When the Hawk was thirty yards off, Mclntyre whipped a perfect pass into his arms. They continued their walk to the mess hall in silence, but Hawkeye was bothered again by memories he couldn't quite bring into focus.

"Where'd you go to college, John?" he asked over a cup of coffee.

"It was a small place, but I loved it. Where'd you go?"

"Androscoggin."

Mclntyre grinned, but he didn't say anything.

By midafternoon it had started to snow again. The Duke, between complaints about the Yankee weather, was writing his wife, and Hawkeye was reading The Maine Coast Fisherman when Mclntyre got up from his cot and headed for the door.

"Where you goin'?" asked Hawk.

"To the Winter Carnival."

With that he headed out of the tent in the general direction of the mountain to the west. Half an hour later he was seen halfway up it.

"That," said Duke Forrest, "is the strangest son-of-a-bitch I ever did see. If he wasn't the best chest-cutter in the Far East Command, I'd kick his ass out of this here tent."

"Just wait," Hawkeye said.

Martini time came. Duke and Hawkeye were having their first, Hawkeye deep in thought.

"I know I've seen that guy before," he said finally, "and before long I'm going to remember where. I figure he went to Dartmouth, with all this Winter Carnival crap. Also Daniel Webster said, 'It's a small place,' and so forth. Which reminds me, did I ever tell you how I beat Dartmouth single-handed?"

"Yeah, but only sixteen times. Tell me again."

"Well, it was just a midseason breather for the Big Green, but a blizzard blew up and it was 0-0 going into the last minute. They had this boy who was supposed to be a great passer so he threw one, snow and all, and—"

Just then the door opened, and in came Mclntyre covered with snow.

"Where's the martinis?" he asked.

Hawkeye looked at him, and suddenly the intervening years and the nine thousand miles dissolved and memory functioned. Perhaps it was the snow or the thought of Dartmouth or both. He jumped up.

"Jesus to Jesus and eight hands around, Duke!" he yelled. "You know who we been living with for the past week? We been living with the only man in history who ever took a piece in the ladies' can of a Boston & Maine train. When the conductor caught him in there with his Winter Carnival date she screamed, 'He trapped me!' and that's how he got his name. This is the famous Trapper John. God, Trapper, I speak for the Duke as well as myself when I say it's an honor to have you with us. Have a martini, Trapper."

"Thanks, Hawkeye. I wondered when you'd recognize me. The minute I saw you I knew you were the guy that intercepted that pass. Lucky you didn't have your mouth open or it would have gone down your throat."

"Trapper, Trapper, Trapper," Hawkeye kept saying, and shaking his head. "Say, what you been doing since then?"

"Not much. Just living on my reputation."

The Duke got up and shook hands with Trapper.

"Right proud to know y'all, Trapper," he said. "Are you sure y'all don't have the clap? Y'all look right peaked."

"I got over the clap. I'm so skinny because I don't eat."

"Why not?"

"Got out of the habit."

"Don't let it worry you," Hawkeye said.

"It could happen to anybody," Duke said.

And so the Trapper was one of them. An hour later the three tentmates weaved into the mess hall, arm in arm.

"Gentlemen," yelled Hawkeye, "this here is Trapper John, the pride of Winchester, Dartmouth College, and Tent Number Six, and if any of you uneducated bastards don't like it you'll have to answer to Duke Forrest and Hawkeye Pierce."

4

For several weeks following the identification of Captain John Mclntyre as Trapper John things settled down into an orderly routine. The work during the twelve-hour shifts was often intense, sometimes lacking, and usually somewhere in between.

Although many of the casualties were brought in from the Battalion Aid Stations by ambulance and might arrive at any hour, the most seriously wounded were flown in by helicopter. This meant that daylight was the frequent arrival time because the choppers did not fly at night. When the night shift had worked steadily from 9:00 p.m.