Книга All Flesh is Grass — читать онлайн бесплатно полностью

George Walker, who ran the Red Owl butcher department, was in the forefront of the crowd, and walking just behind him was Butch Ormsby, the service station operator, and Charley Hutton of the Happy Hollow. Daniel Willoughby was there, too, looking somewhat uncomfortable, for Daniel wasn't the kind of man who enjoyed being with a mob. Higgy wasn't there and neither was Hiram, but Tom Preston was. I looked for Sherwood, thinking it unlikely that he would be there.

And I was right; he wasn't. But there were a lot of others, people I knew.

Their faces all wore a hard and determined look.

Я всмотрелся: впереди всех Джордж Уокер, мясник из магазина «Рыжий филин», за ним  — Матч Ормсби с заправочной станции и Чарли Хаттон, хозяин «Веселой берлоги». И Дэниел Виллоуби тоже здесь, этому явно не по себе, он из тех, кто всегда избегает толпы, шума и скандалов. А вот Хигги не видать и Хайрама тоже, зато Престон тут как тут. Ну, а Шервуд? Шервуда, конечно, нет.

Не такой он человек. Но народу полно, и все мне хорошо знакомы.

И лица у всех мрачные, полные решимости.

I stepped off to one side, clear of the road, and the crowd tramped past me, paying no attention.

“Senator,” said George Walker in a voice that was louder than seemed necessary. “You are the senator, ain't you?”

“Yes,” said the senator. “What can I do for you?”

“That,” said Walker, “is what we're here to find out. We are a delegation, sort of.”

“I see,” said the senator.

Я отступил на обочину, и толпа прошла мимо, никто даже не поглядел в мою сторону.

— Послушайте, сенатор!  — начал Джордж Уокер, голос его прозвучал чересчур громко.  — Ведь это вы и есть сенатор, верно?

— Да, это я,  — отозвался сенатор Гиббс.  — Чем могу быть вам полезен?

— Вот это самое мы и пришли узнать,  — сказал Уокер.  — Мы вроде как делегация.

— Понимаю.

“We got trouble,” said George Walker, “and all of us are taxpayers and we got a right to get some help. I run the meat department at the Red Owl store and without no customers coming into town, I don't know what will happen.

If we can't get any out-of-town trade, we'll have to close our doors. We can sell to the people here in town, of course, but there ain't enough trade in town to make it worth our while and in a little while the people here in town won't have any money to pay for the things they buy, and our business isn't set up so we can operate on credit. We can get meat, of course. We've got that all worked out, but we can't go on selling it and...