"I did not think they were good enough."
"The stories?"
"Yes."
"So you discarded the carbons?"
"And the stories, too."
"So it would seem that there are some things you do not consider important enough to save."
"Yes."
"Yet you did feel it important to save every bit of material, every letter, every note you ever made concerning the novel The Paper Dragon."
"Not all the material."
"The last document this court admitted was marked 'Exhibit S in evidence,' which means nineteen documents were submitted to this Court — letters to your agent, and letters to Mitchell-Campbell, and a letter to Colonel Hamilton, and notes you took at your meeting with him, and outlines, and the original drawing of your map, you saved all these things pertaining to The Paper Dragon, all of these things that purport to show the independent creation of the novel, isn't that so, Mr. Driscoll?"
"That was my working procedure."
"What was your working procedure?"
"I had a box full of typing paper. I took the cover off that box and put it on one side of my typewriter, and whenever I pulled a completed page out of the machine, I put it into the empty lid of the box."
"What does this have to do with your letters and notes?"
"When the book was completed, I put all the research material and information in the same box containing the carbon copy."
"Your letters as well?"
"No, I kept those in a separate file."
"Do you keep carbon copies of all your letters?"
"Yes. Would you like me to bring them in?"
"I don't think that will be necessary. Do you have a good memory, Mr. Driscoll?"
"I think so."
"Why did you meet with Colonel Hamilton?"
"To check certain factual aspects of the novel."
"Such as the disassembling of a rifle?"
"Yes."
"How many times, offhand, would you say you stripped a rifle while you were in the Army?"
"I don't recall."
"Did you perform the operation many times, or just a few times?"
"Many, I would say."
"Yet you could not remember the steps, and you had to—"
"I didn't say I couldn't remember them. I wanted the exact language because the success of the scene depended on the language in it."
"You would not trust your memory."
"That's right."
"So you went to Colonel Hamilton for the sake of authenticity."
"Yes."
"Even though you have a very good memory."
"I think I do. But I could not be expected to remember the technical language describing—"
"Yes, yes, I understand that. How many times would you say you stripped a rifle? Ten times perhaps?"
"Perhaps."
"Twenty?"
"Perhaps."
"More than twenty?"
"Yes, many times more."
"You stripped a rifle more than twenty times, many times more, but you could not remember the steps in detail when it came time to write about them."
"I could not remember the language."
"Yet you read the play Catchpole only once last month, and you can remember in detail and with absolute accuracy some of the more obscure aspects of the play."
"I read the play more than once."
"How many times did you read it?"
"Five or six times."
"Not more than twenty times?"
"No."
"You could not remember an operation you performed more than twenty times, but you could remember details of a play you read only five or six times."
"I could not remember the language. How many times must I repeat that?"
"You thought this rifle scene was important enough to seek information about, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"And you thought it important enough to keep the notes you made on it."
"Yes. But only as part of all the other material I kept. Material pertaining to the book."
"Why did you keep this material?"
"I don't know. I save some things, and others I throw away."
"What else have you saved?"
"Scraps of everything."
"What kind of scraps?"
"Anything I think is important."
"Did you save your notebooks from your student days at Pratt Institute?"
"Some of them."
"Why? Were they important?"
"Yes. Some of them."
"And obviously the complicated process of writing your novel was also important, so important that we have a detailed step-by-step record of its creation. Do you have any notes concerning the 105th Division, Mr. Driscoll?"
"No."
"Did you ask Colonel Hamilton about the 105th Division?"
"No."
"You asked him about the Chinese divisions involved in the Ch'ongch'on River offensive, did you not?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"For the sake of accuracy."
"You wanted the exact designations for those divisions?"
"Yes."
"Yet you designated your American division the 105th, and did not think of checking its authenticity with the colonel."
"There was no need to do that. I knew the division was fictitious."
"How did you know?"
"Because I knew which American divisions were involved in the battle."
"You trusted your memory concerning those divisions?"
"Yes."
"But you did not trust your memory concerning the stripping of a rifle."
"For the last time, the scene was built on a juxtaposition of sexual allusions to absolutely technical language. Its effectiveness was based on the accuracy of the technical detail. Which is why I consulted Colonel Hamilton."
"And the battle scenes? Was their effectiveness based on accuracy of detail?"
"Yes."
"So that it was essential to give the Chinese armies their proper designations?"
"And their strength. The climactic chapter in the book is the one in which the patrol moves up on an overwhelming force of Chinese."
"Did you use an actual division number for the Chinese force in that scene?"
"Yes, I did."
"And you checked this number with Colonel Hamilton?"
"He gave me the division designation, and also its estimated strength."
"Information from Army files?"
"Yes."
"You did not check the 105th Division with him?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I told you. I knew it was fictitious. I knew I had invented it."
"How did you invent it?"
"I don't know."
"Well now, Mr. Driscoll, you seem to have a detailed record of every other piece of information that went into your novel, you have chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, and you have expanded outlines, and you have target dates and notes to yourself, and yet you can't remember how you happened to invent the 105th Division. Did it simply come to you out of the blue?"
"I don't know."
"Try to remember, Mr. Driscoll. Was the 105th a sudden inspiration?"
"Nothing about the book was a sudden inspiration."
"In that case, you must have pondered the designation for a long time before you decided on its use."
"No."
"Did you ponder it for a short time?"
"I didn't ponder it at all. I simply used it."
"But where did it come from?"
"It did not come from Mr. Constantine's play."
"I am not asking you where it did not come from. I am asking you exactly where it did come from, Mr. Driscoll, and I would like an answer."
"I don't know."
"Is that your answer?"