Read MATT HELM: The War Years for Free Online

anything, I'll listen.
     
    Shortly after that, Vance told me we were done with the first phase of my training and I was being sent to Washington D.C. for psychological testing and he hoped to see me back in a week or so for the final phase.  Frank's brother picked me up - I suppose he really wasn't the brother of the driver who brought me to the Ranch, but he was as sparse with words and emotion as Frank - and drove me to the nearest airport, never mind the exact location.  The next day I was starting the battery of tests designed to find out if I was really outrageously insane enough to join the outfit or just moderately crazy and only fitted for the Army.  At least that was my impression.  It didn't have to be right.

     
    Chapter 5
     
    Even after the training and the tests, I'll admit that I found the idea a little startling, even in wartime, when Mac first explained to me exactly what this group was that I'd been picked to join.  I could still remember, very distinctly, the pep talk we'd got from Mac, each one of us new recruits, the first time we actually saw him.  At least I suppose the others all got it, too, but I can't really speak for anyone but myself.
     
    I remember the shabby little office - like all the subsequent shabby little offices in which I was to make my reports and receive my orders - and the compact, gray-haired man with the cold gray eyes, and the speech he gave while I stood before him at attention.  The man was, I judged, a well-preserved forty-five, with the rangy, powerful build of a college football star who'd put on a little middle-aged weight and would have put on more if it hadn't been for the rowing machine and the handball court.  His face had a hint of Lincolnesque angularity, of which he was aware.  It was the only angularity about him.  In all other respects he was a real smoothie.  He was in civvies, and he hadn't called for any military courtesies.  I didn't know his rank if he had any, but I wasn't taking any chances.
     
    Somehow, I already knew this outfit was for me if they'd have me; and I wasn't too proud to take what advantage I could get from a good stiff back and liberal use of the word "sir."  I'd already been in the Army long enough to know they'd practically give the joint to anybody who could shoot, salute and say "sir."  Anyway, when you're six feet four, even if kind of skinny and bony, the word doesn't sound humble, merely nice and respectful.
     
    "Yes, sir," I said, "I wouldn't mind learning why I've been assigned here, sir, if it's time for me to know."
     
    He said, "You've got a good record, Helm.  Handy with weapons.  Westerner, aren't you?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Hunter?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Upland game?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Waterfowl?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Big game?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Deer?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Elk?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Bear?"
     
    "Yes, sir."
     
    "Dress them out yourself?"
     
    "Yes, sir.  When I can't get somebody to help me."
     
    "That's fine," he said.  "For this job we need a man who isn't scared of getting his hands bloody."
     
    He was looking at me in a measuring and weighing manner as he went into his talk.  As he explained it, it was merely a matter of degree.  I was in the Army anyway.  If the enemy attacked my unit, I'd shoot back, wouldn't I?  And when the orders came through for us to attack, I'd jump up and do my damnedest to kill some more.  I'd be dealing with them en masse under these conditions; but I was known to be pretty good with a rifle, so in spite of my commission it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that one day I'd find myself squinting through a telescopic sight, waiting for some individual poor dope to expose himself four or five hundred yards away.  But I'd still just be selecting my victims by blind chance.  What if I were offered the opportunity to serve my country in a less haphazard way?
     
    Mac paused here, long enough to indicate that I was supposed to say