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Show 0 John Herseu 5? irrr''i' -w. n. u. ruTuBts sttt--:.." "Please, Giuseppe." Giuseppe hurried down the long room and opened the door. Two men almost tumbled in. Both were well dressed, and had neckties on. One of them was quite old. The other was very fat and looked forty. They hurried down the room, and each seemed anxious not to let the other get ahead of him. The old one s.aid in English, with a careful British accent: "My name is Cacopardo, at your service, Major. Ma-jor. I am eighty-two. I own most of the sulphurs in this place. Here Cacopardo is sulphur and sulphur is Cacopardo. I wish to give you advices ad-vices whenever you need of it." ctokV thus far: merlcn 11115 Lklnl P" ln thB 1'"lon 01 trooP'' " . o,, n-niiort town of luW. ,rrMajor Victor Joppolo, Irom tiit"' Ntw Vork, was In chargo a grooklyn. w cr wlUl nim was Scr- ' A?,oDard Borlh, to aerv. a. M.P. " . ol iccurity. The Major Ira-B Ira-B '".I bctan to Interview tb. clU-. clU-. Adano, In order to determine t Ho was determined that iwl' .oBia be le" undone whlcb """"Lnrove their condiUons and make "S Ui mora pleasant. With Berth I Joppolo inspected the former Nazi Z" nt arst boa" m .cualnted. CHAPTER II make available to port authorities all known local pilots. . . ." And he rend: "Don't make your-' self cheap. Always be accessible to the public. Don't play favorites. Speak Italian whenever possible. Don't lose your temper. When plans fall down, improvise. . . ." That was the one he wanted. When plans fall down, improvise. The door opened. A man came In whose appearance was vaguely familiar to Major Joppolo. The Major Ma-jor realized later that he had seen, not this man, but several who looked Just like him, In bad American movies. mov-ies. He was the type of the second-rate second-rate Italian gangster, the small fellow fel-low in the gang who always stood behind the boss and who always took the rap. He had the bald head, the The fat one, who seemed annoyed with Cacopardo for speaking first, said in English: "Craxi, my name. I have a telegram." Major Joppolo said: "What can I do for you gentlemen?" "Cacopardo said: "Advices." Craxi said: "Telegram." Cacopardo said: "The Americans coming to Italian countryside need some advices." The old man looked straight at Giuseppe the interpreter and added: "I wish to advise you to be careful in Adano are many men who were illegal in America, some men too who were condemned to the electrical chair in Brooklyn of New York." Major Joppolo, seeing Giuseppe's embarrassment, said: "Giuseppe, I want to speak to the priest of the town. Will you get him for me?" Giuseppe said: "Which priest, a boss?" Cacopardo said: "In Adano are thirteen churches, Major, and in enmo lilro Ran Antrpln and San Se- Major JoPPOlo said: "Do not bow JTls no need to grovel here. I aiy . Major. -Berth her. U. Are you a man? little Zito was getting very mixed "No sir." he said cautiously. Sen be saw by the Major', expres-ita expres-ita that he should have .aid yes. nd he did. The Major said: "You may greet mby shaking my hand. You will peel Sergeant Borth in the same WBorth .aid, and his expression howed that he was teasing the Ital-T"First Ital-T"First I will find out if he', a dangerous Fascist." Little Zito did not know whether to laugh or cry. He was fright-Id fright-Id but he was also flattered by fcese men. He said: "I will never He to you, Mister Major. I am antifascist. anti-fascist. Mister Sergeant I will be usher here." Major Joppolo said: Be here at leven o'clock each morning." "Seven o'clock' said Zito. A brief burst of machine gun and tide fire echoed from distant streets. Zito cringed. Borth said: "You are perhaps a man but you are also frightened." Major Joppolo said: "Has it been bad here?" Zito started Jabbering about the bombardments and the air raids. "We are very hungry," he .aid when be had cooled down a little. 