So for two more days, it was more like a convention of old fools than it was any kind of gunfight preparation. They joshed and bickered and needled, and Charlie Hatchison got them all mad at him with his aggression, and Bill Jennings dominated by the steel countenance of his majestic face, and Elmer and Jack sniffed arrogantly around each other, and Ed snoozed gently on the porch, ate the food his granddaughter prepared, and had a pleasant if vague smile for them all. But if he seemed not to know exactly where he was, Earl knew that to be an illusion; he knew exactly where he was and what was set. He was simply saving up his energy.
On the night after the next, Earl finally had to take over and to begin to guide them. He did this by means of a meeting called for 8:00, after the evening meal, when all were most relaxed and before any had gotten too drunk.
Earl had played it quiet till now. He knew these old boys were stars in their own little worlds, and didn't need a sudden tyrant to bark at them and treat them like shit. They needed guidance more than leadership.
'Okay, fellows,' he said. 'I'd like to talk this thing out for all to hear and so that all can comment. Is that fair? Are you ready for that?'
'Earl,' said Charlie, 'these boys are too old to retain any information you give '. They're all so close to senile, there ain't no point.
Just shove ' in the right direction and tell ' to shoot, and that's about all as you're going to get out of '.' 'You speak for yourself, you dry old goat,' said Elmer. 'I got plenty piss left in my liver, and no dried-up old Texas string bean Mexican-killer is going to speak for me.'
'Well, yippiekiyi!' yelped Jack. 'Mr. Kaye has gotten his back up.'
'Now fellows,' crooned Audie. 'Let's just settle down and listen. You too, Charlie.'
'Charlie thinks when he puts his butt on the toilet it's candy that comes out,' said Jack O'Brian, from behind his harsh spectacles. 'But so do all of you. I'm the only man of whom it's true.'
'Jack, whyn't you go riddle with them biddy-little bullets you like so much?'
'All right, all right,' said Earl, as the bickering threatened to break out and overwhelm them all. 'Now look here and see what we got before us.'
He pulled a sheet off something he'd brought to the head of the room and mounted on a couple of chairs, and of course it was a map.
But it was a map like no map they'd ever seen before. It was a high altitude photo reconnaissance map, complete to the tiniest detail of vegetation and architecture. 'This is it. Thebes Penal Farm for Colored, as seen from thirty thousand feet by a Banshee photo jet nose camera.
Got me a friend who's a high mucky-muck in naval aviation circles, and he pulled this one out of the hat for me.
'Look at it. It's got all the roads, all the distances; it's got all the buildings; you can even make out some of the paths in the woods.
You can see the curve of the river embracing it. You can follow the roads. You can, and I know you are all good compass men, take your readings from this map so that when you are on the ground you can orient fast and night-navigate better than the boys who've been there ten years. That's the way they fight wars these days, and that's the way we'll fight this one.'
The old men were at last silent. There it was before them, the sweep of the river, the Big House, the Store, the Whipping House, the Screaming House, the prison compound with the four towers around the Ape House, the road out to the levee project, the levee itself holding back the water, the Drowning House, with its scow moored to the dock.
Earl could even see the little blasphemy of the coffin out back of the Whipping House.
'These people are heavily armed,' he began. 'This will be a gunfight, like I promised. You will prevail on your coolness, experience and shooting skills. These boys have never faced men who can shoot as well as you, have your determination and spirit. That's why I ain't training you or running any drills as I would with young fellows.'
'And you don't want any of these old farts shitting up their pants,' said Charlie.
'Thank you, Charlie, for your observation.' 'That looks like a mighty big setup,' said Elmer.
'It is. But like I say, seven men can take it. Seven against Thebes and it's finished. You each will have an assignment, and it'll happen smooth and easy, I swear to you.'
'Earl, put me where I can get the most kills,' sang Charlie. 'Got seventeen. Want more. Three things a man can't have too much of: wives, guns or kills. In a pinch, I could do without the first.'
'You ain't laid with a damn woman in fifty years,' said Elmer.
'I'll put you where the shootin' will be fiercest, Charlie. You will have your goddamn snootful of action by the time this is all over.
Anyhow, fifty guards, by my count, all armed with Winchester 07 self loaders shooting a.351 Winchester round and Colt revolvers. I saw one Thompson and maybe a half-dozen Model '97 Winchester 12gauges. They're housed in a barracks behind the Whipping House. We've got to seal them there. That's one big problem. The other big problem is the four Browning water-cooled machine guns in the four towers, and in each there will be a two- man night crew with spotlights. If those guns get into play, they're simply going to make matchsticks out of the barracks and kill all the Negroes. That's their point. They're Warden's insurance policy. They keep the boys good at night, ' he can kill ' all in the snap of a finger.
'So do you see it yet?'
There was silence. Then it was Jack, the intellectual, who spoke.
'I see it.'
'Tell them.'
'The weakness is that everything is geared to keep the prisoners in.
It's not to keep us out.'
'That's it exactly. The forest and the swamp, and the long dark river: that's what they're counting on for their protection. And that's why I can get teams in there and up close without detection, and strike fast and hard. We have to trap them in their buildings. We don't want them roaming about, because then we're hunting targets all around us, and they're hunting us. If we got them in their buildings, we win, easy.
'So this is it: first off, our Irish invasion. Mr. Ryan and Mr. O'Brian will land here'?he put a marker pin on the map?'move across the fields in darkness, and hit the towers. That is your job. I'll give you a compass reading, and track you a path in away from populated buildings.
You won't have no problems. You will get into one of the towers, take it over, and from that vantage point, Jack, you will pick off the other gunners. Then, Jack, you will remain in the tower as a kind of backup.
You will scope the action, and wherever you see targets, you will deal with them.'
'Got it,' said Jack.
'Audie, over here is ' town, as they call it. It's where the women who work the prison kitchen and laundry live, and they's known to take in visitors from the guards at night. You have to clear that. Can you do it with that German gun?' 'Think I might,' said Audie.
'Meanwhile, Elmer and Bill are going to be at the guards' barracks.
They are going to do that one fast, in the second after Jack and Audie go into action. When he finishes his job, old Charlie will join them.
I will come over from the Whipping House, which is my special place.
We will hit them, and hit them hard, and burn them out. Most of the guards will be in the barracks, which is where the armory and the kennels are, and we want to hit them before they can release them goddamned dogs. If they don't give it up, they will go down hard. We may have to burn ' out.
'Now Charlie, here's your play. You will be in the woods, ' a mile out.
That's where the sheriff's deputies are quartered. You're going to light that place up and shoot any men that don't surrender.
Then you join up with Elmer, Bill and I and work on the guards' barracks. Then the four of us join Jack and Audie, take over the compound and let the prisoners go. Then y'all head for the river, where you will deal with any remaining guards, but by that time, with the Negroes free and the place burning, most will have gone. You head for the levee. Audie, you got military demolitions skills?'
'I had to destroy some bridges, Earl. I learned how to blow things up right nice.'
'I worked on engineering projects in my youth,' said Jack. 'I can blow up anything.' 'Well, that's something I
