“Is that what you want to be? A guy like Barkison: more brass than brains?”
“Oh, he’s not so bad. You just have to get to know him. He’s done pretty well. He might even be a General before this is over.”
“No war could last that long.”
The waiter brought them their dinner. Hodges ate hungrily.
“By the way,” said the Lieutenant, “I heard that a guy got killed on your boat. Mast hit him or something?”
“That’s not quite right. He fell overboard.”
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows. He went out on deck to fix something and he never came back.”
“You think he got the old push, maybe?”
“No, I don’t,” said Hodges and he spoke more sharply than was necessary.