"The Yokel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Walter M)

The bartender shrugged. "Just thought I'd ask. Wait'll I get the siphon."
There was a galvanized washtub set up on a box on the bar. Nosey dropped one end
of a rubber hose in it and sucked on the other end. Then he pinched it off and
stuck it in a glass. The glass filled slowly with a murky brown liquid.
"What's in this batch, Nosey? Bird nests?"
Nosey grinned reflectively. "Can't remember. Old Lady keeps six tubs working.
Whatever she can get goes in."
Wuncie took the glass with a shudder and tossed Nosey a dime. He peered at the
murky fluid distastefully. "You suck the hose and still live. Guess I'll chance
it." He gulped the drink and made a face.
"Prunes. Damn rotten prunes."
"Don't like it, don't drink it," Nosey muttered irritably.
"I like it. It's a club."
"Have another?"
"Yeah."
"You're a real patriot, Wuncie," the bartender said as he came back with the
glass. "A smart boy like you could cross over and be drinking good liquor,
eating good food, wearing decent clothes."
"Yeah, everybody's a real patriot," he answered sourly. "Everybody that can't
pass the test and be a traitor."
"Nuts, you could pass, Wuncie. What'd you used to do before the war?"
"Dropped earthworms down little girls' backs."
"Just a kid, huh? Well Ч you could pass."
"The only place left to pass is out. Gimme another."
A man slipped quietly in the-door, looked around quickly, then sidled onto a
seat at the end of the bar. He was panting slightly, and his eyes were nervous.
One cheek was covered with a patch bandage. Nosey approached him with a
deepening frown. The customer showed him a handful of coins. Nosey shook his
head.
"Lemme see under that patch first," he grunted. 'It's on a bad spot, Joe."
The man looked stricken. "I Ч it's only a cut. Cut myself shaving."
"Take it off. Let me look."
The man licked his lips. "You got me wrong, Mister."
"Show me."
"Doc said not to lift it."
" Doc? For a shaving cut?"
The man slipped off the stool. Nosey reached for a butcher knife. The man backed
toward the door.
"You got me wrong. I'm no crosser."
Nosey grasped the blade of the knife as if to throw it. The man yelped and fled.
Nosey came back cursing.
"Cheek was branded, bigawd! The sneaky bastard!"
Wuncie's laugh was icy. "What were you saying about being tested?"
"I said you could pass. I didn't say you should."
"If I got tested and failed, would you run me off with a butcher knife?"
"Yer damned right I'd get after you!"
"That's what I meant. Everybody's a real patriot. Nobody wants to be tested.
Patriotic reasons, of course."
"If you're going to tell me what's wrong with the world," Nosey growled, "it'll
cost you a dime a minute."