"Hemingway, Ernest - Across the River and Into the Trees" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hemingway Ernest)

УI couldnТt even imagine.Ф
УThen donТt strain,Ф the Colonel said, Уand you will never get piles.Ф
УI wouldnТt mind it if I was a Colonel.Ф
УI never mind it.Ф
УYouТd be over-run like a dose of salts,Ф the waiter said.
УDonТt tell the Honorable Pacciardi,Ф the Colonel said.
He and the bar-tender had a joke about this because the Honorable Pacciardi was Minister of Defense in the Italian Republic. He was the same age as the Colonel and had fought very well in the first world war, and had also fought in Spain as a battalion Commander where the Colonel had known him when he, himself, was an observer. The seriousness with which the Honorable Pacciardi took the post of Minister of Defense of an indefensible country was a bond between the Colonel and the bar-tender. The two of them were quite practical men and the vision of the Honorable Pacciardi defending the Italian Republic stimulated their minds.
УItТs sort of funny up there,Ф the Colonel said, Уand I donТt mind it.Ф
УWe must mechanize the Honorable Pacciardi,Ф the bar-tender said. УAnd supply him with the atomic bomb.Ф
УIТve got three of them in the back of the car,Ф the Colonel said. УThe new model, complete with handles. But we canТt leave him unarmed. We must supply him with botulism and anthrax.Ф
УWe cannot fail the Honorable Pacciardi,Ф the bartender said. УBetter to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep.Ф
УBetter to die on our feet than to live on our knees,Ф the Colonel said. УThough you better get on your belly damn fast if you want to stay alive in plenty places.Ф
УColonel, do not say anything subversive.Ф
УWe will strangle them with our bare hands,Ф the Colonel said. УA million men will spring to arms overnight.Ф
УWhose arms?Ф the bar-tender asked.
УAll that will be attended to,Ф the Colonel said. УItТs only a phase in the Big Picture.Ф
Just then the driver came in the door. The Colonel saw that while they had been joking, he had not watched the door and he was annoyed, always, with any lapse of vigilance or of security.
УWhat the hellТs been keeping you, Jackson? Have a drink.Ф
УNo, thank you, sir.Ф
You prissy jerk, the Colonel thought. But I better stop riding him, he corrected.
УWeТll be going in a minute,Ф the Colonel said. УIТve been trying to learn Italian from my friend here.Ф He turned to look at the Milan profiteers; but they were gone.
IТm getting awfully slow, he thought. Somebody will take me any day now. Maybe even the Honorable Pacciardi, he thought.
УHow much do I owe you?Ф he asked the bar-tender shortly.
The bar-tender told him and looked at him with his wise Italian eyes, not merry now, although the lines of merriment were clearly cut where they radiated from the corners of each eye. I hope there is nothing wrong with him, the bar-tender thought. I hope to God, or anything else, thereТs nothing really bad.
УGood-bye, my Colonel,Ф he said.
УCiao,Ф the Colonel said. УJackson, we are going down the long ramp and due north from the exit to where the small launches are moored. The varnished ones. There is a porter with the two bags. It is necessary to let them carry them since they have a concession.Ф
УYes, sir,Ф said Jackson.
The two of them went out the door and no one looked back at anyone.
At the imbarcadero, the Colonel tipped the man who had carried their two bags and then looked around for a boatman he knew.
He did not recognize the man in the launch that was first on call, but the boatman said, УGood-day, my Colonel. IТm the first.Ф
УHow much is it to the Gritti?Ф
УYou know as well as I, my Colonel. We do not bargain. We have a fixed tariff.Ф
УWhatТs the tariff?Ф
УThree thousand five hundred.Ф
УWe could go on the vaporetto for sixty.Ф
УAnd nothing prevents you going,Ф the boatman, who was an elderly man with a red but un-choleric face, said. УThey wonТt take you to the Gritti but they will stop at the imbarcadero past HarryТs, and you can telephone for someone from the Gritti to get your bags.Ф
And what would I buy with the God-damn three thousand five hundred lire; and this is a good old man.
УDo you want me to send that man there?Ф he pointed to a destroyed old man who did odd jobs and ran errands around the docks, always ready with the unneeded aid to the elbow of the ascending or descending passenger, always ready to help when no help was needed, his old felt hat held out as he bowed after the un-needed act. УHeТll take you to the vaporetto. ThereТs one in twenty minutes.Ф
УThe hell with it,Ф the Colonel said. УTake us to the Gritti.Ф
УCon piacere,Ф the boatman said.
The Colonel and Jackson lowered themselves into the launch which looked like a speed boat. It was radiantly varnished and lovingly kept and was powered with a marine conversion of a tiny Fiat engine that had served its allotted time in the car of a provincial doctor and had been purchased out of one of the grave-yards of automobiles, those mechanical elephant cemeteries that are the one certain thing you may find in our world near any populated center, and been reconditioned and reconverted to start this new life on the canals of this city.
УHow is the motor doing?Ф the Colonel asked. He could hear her sounding like a stricken tank or T.D., except the noises were in miniature from the lack of power.
УSo-so,Ф the boatman said. He moved his free hand in a parallel motion.
УYou ought to get the smallest model Universal puts out. ThatТs the best and lightest small marine engine I know.Ф
УYes,Ф the boatman said. УThere are quite a few things I should get.Ф
УMaybe youТll have a good year.Ф
УItТs always possible. Lots of pescecani come down from Milano to gamble at the Lido. But nobody would ride twice in this thing on purpose. As a boat, it is fine, too. It is a well built, pleasant boat. Not beautiful as a gondola is, of course. But it needs an engine.Ф
УI might get you a jeep engine. One that was condemned and you could work it over.Ф
УDonТt talk about such things,Ф the boatman said. УThings like that donТt happen. I donТt want to think about it.Ф
УYou can think about it,Ф the Colonel said. УIТm talking true.Ф