Page 104 of Head Room

Ransom eyed the other man.

“Who would you pick to be assigned to?”

“The Marble Major,” came the answer without hesitation.

Ransom had heard the nickname for Brand used among the other troops, but not by any of his unit.

“Thought Brand wasn’t much liked.”

“Liking’s got nothing to do with it.We’re talking about keeping alive.Though I’m not like some, I don’t hold nothin’ against him.”

“What’s to hold against him?”

“There are those that say he’s a coward.”

Ransom stared at the man.If he’d said Brand had killed a man in a cold rage, he might have believed it, but cowardice?

“I didn’t say I believe it,” the man went on defensively, clearly picking up Ransom’s disbelief.“Story is, Brand was out here before the war, fresh from West Point.But he wasn’t above learning what warn’t in books.And the old Jim Bridger took a shine to him, and pretty soon, this Brand looked like he was going to do real well.And when the war broke out not long after, he got called back east, so’s to be right in the thick of it, and was getting promotions right and left.I mean, he was looking to be a general before you could blink.”

He bent his head over his whittling.

Ransom didn’t believe that level of devotion to the bit of wood.If he waited long enough...

But how long was long enough?

Ransom gave in.“What happened?”

“He gets called home on leave, because his mama’s not well, and his step-father’s a big yahoo back in Philadelphia, and he can do things like get a major a leave just like that.So Brand goes right from the front where they’re bleeding and dying and suffering, back to this fancy house and it’s like he has a fit or something.That’s where some say his nerve broke — couldn’t face going back to the front after having it easy a couple days.But I don’t know as that makes sense, because what he did then, was go right to Washington and get hisself transferred out here, when he coulda stayed right there in Washington from what I hear tell, working in one of those offices, snug and warm for all his days.”

“Couldn’t have done his army career any good,” Ransom said thoughtfully.Advancement was in the east, not in the far-flung posts of the hinterlands.

“Kilt it,” said the sergeant cheerfully.“But he’s not mourning.I hear tell he’s set to resign.And that’ll be too bad.’Cause if he’s a coward, he’s the most peculiar kind I ever seen, because he’s worried about others’ hides as well as his own.Yup, if I gotta go out there beyond the stockade, I want to go with the Marble Major, because he’s most likely to get me back.”

CHAPTER FORTY

Orson Jardine grilledme for more than an hour.

I’d offered him Mike’s chair, which he declined.Instead, we sat face-to-face on the visitors’ side of the desk.

I thought I held up fairly well, especially balancing keeping options flexible while sounding like we hadsomeplans.

“Orson, there’s no getting around that this is a major step down for you.The pay, the equipment, the resources, and, yes, the product.As we’ve said, there are compensations.Mike as owner is a big one.The opportunity to teach on the job.This newsroom is developing a different feel.There’s less...It’s more...”

“Like Needham,” he filled in.

“Yes.Not that we have a roster of journalists as good as he is—”

“Can’t expect that.”

“—but it’s growing more cooperative, collegial.”

“There’s a faction who’d latch onto words like cooperative and collegial to bolster their conviction we’re all in league together.”

“Proving they don’t know the meanings of the words — and they don’t know journalists.”

He rubbed the back of his neck.“Used to laugh at the idea of journalists conspiring.First you’d have to get them to agree and they rival lawyers for arguing.Plus, you grab a swarm of ambitious people whose favorite thing is unearthing secrets and telling them to the world, people who each want their story in the lead.Then you try to get them all to work togetherandto keep it a secret?”

“Youusedto laugh at the idea — not anymore?”