heard the voice calling to her. She leaned over the lamp for a moment and then suddenly she blew out the light. The room was dark except for a spot of red that came from the coal stove. She opened the door. Her voice was strained and sweet. She called, "I'm coming, Lieutenant, I'm coming!"

  7

  In the dark, clear night a white, half-withered moon brought little light. The wind was dry and singing over the snow, a quiet wind that blew steadily, evenly from the cold point of the Pole. Over the land the snow lay very deep and dry as sand. The houses snuggled down in the hollows of banked snow, and their windows were dark and shuttered against the cold, and only a little smoke rose from the banked fires.

  In the town the footpaths were frozen hard and packed hard. And the streets were silent, too, except when the miserable, cold patrol came by. The houses were dark against the night, and a little lingering warmth remained in the houses against the morning. Near the mine entrance the guards watched the sky and trained their instruments on the sky and turned their listening-instruments against the sky, for it was a clear night for bombing. On nights like this the feathered steel spindles came whistling down and roared to splinters. The land would be visible from the sky tonight, even though the moon seemed to throw little light.

  Down toward one end of the village, among the small houses, a dog complained about the cold and the loneliness. He raised his nose to his god and gave a long and fulsome account of the state of the world as it applied to him. He was a practiced singer with a full bell throat and great versatility of range and control. The six men of the patrol slogging dejectedly up and down the streets heard the singing of the dog, and one of the muffled soldiers said, "Seems to me he's getting worse every night. I suppose we ought to shoot him."

  And another answered, "Why? Let him howl. He sounds good to me. I used to have a dog at home that howled. I never could break him. Yellow dog. I don't mind the howl. They took my dog when they took the others," he said factually, in a dull voice.

  And the corporal said, "Couldn't have dogs eating up food that was needed."

  "Oh, I'm not complaining. I know it was necessary. I can't plan the way the leaders do. It seems funny to me, though, that some people here have dogs, and they don't have even as much food as we have. They're pretty gaunt, though, dogs and people."

  "They're fools," said the corporal. "That's why they lost so quickly. They can't plan the way we can."

  "I wonder if we'll have dogs again after it's over," said the soldier. "I suppose we could get them from America or some place and start the breeds again. What kind of dogs do you suppose they have in America?"

  "I don't know," said the corporal. "Probably dogs as crazy as everything else they have." And he went on, "Maybe dogs are no good, anyway. It might be just as well if we never bothered with them, except for police work."

  "It might be," said the soldier. "I've heard the Leader doesn't like dogs. I've heard they make him itch and sneeze."

  "You hear all kinds of things," the corporal said. "Listen!" The patrol stopped and from a great distance came the bee hum of planes.

  "There they come," the corporal said. "Well, there aren't any lights. It's been two weeks, hasn't it, since they came before?"

  "Twelve days," said the soldier.

  The guards at the mine heard the high drone of the planes. "They're flying high," a sergeant said. And Captain Loft tilted his head back so that he could see under the rim of his helmet. "I judge over 20,000 feet," he said. "Maybe they're going on over."

  "Aren't very many." The sergeant listened. "I don't think there are more than three of them. Shall I call the battery?"

  "Just see they're alert, and then call Colonel Lanser--no, don't call him. Maybe they aren't coming here. They're nearly over and they haven't started to dive yet."

  "Sounds to me like they're circling. I don't think there are more than two," the sergeant said.

  In their beds the people heard the planes and they squirmed deep into their featherbeds and listened. In the palace of the Mayor the little sound awakened Colonel Lanser, and he turned over on his back and looked at the dark ceiling with wide-open eyes, and he held his breath to listen better and then his heart beat so that he could not hear as well as he could when he was breathing. Mayor Orden heard the planes in his sleep and they made a dream for him and he moved and whispered in his sleep.

  High in the air the two bombers circled, mud-colored planes. They cut their throttles and soared, circling. And from the belly of each one tiny little objects dropped, hundreds of them, one after another. They plummeted a few feet and then little parachutes opened and drifted small packages silently and slowly downward toward the earth, and the planes raised their throttles and gained altitude, and then cut their throttles and circled again, and more of the little objects plummeted down, and then the planes turned and flew back in the direction from which they had come.

  The tiny parachutes floated like thistledown and the breeze spread them out and distributed them as seeds on the ends of thistledown are distributed. They drifted so slowly and landed so gently that sometimes the ten-inch packages of dynamite stood upright in the snow, and the little parachutes folded gently down around them. They looked black against the snow. They landed in the white fields and among the woods of the hills and they landed in trees and hung down from the branches. Some of them landed on the housetops of the little town, some in the small front yards, and one landed and stood upright in the snow crown on top of the head of the village statue of St. Albert the Missionary.

  One of the little parachutes came down in the street ahead of the patrol and the sergeant said, "Careful! It's a time bomb."

  "It ain't big enough," a soldier said.

  "Well, don't go near it." The sergeant had his flashlight out and he turned it on the object, a little parachute no bigger than a handkerchief, colored light blue, and hanging from it a package wrapped in blue paper.

  "Now don't anybody touch it," the sergeant said. "Harry, you go down to the mine and get the captain. We'll keep an eye on this damn thing."

  The late dawn came and the people moving out of their houses in the country saw the spots of blue against the snow. They went to them and picked them up. They unwrapped the paper and read the printed words. They saw the gift an
d suddenly each finder grew furtive, and he concealed the long tube under his coat and went to some secret place and hid the tube.

  And word got to the children about the gift and they combed the countryside in a terrible Easter egg hunt, and when some lucky child saw the blue color, he rushed to the prize and opened it and then he hid the tube and told his parents about it. There were some people who were frightened, who turned the tubes over to the military, but they were not very many. And the soldiers scurried about the town in another Easter egg hunt, but they were not so good at it as the children were.

  In the drawing-room of the palace of the Mayor the dining-table remained with the chairs about as it had been placed the day Alex Morden was shot. The room had not the grace it had when it was still the palace of the Mayor. The walls, bare of standing chairs, looked very blank. The table with a few papers scattered about on it made the room look like a business office. The clock on the mantel struck nine. It was a dark day now, overcast with clouds, for the dawn had brought the heavy snow clouds.

  Annie came out of the Mayor's room; she swooped by the table and glanced at the papers that lay there. Captain Loft came in. He stopped in the doorway, seeing Annie.

  "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

  And Annie said sullenly, "Yes, sir."

  "I said, what are you doing here?"

  "I thought to clean up, sir."

  "Let things alone, and go along."

  And Annie said, "Yes, sir," and she waited until he was clear of the door, and she scuttled out.

  Captain Loft turned back through the doorway and he said, "All right, bring it in." A soldier came through the door behind him, his rifle hung over his shoulder by a strap, and in his arms he held a number of the blue packages, and from the ends of the packages there dangled the little strings and pieces of blue cloth.

  Loft said, "Put them on the table." The soldier gingerly laid the packages down. "Now go upstairs and report to Colonel Lanser that I'm here with the--things," and the soldier wheeled about and left the room.

  Loft went to the table and picked up one of the packages, and his face wore a look of distaste. He held up the little blue cloth parachute, held it above his head and dropped it, and the cloth opened and the package floated to the floor. He picked up the package again and examined it.

  Now Colonel Lanser came quickly into the room, followed by Major Hunter. Hunter was carrying a square of yellow paper in his hand. Lanser said, "Good morning, Captain," and he went to the head of the table and sat down. For a moment he looked at the little pile of tubes, and then he picked one up and held it in his hand. "Sit down, Hunter," he said. "Have you examined these?"