'Tor three days we have not had bread. All the important ones ran away and left me here to guard the Pulaizo. The stink of dead is very bastiano, are two or three priests." Major Joppolo said: "Which church is best?" Cacopardo said: "In churches ought not to be good and bad, but ( San Angelo is best, because Father Pensovecchio is best of all." Major Joppolo said to Giuseppe: "Get him for me, will you?" "Yes, a boss," Giuseppe said, and left. When he had left, Major Joppolo said to Cacopardo: "Is this Giuseppe fellow not to be trusted?" Cacopardo bowed and said: "I ' mention only the electrical chair, I am not one to name the names." bad, especially In the Piazza San Angelo. Some people are sick because be-cause the drivers of the water carts have not had the courage to get water for several days, because of the planes along the roads. We do not believe in victory. And our bell Is gone." Major Joppolo said: "Your bell?" Zito said: "Our bell which was seven hundred years old. Mussolini took it It rang with a good tone each quarter hour. Mussolini took it to make rifle barrels or something. some-thing. The town was very angry. Everyone begged the Monsignor, who is the uncle of the Mayor, to offer some church bells instead. But the Monsignor is uncle of the Mayor, be is not the sort to desecrate churches, he says. It meant we lost our beU. And only two weeks before you came. Why did you not come sooner?" "Where was this bell?" "Eight here." Zito pointed over hii head. "The whole building tin-Eled tin-Eled when it rang." 1 could do a good Job for you." weak mouth. He had a scar across his cheek. His eye was furtive and he had the appearance of being willing will-ing but in need of instructions. He said in English: "You pull up a flag. War's, a finish here in Ada-no, Ada-no, huh?" . I The Major said: "Yes, who are you?" The Italian said: "I'm from a Cleveland, Ohio. I been here a three year. You got a work for me?" Major Joppolo said: "What'i your name?" The Italian said: "Ribaudo Giuseppe. Giu-seppe. In a Cleveland, call a me Joe." Major Joppolo said: "What can you do?" Ribaudo said: "I'm a good American. Amer-ican. I'm a hate tl ese FascisU. I , could do a good job for you." Major Joppolo said: "If you're such a good American, why did you leave the States?" Ribaudo said: "I'm a kick out. Major Joppolo spoke sharply: "You said you came to advise me. I must know about this Giuseppe. Is he to be trusted or not?" The old man bowed again and said: "Giuseppe is a harmless one." The fat Craxi was growing very annoyed that Cacopardo was getting all the attention. He said: "I have a telegram. Please to deliver." Major Joppolo said: "This isn't a telegraph office. There's a war going go-ing on. Do you think we have nothing noth-ing better to do than deliver telegrams?" tele-grams?" Craxi was apologetic. "I am anti-Fascist. anti-Fascist. I have a telegram. You are the one who can deliver it." And he pulled out from his pocket a piece at ruled paper, folded four ways and pinned shut with a safety pin. He handed the paper to the Major, who put it down on his desk, to the disappointment of Craxi. The Major said:. "You say you've come to advise me. Then tell me, what does this town need the most right now?" Cacopardo said: "It needs a bell Major Joppolo said to Borth: "I law the framework for the bell up on the tower, did you?" Then he idded to Zito: "That is your reason (or wanting us to have come sooner, ii it?" Zito was careful "Partly," he laid. , j Now Major Joppolo said in Eng lish more or less to himself: "It's a nice picture, I wonder how old it is, toaybe it's by somebody famous." The Major went to the desk, pulled out the high-backed chair and sat in it, carefully putting his feet on the scrollwork footstool. Borth said: "How does it feel, : Duce?" ! The Major said: "There is so much to do, I hardly know where to begin." ' Borth said: "I know what I must do. I've got to find the offices of the Fascist Party, to see if I can find more records. May I take the Mister Usher and look for the Fas-cio?" Fas-cio?" "Go ahead, Borth," the Major laid. "Why?" ti . . "I'm a no passport." "How'd you get in, then?" "I got a plenty friends in a Cleveland Cleve-land