a lawyer or a minister … he went over to the room off the messhall that was kept special for that purpose。 The Arcade; we called it。 I don't know why。
〃Just what in the Gorry do you think you're doing?〃 Dean Stanton asked; peering over the tops of his spectacles as Brutal opened the book and paged grandly past years of visitors to men now dead。
〃Obeyin Regulation 19;〃 Brutal said; finding the current page。 He took the pencil and licked the tip … a disagreeable habit of which he could not be broken … and prepared to write。 Regulation 19 stated simply: 〃Each visitor to E Block shall show a yellow Administration pass and shall be recorded without fail〃
〃He's gone nuts;〃 Dean said to me。
〃He didn't show us his pass; but I'm gonna let it go this time;〃 Brutal said。 He gave the tip of his pencil an extra lick for good luck; then filled in 9:49 p。m。 under the column headed TIME ON BLOCK。
〃Sure; why not; the big bosses probably make exceptions for mice;〃 I said。
〃Course they do;〃 Brutal agreed。 〃Lack of pockets。〃 He turned to look at the wall…clock behind the desk; then printed 10:01 in the column headed TIME OFF BLOCK。 The longer space between these two numbers was headed NAME OF VISITOR。 After a moment's hard thought … probably to muster his limited spelling skills; as I'm sure the idea was in his head already … Brutus Howell carefully wrote STEAMBOAT WILLY; which was what most people called Mickey Mouse back in those days。 It was because