“I don’t intend to do anything, you simpleton.” I tried to walk away, but he stuck to me like a leech.
“You may as well stop and talk to me,” he said, “because this time you’re not going to get away.”
I stopped and faced him. “What do you want?” I demanded. “Haven’t you any conscience or shame or anything that normal men have?”
He just smiled superiorly. “My conscience doesn’t bother me in the least, simply because you lied to me and wouldn’t let me in on the secret—for reasons that are now obvious to me.... If you had played square with me, I would have done the same with you, but you preferred to play your game with that tin soldier captain, so now my conscience doesn’t give even a twinge.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I insisted. “What do you expect me to do? What do you want?”
“Oh—nothing much,” he replied with that wise smile that I hated. “Little enough to ask in return for my silence.”
“You’re crazy, Jay-Jay. Honestly, are you shell-shocked or something?”
“Not crazy at all.... I just don’t like these French women, that’s all.... And since you are obliging the Captain you may as well oblige me: do your duty by your country, you know....”
I was furious. I was so mad my mouth chattered and I couldn’t speak at all. If I knew how to hit a man real hard, I’d have killed him on the spot.... The dirty rotten bum!
He knew I was mad, and he, too, lost his temper. “No more evasions or beating around the bush!” he declared. “Are you or are you not coming with me?”