They Couldn't Keep Death Out, But While

Clevinger Was A Troublemaker And A Wise Guy. Lieutenant Scheisskopf Knew That Clevinger Might Cause Even More Trouble If He Wasn't Watched. Yesterday It Was The Cadet Officers; Tomorrow It Might Be The World. Clevinger Had A Mind, And Lieutenant Scheisskopf Had Noticed That People With Minds Tended To Get Pretty Smart At Times. Such Men Were Dangerous, And Even The New Cadet Officers Whom Clevinger Had Helped Into Office Were Eager To Give Damning Testimony Against Him. The Case Against Clevinger Was Open And Shut. The Only Thing Missing Was Something To Charge Him With.

Death To All Modifiers, He Declared One Day, And Out Of Every Letter That Passed Through His Hands Went Every Adverb And Every Adjective.

As Always Occurred When He Quarreled Over Principles In Which He Believed Passionately, He Would End Up Gasping Furiously For Air And Blinking Back Bitter Tears Of Conviction. There Were Many Principles In Which Clevinger Believed Passionately. He Was Crazy.

So Many Things Were Testing His Faith. There Was The Bible, Of Course, But The Bible Was A Book, And So Were Bleak House, Treasure Island, Ethan Frome And The Last Of The Mohicans. Did It Then Seem Probable, As He Had Once Overheard Dunbar Ask, That The Answers To Riddles Of Creation Would Be Supplied By People Too Ignorant To Understand The Mechanics Of Rainfall? Had Almighty God, In All His Infinite Wisdom, Really Been Afraid That Men Six Thousand Years Ago Would Succeed In Building A Tower To Heaven?

He Found Luciana Sitting Alone At A Table In The Allied Officers' Night Club, Where The Drunken Anzac Major Who Had Brought Her There Had Been Stupid Enough To Desert Her For The Ribald Company Of Some Singing Comrades At The Bar. "all Right, I'll Dance With You," She Said, Before Yossarian Could Even Speak. "but I Won't Let You Sleep With Me." "who Asked You?" Yossarian Asked Her. "you Don't Want To Sleep With Me?" She Exclaimed With Surprise. "i Don't Want To Dance With You.