"Leinster, Murray - Imbalance UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

But he fenced off two win-cups and took their contents for his own. Howard said painfully;
"It was-an accident."
"But a happy one," said George amiably. "There are such things as streaks of luck, Howard. How about a continued joint investment in it? This brief commercial association has been pleasant."
Howard did not even consider it. He said anxiously, "I don't gamble. It's mathematically impossible to win. But if you'll sell me the Joe the Greek account I'll give you thirty per cent of your commission. In cash. Now."
"Through your talent," said George kindly, "I am no longer in straightened circumstances. I might even turn entrepreneur! How about shooting a few quarters for me, then? I'll put up the capital and give you thirty per cent of the wins."
Howard automatically shook his head. But then he realized that it was a mistake. He'd risk nothing, and George might be seized with the gambling fever and go broke again, when the Joe the Greek matter could be brought up once more on a twenty per cent basis.
"I don't believe in that sort of thing," Howard protested. "But as an accommodation to you. . . . You said thirty per cent?"
George handed him a quarter and pointed to the machine just beyond the ones that had lately paid off. Howard put in the coin. He pulled the lever. In moments his ears were stunned by the crash of coins.
"My thirty per cent," he said hurriedly.
"To be sure," said George, nodding. "Carry on!"
Howard played four more of George's quarters in four fresh machines, farther back in the arcade. Four jackpots. George's expression grew interested. He handed over more quarters still. Howard mopped sweat off his forehead. He moved unwillingly to more machines. They paid off. Howard computed his thirty percent. But he suffered. He was no gambler.
Presently only the half-dollar machines had not yielded their visible jackpots. George said gently; "Wait here, Howard." He visited the change-booth and came back with suitable coins. On the first half-dollar machine, Howard did not win the jackpot. He collected only fifteen silver half-dollars for one.
"Howard!" said George reproachfully. "You're getting careless!"
But the next machine paid in full. And the next and next and next. George politely borrowed a basket from the change-booth. He needed it. By the time the half-dollar machines were finished, he leaned heavily to starboard from the weight of the coins the reluctant Howard had won. The basket was nearly full.
The dollar machines filled it.
Looking back, it was evident that some great principle of nature was at work, but people are unobservant. Few make a conscious distinction between things that are philosophically necessary and those that are merely likely to happen. When George led Howard Sattlethwait gently by the arm out of the Rodeo Arcade, a trail of awed persons followed. There hadn't been many people in that first emporium of chance, but they all wanted to see what happened next.
GOERGE led Howard to a second arcade. Howard put money into slot-machines. He hit jackpots. Each time his expression grew more unhappy. He was actually pale. He was experiencing the complete negation of every rule of cause and effect, of common sense and conservative business practice, on which his life had heretofore been based. He couldn't believe it. But there was a perfectly simple explanation, if he'd only realized it.
The balance of nature had gotten slightly off-center, so it was necessary for things to get back to normal. It was not only reasonable for events and forces to return to a state of proper, dynamic equilibrium; it was necessary. There was a philosophical necessity for improbabilities of one kind to be cancelled by improbabilities of another. And there is nothing much less likely than that slot-machines will pay off through a run of bets. But it had to happen for the cosmos to become normal again.
They went into a third slot-machine arcade. And a fourth and fifth. An eighth and ninth. An eleventh. These were all the arcades within easy walking distance of the Rodeo, where this special series of events had begun. George whistled cheerily as he helped Howard out of the last of them.
"Look at all these people!" protested Howard. He shuddered. "I think I'm going crazy! I want my thirty per cent! You promised thirty per cent! I've won a lot for you! I want my thirty per cent!"
"And you shall have it, Howard," George told him soothingly. "More than that, I'm going to buy you a nourishing lunch. Don't strain your mind with arithmetic just now. Don't disturb its delicate imbalance. I called up Janet, by the way, and she'll be joining us at lunch."
"Thirty-per cent!" whimpered Howard. "It's mine! I want it!"
He was practically a broken man. His collar was wilted and his eyeglasses misted. He stumbled as he walked. It was simply impossible for him to gamble. He was of that sturdy, conservative group of people who play only sure things, and purchase only gilt-edged securities, and find happiness in the clipping of coupons and the foreclosing of mortgages.
SOME twelve hundred interested citizens followed George and Howard to where the Formosa awed tourists in Tres Aguas by charging more for a sandwich than the average luxury hotel did for a five-course dinner. The police cleared a way for them so they could enter. There was a vestibule inside the Formosa's door. This being Tres Aguas, there was naturally a slot-machine in it. Howard looked at it, hypnotized. George gave him a large coin and said tenderly, "All right, Howard. If you must."
Howard played it, fumbling. It was a dollar machine. It had a jackpot. Dollar machines always make a loud noise when they pay off a jackpot. This one made a louder noise than most.
