Harcourt shook his head. "Before I could do any checking, I'd have to
report my reasons to the chief. If I was asked for a reason, I'd have
to explain that I had grounds for thinking that Commander Jacklin's
soul--and the F.B.I. has never established a policy on souls--had been
blown from the Aleutians clear into Westchester County and is now
running round in the body of Winfred S. Tompkins, stock broker. That
report from me would go from my chief right up to J. Edgar Hoover, the
Attorney-General, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cabinet and President
Roosevelt. Now, wouldn't that look nice on my record? Wouldn't that
just put me right in line for promotion? Be reasonable, you two. I'm
not saying I don't believe this yarn, but it would be worth my job to
act like I believed it--and I got a wife and three kids in Brooklyn, no
fooling."
Arthurjean remained silent for a few minutes, "Andrew Jackson
Harcourt--" she began.
"You haven't said anything about this sinister guy Roscommon," I
interrupted. "You could do something about him without worrying about
me and my story."
"Roscommon?" Harcourt shrugged his shoulders. "Going after him would
remind me of the time we hit the Governor of North Carolina with a
Great Smoky barbecued bear. Roscommon is all he says he is and orders
are out not to touch him. How do you think we ought to fight this war,
anyhow? Blind-fold?"
"What about that Great Smoky bear?" Arthurjean demanded irrelevantly.
"You-all from the South, honey-chile?"
"The Old North State, sugar! And you?"
"Tennessee, thank God! And the name's Arthurjean, Andy, and for the
millionth time I'll explain that my dad's name was Arthur and my
mother's name was Jean, so they ran 'em together, like Johns-Manville
or Pierce-Arrow, but it's all one word. No hyphen. So, there!"
I urged them to get over their rebel yell and come back to the subject
of the bear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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