and a Buffalo." "What did you do in the States? "Oh, I work a here, work a there." Major Joppolo was pleased with Ribaudo for not trying to lie about his illegal entry and repatriation. He said: "Okay, I'll hire you. You will be my interpreter." "You don't a speak Italian?" Yes but there'll be other Americans Ameri-cans here who don't, and I may need you for other things, too. Do you know these people well, do you know who's for us Americans and who's against us?" "Sure, a boss, I help a you plen- ty'"All right, what did you say your name was?" Ribaudo Giuseppe, )ust a Joe for y"No we're in Italy, I'll call you Giuseppe here. Just two things now Giuseppe. You've got to be honest more than anything." Craxi said: "Foolishness, a bell. More than anything, to eat is necessary." neces-sary." Cacopardo said: "The town needs its bell back. You can always eat." Craxi, who had been rather slighted slight-ed in the conversation anyhow, now became quite angry. "You can al- , ways eat, you Cacopardo," he said. "You have a million lira, you sulphur sul-phur You can eat, but not all the people here can eat." And he turned to the Major: "To eat here is most necessary, more necessary than any bell " . . , Cacopardo broke into furious Italian- "Fat one, you think only of your stomach. The spirit is more important than the stomach. The bell was of our spirit. It was of our history. It was hung on the tower by Pietro of Aragona. It was designed de-signed by the sculptor Lucio de Anj of Modica." Craxi said in Italian: "People who are very hungry have a ringing in their ears. They have no need of When the two had left, Major Joppolo Jop-polo opened his brief case and took out some papers. He put them in a neat pile on the desk in front of lum and began to read: "INSTRUCTIONS TO CIVIL AFFAIRS AF-FAIRS OFFICERS. First day: Enter En-ter the city with the first column. Cooperate with C.I.C. in placing Euards and seizing records. Place 11 food warehouses, enemy food I dumps, wholesale food concerns, nd other major food stocks under i Ward. Secure an estimate from lo-I lo-I cal food distributors of the number of days of food supplies which are on hand or available: Make re- j Port through channels on food situ- Uon in your area. See that the fol-I fol-I kwlng establishments are placed under guard or protection: foundries, foun-dries, machine shops, electrical rks, chemical plants, flour mills, ; breweries, cement plants, refrigeration refrigera-tion nlants, ice plants, warehouses, I oli7e oil refineries, sulphur reftner-j reftner-j , tunny oil mills, soap manu facturing plants, and any other im-"Wtant im-"Wtant establishments. Locate and with me; if you're not, you u oe u. bad trouble. The other is, don t expect ex-pect me to do you any favors I wouldn't do for anyone else see? "Oh sure, a boss. You don t a W'Now tell me, what does this town nted the most?" -I could a go for a movie house, ".No," Giuseppe. I mean right ""-Food, a boss. Food is a bad n0w in Xdano. Three days a lot a stb-ufeofashort-Sg.Vo! Teryone Baker don't a work, nobody sell a nasta! water don't a come in a That's all, a boss." Ca4S0W many bakers are there in t0But"before Giuseppe could answer sepPe was at least eager. Cacopardo said: "By this bell the people were warned of the invasion of Roberto King of Naples, and he was driven back." , Craxi said: "People with malaria also have a ringing in their ears." Cacopardo said: "The bell warned the people when Admiral Targout brought his French and his Turks to this place in 1553 and burned many homes and churches, and aU that was left in the Church of Our Moth-er Moth-er was the little silver cruc.fix which you will see now in the Church of SaTheMajor said in Italian: "We have no time for this recital. I wish to know what things are pressing press-ing and must be taken care of at ""craxi said: "I have spoken. Food is the first thing." Cacopardo said: "The bell must he taken care of at once. The beU did not warn us of this invas.on, or would have been in the streets with flowers to welcome you. (TO BE CONTINUED) |