Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-02-16
TIE COMPLETE BEST SELLER
No Time For Sergeants
By MAC HYMAN
copyriEht. 1854. by Mac LYMAN
rHE STORY mp no NOW

THE STORY UP TO NOW
Wits Pa routed the man from the Draft
Board, ipho had driuen to the bGckt1oods
Georgia farm to see iCty four letters had been
ignored. VIII and Pa spent that night FORTH
5yfng the farm against q ne,D inuasion. When
~ men arriDed in the morning there tcdS. for
b Dhile, tense situation. But Pa finally
agreed to let VIII 90. insisting, hotoeUer. that
he must icdlk the 81 miles. WIN started of
but meets delay on the road in the person
OF his pal Bart. Bart ,Eants to ktotn ho,o
viii Dds so lucky to be drafted.
So told him how 1t was and he stood
there blinking his eyes little bit, SO could
tell he was trying to figger out why 1t was
they asked me. and didn't ask him. Then he
asked me who it was that wanted me for the
draft, and I told him 1t was some fellow
named Mckinney, and then he begun nod
ding his head up and down. II know EN-" he
said. He's the one. huh? I'll tell you about
him sometimes. Me and him don't get along
so good"
How do you know him?"
Didn't you know? been living in town
for about two years now"
So I asked him what all he had been
doing and had he been doing any hunting
lately and why hadn't he been out to see us
and all like that, and finally, he perked up
some and we talked of this and that, and
u
in and shoot game of pool Well, started
to say didn't have the time, but seen he
was watching me and blinking his eyes, and
then knowed would pretty much have to
shoot one with him. Because II had said
something about being in hurry because of
the draft, he would have thought was
throwing that up in his face, and wouldn't
have liked it none. So said / would. 1t
seemed like the best thing could do was just
shoot quick one and get 1t over with that
way.
And that ought to have been easy enough
on the table they had. It was setting in the
back Of the store along with bunch Of feed
sacks and it had these big ridges in it and
wore out places going right toward the pock-
cts so you had to be practically blind not to
make two or three balls on 1t every time you
shot. and it warnt no trick at all to run the
whole table with about four shots, so there
ought not to have been nothing to it. But
Bart didn't shoot pool like most people you've
seem He made pretty big thing out Of it
and was always talking about it taking brains
to do this and brains to do that and made
out 1t was the main thing about pool too.
and guess he done it because he was so ig-
norant; and he always has to figger and
measure, and everybody has to be quiet and
all like that. He gets down and eyes along
the balls and he wont do it just to the cue
ball neither-he gets on the other side of the
table and eyes them from that direction, too.
So seen soon enough it warnt possible
to shoot no quick game with him. busted
them up and he started getting lined up
for his first shot and he was even worse at
1t than he used to be. guess it took him
nearly fifteen minutes to get around to shoot
lng. He eyed around and then he felt the
weight of all the cues and then he went
around testing the bounce OF the cushions
with his finger everywhere he expected the
ball to hit; and then he stared at the table
for o while and leaned over real slow aiming.
and then he got up and shook his head and
went over and set down on q bench next to
the table and started rolling himself a ciga-
rette. And then he set there studying it some
more. and smoked most of the cigarette up,
still staring at the table. and then he got up
and measured some more. and thought he
never would shoot And when he finally did
get around to 1t, he had figgered it out some
how that he was going to hit three different
sides Of the table before hitting the ball he
was after; and Of course that warnt even
possible on table that had ridges in 1t about
half as deep as the ball; SO. even though I
wouldn't have believed that nobody could
shoot on that table without making at least
two balls he managed to bound all over 1t
and not even hit one.
Strategy Called For
II knowed what had to do then, though.
shot, he would just want to shoot another
game. and he would keep on that way until
he had won one himself, which could have
taken all day the way he shot. so / figured
the easiest thing to do was go ahead and
make sure he won that first one so he would
be satisfied. and I could head on into town.
But found out that was a pretty hard thing
to do on that table. mean II you Just come
within an inch of ball and the breeze wob-
bled it going by, it would roll over and get in
one OF those gullies and head straight for the
pocket like it had string on it. So started
trying to figger way so I wouldn't make
ball, and I never shot such game in my life.
I got to lingering just about as hard as he did.
I had to fgger the gullies and the ridges and
'AH>like that, and before got off my next
shot, was about all wore out with it. But
managed not to make bah and felt pretty
good about it. and then it was his time and
we had to wait around another fifteen. min
utes for that one. Anyhow. we went on that
way for over an hour, / guess before Bart
finally come tanning close enough to one Of
the balls to set up q little breeze and blow
it down one of the gullies to the pocket. and
after that he got right cocky and shot with
out hggering no more than couple of min
utes, and run the whole table on me-
was mighty glad to see it too. got
UP and put UP my cue and told him he was
Just too mucch for me and warnt going
to take him on again without lot more
practice. and it worked out all right He
kind Of chuckled and took on and patted
me on the back and tried to cuss little
bit but got it all messed up SO 1t come out,
Il he'll nearly missed that last ball. didn't l,
WHIP"
Anyhow, still fingered could make 1t
by running a mile and walking a mile, but
when was ready to start out, Bart said,
We'll. I'm ready any time you Is" and I
mean that kind Of got me. Because guess
Bart was about as slow as any man I ever
seen when 1t come to walking He didn't really
walk nohow What he done was kind OF lean
forward until it looked like he couldn't stay
UP no longer without falling on his face and
then fife legs started moving to keep him
from going down, but they was the only part
Of him that did move. His arms just dangled
straight down nv his side and his head hohhed