A Bell for Adano by John Hersey Read Free Book Online Page B

not under stand the reference.
    Gargano stepped out of the line. “Who questions my right?” he roared, and he pounded one clenched fist on the other clenched fist.
    Carmelina, wife of the lazy Fatta, standing right beside him, startled him by whispering in his ear: “I question it, Two-Hands.”
    Up to this time Zapulla the baker, standing in the front of his shop, had been torn between the two authorities, the old and the new. But he was so annoyed with Carmelina for having prodded him that he now said: “Arrest her, Mister Chief, if you have any courage.”
    Up to this time Gargano the Chief, somewhat unsure of his ground, had been trying to think of a way of retiring gracefully. But now his manhood, as well as his authority, was challenged. He moved toward Carmelina and said: “Woman, you are under arrest.”
    Carmelina shouted: “Keep your two active hands off me, Gargano.”
    Zapulla said: “Will you let this woman shriek down your courage?”
    Gargano clapped his hands on Carmelina. She screamed. All up and down the line women shouted: “Out with the Fascist Chief of Carabinieri. Out with Two-Hands. Out with men who push themselves to the head of a line ahead of women who have been waiting three hours.”
    Gargano dragged Carmelina off screaming and kicking, and the anti-Gargano, anti-Fascist screams in the line grew louder and louder. Even Mercurio Salvatore, although as crier he was more or less an official and should have remained neutral or even taken the side of Gargano, raised his huge voice in a careful shout. “Down with injustice!”
    When Gargano pulled Carmelina into Major Joppolo’s office, she was still screaming. But the Major jumped to his feet and said sharply: “Silence, shrew,” and she fell quiet at once.
    “What is this all about?” the Major asked.
    Gargano said: “This woman questioned my authority,” and he pointed at her with both forefingers. Carmelina said: “There is more to it than that.” Major Joppolo said: “Your authority to do what, Gargano?”
    Carmelina shouted: “To push his way to the head of the line in front of Zapulla’s bread shop.”
    Gargano said: “It is a privilege the officials of the town have always enjoyed.”
    Major Joppolo said: “Is that so?”
    Gargano said: “I charge this women with disturbing the peace and questioning authority.” Gargano was shrewd in saying this, for he saw that things were going against him, and now he had put the matter on an official rather than a personal basis. The Major would have to decide the case officially.
    The Major decided with a speed which dazzled Gargano. He decided that the woman was right but that he could not say so, because if he did the Chief would never regain his authority, and the Major wanted to keep him in office. Therefore he said: “I sentence this woman to one day in jail, suspended sentence. Let her go, Gargano, and gather all the officials of Adano for me at once.”
    When Carmelina got outside, she ran straight back to the bread shop. The bread was not ready yet, and the people gave her back her place at the head of the line and shouted to her: “What happened, Carmelina? What did they do to you?”
    Carmelina told what had happened and she said: “Did you ever hear of such a light sentence in Adano? I believe in my heart that the Mister Major thought I was right. And what was the meaning of assembling the officials? I believe that he was for me.”
    In the Major’s office, the officials gradually assembled. Some were held-over Fascists, some were new appointments to take the place of Fascists who had fled to the hills. In whispers, and with ample gestures, Gargano described to them the humiliation he had suffered, until Major Joppolo said: “Silence, please.”
    The officials drew up in a circle around the Major’s desk. The Major stood up.
    “I want you to be my friends,” he said. “As my friends, I will consider it my duty to tell you everything I think, for we do not want