In the five minutes a man came in, and George explained that the cook was sick.

“Why don’t you get another cook?” the man asked.

“Aren’t you running a lunch-counter?” He went out.

“Come on, Al,” Max said.

“What about the two bright boys and the nigger?”

“The’re all right.”

“You think so?”

“Sure. We’re through with it.”

“I don’t like it,” said Al. It’s sloppy. You talk too much.”

“Oh, what the hell,” said Max. “We got to keep amused, haven’t we?”

“You talk too much, all the same,” Al said. He came out from the kitchen. The cut-off barrels of the shotgun made a slight bulge under the waist of his too tight-fitting overcoat. He straightened his coat with his gloved hands.

“So long, bright boy,” he said to George. “You got a lot of luck.”

“That’s the truth,” Max said. You ought to play the races, bright boy.”

The two of them went out the door. George watched them, through the window, pass under the arc-light and cross the street. In their tight overcoats and derby hats they looked like a vaudeville team. George went back through the swinging-door into the kitchen and untied Nick and the cook.

vaudeville [`v∂ud∂vıl]

“I don’t want any more of that (я не хочу больше ничего подобного = с меня довольно),” said Sam, the cook. “I don’t want any more of that.”

Nick stood up (встал). He had never had a towel in his mouth before (он никогда раньше не имел полотенца во рту).

“Say (послушай: «скажи»),” he said. “What the hell?” He was trying to swagger it off (он пытался отмахнуться от этого /от происшедшего/, сделать вид, что ему все нипочем; to swagger – расхаживать с важным видом; чваниться; хвастать).

“They were going to kill Ole Andreson,” George said. “They were going to shoot him (они собирались застрелить его) when he came in to eat.”

“Ole Andreson?”

“Sure.”

The cook felt the corners of his mouth with his thumbs (потрогал углы своего рта большими пальцами; to feel – чувствовать; ощупывать).

“They all gone?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said George. “They’re gone now (они теперь все ушли).”

“I don’t like it,” said the cook. “I don’t like any of it at all.”

“Listen,” George said to Nick. “You better go see Ole Andreson.”

“All right.”

“You better not have anything to do with it at all (лучше не связывайся: «не имей никакого дела с этим всем»),” Sam, the cook, said. “You better stay way out of it (лучше держись подальше от этого: «оставайся прочь, вне этого»).”

“Don’t go if you don’t want to (не ходи, если не хочешь),” George said.

“Mixing up in this (вмешиваясь в это, вмешательство в это) ain’t going to get you anywhere (никуда тебя не приведет = ни к чему хорошему не приведет),” the cook said. “You stay out of it.”

“I’ll go see him,” Nick said to George. “Where does he live (где он живет)?”

The cook turned away (отвернулся).

“Little boys always know what they want to do (маленькие мальчики всегда знают, что они хотят делать),” he said.

“He lives up (вверх по улице) at Hirsch’s rooming-house (в меблированных комнатах Хирш),” George said to Nick.

“I’ll go up there.”

“I don’t want any more of that,” said Sam, the cook. “I don’t want any more of that.”