hadn't been a prisoner very long.
m
"I smell trouble," said O'Leary to the warden.
"Trouble, trouble?" Warden Schluckebier clutched his
throat and his little round eyes looked terrifiedas per-
haps they should have. Warden Godfrey Schlackebier was
the almighty Caesar of ten thousand inmates in the Jug,
but privately he was a fussy old man trying to hold onto
the last decent job he would have in his life. 'Trouble?
What trouble?"
O'Leary shrugged. "Different things. You know Lafon,
from Block A? This afternoon he was playing ball with
the laundry orderlies in the yard."
The warden, faintly relieved, faintly annoyed, scolded:
"O'Leary, what did you want to worry me for? There's
nothing wrong with playing ball in the yard. That's what
recreation periods are for!"
"No. You don't see what I mean, warden. Lafon was a
professional on the outsidean architect. Those laundry
cons were laborers. Pros and wipes don't mix, it isn't
natural. And there are other things." O'Leary hesitated,
frowning. How could you explain to the warden that it
didn't smell right? "For instance Well, there's Aunt
Mathias in the women's block. She's a pretty good old
girlthat's why she's the block orderly, she's a lifer, she's
got no place to go, she gets along with the other women.
But today she put a woman named Bradley on report.
Why? Because she told Bradley to mop up in wipe talk
117
and Bradley didn't understand. Now, Mathias wouldn't"
The warden raised his hand. "Please, O'Leary," he
begged. "Don't bother me about that kind of stuff." He
sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. He poured himself a
cup of steaming black coffee from a brewpot, reached in a
desk drawer for something, hesitated, glanced at O'Leary,
then dropped a pale blue tablet into the cup. He drank it
down eagerly, ignoring its temperature.
He leaned back, looking suddenly happier and more
assured.
"O'Leary," he said, "you're a guard captain, right? And
I'm your warden. You have your job, keeping the inmates
in line, and I have mine. Now, your job is just as im-
portant as my job," he said piously, staring gravely at
O'Leary. "Everybody's job is just as important as every-
body else's, right? But we have to stick to our own jobs.
We don't want to try to pass."
O'Leary snapped erect, abruptly angry. Pass! What the
devil way was that for the warden to talk to him.
"Excuse the expression, O'Leary," the warden said
anxiously. "I mean, after all, 'Specialization is the goal of