George practically had to support Howard to a table. Howard moved like a sleepwalker. His hands were clammy and cold. His eyes were wild behind their spectacles. He sat down, seeing nothing, but saying insistently;
"My thirty per cent-"
There was a movement opposite him. Janet sat there, beaming. She'd been waiting for them.
"Howard!" she said enthusiastically. "George called me and told me what you're doing! It's wonderful! How do you do it?"
Howard looked at her through partly glazed eyes.
"It's-impossible," he said numbly. "Impossible! I don't believe it! But I'm getting thirty per cent."
"Here's the morning's take, Janet," said George cheerfully. "All due to Howard's brilliant efforts. Cut it up, will you? Then maybe Howard won't need to count it all for himself."
Janet zestfully counted the folding money. Howard watched anxiously. At the end she gave him his thirty per cent.
"But there was the slot-machine in the vestibule," he wailed.
"To be sure!" said George, abashed. "Sorry, Howard."
He stacked up the silver dollars. He gave George thirty per cent. The waiter came. George ordered exuberantly. This lunch was in a way a celebration of his sudden and unexpected return to solvency. But Howard suffered. He'd seen the menu. He'd have liked to suggest a ham sandwich for himself and the rest in cash. But Janet regarded him with excited, even fond eyes.
"It's wonderful, Howard! You're going to go on, aren't you? Keep on after lunch? May I come along and watch?"
Howard shivered a little. But he struggled back toward sanity. He'd seen the thick mass of folding money Janet had put in her handbag. The sight of so much money going away from him was sobering. Stabilizing. Shocking. He realized that he had made unnecessary concessions to George.
"I do not gamble," he said with dignity. I have not gambled. I will not gamble. As a favor to George I was willing to act as his agent in a certain matter-on commission. But I will not violate my business principles by gambling. And I have other affairs to attend to. If I am to postpone them, from now on I will want the Joe the Greek account and forty percent."
George did not look surprised, but he raised his eyebrows. Janet tapped his arm, "Darling, let me haggle!"
She smiled warmly and persuasively upon Howard.
NATURE, of course, continued to move to restore itself to normal. The dynamic equilibrium of events and forces cannot be permanently destroyed, as was formerly believed. The events in the Himalayas and the Amazon basin and Sydney, Australia, and Perth Amboy-and other places-which were indications of disturbance had all taken place within hours on the same morning. There were undoubtedly other events of the same general character which did not happen to be observed. But the events in Tres Aguas, Nevada, relieved much of the strain. When a person like George Gaines made more money than Howard out of a joint enterprise, little things like two and two visibly making five and things going up and not coming down were practically commonplace. Anyhow a great deal of the stress caused by a disturbance of the balance of nature was already relieved.
There were other, lesser events at divers locations to help in the adjustment. In Smolensk a married man told his wife that she cooked better than his mother had ever done. In Tucson a woman found a blonde hair on her husband's coat-she being a brunette-and immediately remembered that he'd met his sister at the airport and his sister was a blonde. In Philadelphia a sixteen-year-old boy listened to his father's explanation of why he shouldn't drive the family car, and realized that his father was right. In Punta Arenas and on Maioa in the Caroline Islands and other spots here and there on this earth, other impossible things took place. The stress was definitely being relieved.
But in the Formosa, over a dessert that Howard knew stood George four dollars and fifty cents per portion, Janet wrote in a note-book the stipulations of a new agreement with George. George signed it. Howard signed it. Howard considered that he'd driven a hard bargain. He didn't realize that he'd bargained with a woman. Janet closed the notebook.
"I've always wanted to play roulette." She said brightly.
"Let's let Howard do it," said George. "And to give him an unhindered opportunity, let's go to Oswald's."
Oswald's Club is, of course, the most famous of the conservative business establishments in Tres Aguas. The drinks are generous and the bets range from a quarter up and there are some girl dealers and some very well-dressed shills. It is, naturally, completely respectable. Oswald contributes to public charities and has never been caught by the Internal Revenue Service. He is a great man. Oswald's Club is more than a business. It is an institution.
WHEN they reached Oswald's club, it was soon after midday and attendance was low. Most of those who'd been gambling during the forenoon were down at the telegraph office waiting for the money they'd telegraphed home for. There were roulette tables and crap-tables and black-jack setups. But business was dull. George led Howard to a roulette table where a single shill talked boredly to the croupier. Howard sat down uneasily. He looked pleadingly up at George. He had something close to stagefright. He wasn't used to gambling.
"Use your own judgment, Howard," said George kindly. "Such as it is."
He handed Howard a dollar. Howard put it down, numbly. The shill bet a dollar on the first dozen. The croupier spun the wheel.