Cool Hand Luke (29 page)

Then we worked our way past a rusty barbed wire fence, the lightwood posts rotted away at the bottom and leaning at exhausted angles, held up by the very wire they were meant to support. Fifty feet farther on we hit a bare patch of sterile sand on the edge of which was a dead oak tree, the limbs broken off, the stumps hung with a few thin wisps of moss, one side of the trunk charred black from a grass fire leaving a thick, wrinkled scab of charcoal.

The hours passed. We had our Smoking Period and then went back to work. The sun dipped towards the horizon, reflected in a blinding glare from beneath the black hat of the Man With No Eyes. Far away over his shoulder we could still see the watchtower raised up into the clouds.

It got later. We began to steal impatient glances at the Walking Boss, waiting for his growl which would permit us to put away our tools and load up into the cage truck. But he said nothing. Slowly he sauntered up the road behind us, swinging his cane as we yo-yoed past a cow pasture and then a small grove of grapefruit trees and then a Pepsi Cola sign.

Cool Hand Luke
was Donn Pearce's first novel, published by Scribners in 1965. Mr. Pearce wrote the original filmscript for the well known movie based on his novel and is also the author of two later novels,
Pier Head Jump
and
Dying in the Sun.
He has been a machinist's helper, safecracker, convict, third mate in the

Merchant Marine, and is currently a private
investigator in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Published by
Thunder's Mouth Press
841 Broadway, Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10003

Copyright © 1965 Donn Pearce

 

Originally published by Scribners 1965.

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form unless by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages, without written consent of the publisher.

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Pearce, Donn.
Cool Hand Luke / by Donn Pearce.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3566. E18C6 1999
813'.54—dc21 98-55509
CIP

eISBN : 978-0-306-82087-8

 

Manufactured in the United States of America