"I--I started with a hundred, Renie. I had to have it; I had to, I tell you. You remember that night I--I wanted you to go over and ask Aunt Beck for it? I had to have it. Pa--. I--I couldn't excite him any more about it; and--and I had to have it, I tell you, Renie." "Yes; then what?" "And I--I borrowed it without asking. I--I fixed it on my books so--so Uncle Isadore wouldn't--couldn't--. I--I fixed it on my books." "Oh-oh, Izzy! Oh--oh--oh!" "I was trying out a system--a new one--and it worked, Renie. I tried it out on the new wheel down at Sharkey's and the seventeen system worked like a trick. I won big the first and second nights, Renie--you remember the night I brought you and ma the bracelets? I paid back the hundred the first week, Renie; and no one knew--no one knew." "Oh-h-h-h!" "The next Friday my luck turned on me--I never ought to have played on Friday--turned like a toad one unlucky Friday night. I got in deep before I knew it, and deeper and deeper; and then--and then it just seemed there wasn't no holding me, Renie. I got wild--got wild, I tell you; and I--I wrote 'em checks I didn't have no right to write. I--I went crazy, I tell you. Next day--you remember that morning I left the house so early?--I had to fix it with the books and borrow what--what I needed before the banks opened. I--I had to make good on them checks, Renie. I fixed it with the books, and from that time on it worked." "Oh, Izzy--Izzy--Izzy!" "I kept losing, Renie; but I knew, if my luck just changed from that unlucky Friday night, I could pay it back like the first time. All I needed was a little time and a little luck and I could pay it back like the first hundred; so I kept fixing my books, Renie, and--and borrowing more--and more." "How much?" "O God, Renie! I could have paid it back with time; I--" "'Sh-h-h! How much, Izzy--how much?" "Somebody must have snitched on me, how I was losing every night. The old skinflint, he--Oh, my God! They got me, Renie--they got me; and it'll kill the old man!" "How much, Izzy--how much?" "Oh, my God! I could have paid it back if--if--" "How much? Tell me, I say!" "Four--thousand!" "Oh-h-h, Izzy--Izzy--Izzy!" She sprang back from him, blind with scalding tears. "Izzy! Four thousand! Oh, my God! Four thousand!" "I could have paid it back, Renie; the system was all right, but--" "Four thousand! Four thousand!" "He--he was all for detaining me right away, Renie; sending for pa, and--and sicking the law right on his--his own sister's son. On my knees for three hours I had to beg, Renie--on my knees, for ma's sake and your sake and pa's--just for a little time I begged. A little time was all I begged. He don't care nothing for blood. I--I had to beg him, Renie, till--till I fainted." "What shall we do, Izzy? What shall we do?"