"William Morrison & Frederik Pohl - Stepping Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

"It's my wife," the bartender explained; and maybe that wouldn't have been enough for any other
man, but it was enough for Arthur Chesley. The bartender said, "Say, whyn't you go see it in person?"
"You mean at the studio?"
"Nah. No studio. Here." And the bartender picked a card off the top of a stack at the end of the
counter. "Fellow left these here this morning."
Chesley read it, sipping his beer. FREE ONE DOLLAR FREE it said at the top, and that was pretty
interesting. These nuts, he thought, I wonder how they're going to wiggle out of it in the fine print?
Chesley had a wide experience of things marked "free," and they had always, always turned out to be not
so very free at all. The small printтАФnot very small, eitherтАФsaid only:
The Viceroy will make an announcement of unparalleled importance to every person in the world
TODAY At the Yankee Stadium
ONE DOLLAR FREE to every person attending
*


FIVE ADDITIONAL DOLLARS FREE to every person who stays to the end of the program.
*


"Whoever he is," Chesley said, offering to return the card.
"Keep it. It's probably some kind of advertising deal, you know?"
"If it is, it costs plenty of money," said Chesley. "Why, the Stadium must hold more than seventy-five
thousand people. If everybody gets six bucks, whyтАФhey, that's nearly half a million dollars!"
"Nah. Nobody's going to spend half a million," said Harry positively.
"Um," said Chesley. He finished his beer and put the card in his pocket. "I don't know," he said,
"maybe I'll take a look." And why not? Because after all it was nearly twelve hours until it was time to
polymerize some more molecules, and the only other place he could think of was home.
They really did give away a dollar. Somebody had hooked up gadgets to the turnstiles, and when you
pushed your way through there was a click and a rattle and a dollar bill popped up through a slot like a
paper towel in a restaurant washroom. It looked real, too.
There were seats down in the field, just like at a prize fight, and about where the pitcher's box usually
was, there was a platform with microphones and TV cameras. There must have been plenty of people in
the Bronx who enjoyed getting a dollar FREE, because the seats filled up rapidly.
Arthur was earlyтАФthat was his habit; and he got a good seat. He had nothing to do but chat with his
neighbors and eat. He bought himself two hot dogs and an ice cream cone. Ordinarily he was careful
about his moneyтАФthat is, his wife was careful about money and he was careful about his wife тАФbut he
regarded the dollar as found money, and he had every intention of staying on to the bitter end, regardless,
in order to collect the other five.
At about the time all the seats were filled he discovered that he really was going to stay on,
regardless. Because as soon as the Stadium was full the gates were closed; and Chesley could see that
they were being locked, and that guards were standing firmly in front of them, turning people away.
There wasn't any way out.
And then the field lights flickered and spots came on, beaming down at the platform. And a man
appeared.
He appeared. He didn't walk quickly up the stairs, or come out from behind a curtain. He appeared.
The only part of that statement that is questionable is that he was "a man." Chesley thought that, taking
everything into account, he looked like a man.
But he was ten feet tall; and he had a halo that glowed all around him.
He said good evening, and his voice was heard all over the park. Maybe it was the microphones, but
Chesley didn't think the sound came from the microphones; it seemed to come from the speaker himself;