The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Altar at Midnight, by Cyril M. Kornbluth

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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.

When he tried for number four, the kid had his courage up and said,
"I'll tell _you_ when I'm ready for another, Jack." But there wasn't any
trouble.

It was almost nine and the place began to fill up. The manager, a real
hood type, stationed himself by the door to screen out the high-school
kids and give the big hello to conventioneers. The girls came hurrying
in, too, with their little makeup cases and their fancy hair piled up
and their frozen faces with the perfect mouths drawn on them. One of
them stopped to say something to the manager, some excuse about
something, and he said: "That's aw ri'; get inna dressing room."

A three-piece band behind the drapes at the back of the stage began to
make warm-up noises and there were two bartenders keeping busy. Mostly
it was beer--a midweek crowd. I finished my ale and had to wai