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The Altar at Midnight, by Cyril M. Kornbluth
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Altar at Midnight, by Cyril M. Kornbluth This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Altar at Midnight
Author: Cyril M. Kornbluth
Illustrator: William Ashman
Release Date: August 5, 2009 [EBook #29619]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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The Altar at Midnight
By C. M. KORNBLUTH
[Illustration: Illustrated by ASHMAN]
Doing something for humanity may be fine--for humanity--but rough on the individual!
He had quite a rum-blossom on him for a kid, I thought at first. But when he moved closer to the light by the cash register to ask the bartender for a match or something, I saw it wasn't that. Not just the nose. Broken veins on his cheeks, too, and the funny eyes. He must have seen me look, because he slid back away from the light.
The bartender shook my bottle of ale in front of me like a Swiss bell-ringer so it foamed inside the green glass.
"You ready for another, sir?" he asked.
I shook my head. Down the bar, he tried it on the kid--he was drinking scotch and water or something like that--and found out he could push him around. He sold him three scotch and waters in ten minutes.
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