George reached up behind the books in the shelf and produced an eighteen-inch-long bamboo tube. The tube was almost two inches in diameter. The bottom was sealed by a natural sectioning of the bamboo. The top sectioning had a small hole drilled in it. About midway up the side of the tube a tiny carved bowl on a long stem had been inserted at an angle into the only other orifice in the tube. George handed Lamonte the pipe and Lamonte carefully, methodically, removed the bowl and stem from the tube and laid the tube on the bar. From under the bar he produced a bottle of white wine. He very slowly poured wine into the orifice in the tube gradually raising the top so the wine did not spill out from the mouthpiece.
“Where you going out to tomorrow?” George asked Egan.
Lamonte gazed up at Geor
