"Supper's ready, old man. You'd better have it now and get to bed early. Jumping from sea level to a mile in the air makes a chap sleepy. Are you washed up?" "I'm all ready," mumbled Nucky. He went to bed shortly after eight. Something forlorn and childish about the boy's look as he said good night moved John Seaton to say, "Tell a bell boy to open the door between our rooms, will you, Enoch?" and he imagined that a relieved look flickered in Nucky's eyes. Seaton himself went to bed and to sleep early. He was wakened about midnight by a soft sound from Nucky's room and he lay for a few moments listening. Then he rose and turned on the light in his room, and in Nucky's. The boy hastily jerked the covers over his head. Seaton pulled the extra blanket at the bed foot over his own shoulders, then he sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hand on Nucky's heaving back. "Don't you think, if it's bad enough to make you cry, that it's time you told a friend about it, Enoch?" he said, his voice a little husky. For a moment sobs strangled the boy's utterance entirely. Finally, he pulled the covers down but still keeping his head turned away, he said, "I want to go home!" "Home, Enoch? Where's your home?" "N' York's my home. This joint scares me." "Whom do you want to see in New York, Enoch?" "Anybody! Nobody! Even the police station'd look better'n that thing. I can feel it out there now, waitin' and listenin'!" Seaton stared blankly at the back of Nucky's head. His experiment was not turning out at all as he had planned. Jack often had puzzled him but there had always been something to grasp with Jack. His own boy had been such a good sport! A good sport! Suddenly Seaton cleared his throat. "Enoch, among the men you know, what is the opinion of a squealer?" "We hate him," replied the boy, shortly. "And the other night when you were arrested, you were rather proud of standing up and taking your punishment without breaking down. If one of the men arrested at that time had broken down, you'd all have despised him, I suppose?" "Sure thing," agreed Nucky, turning his head ever so little toward the man. "Enoch, why are you breaking down now?" "Aw, what difference does it make?" demanded the boy. "You despise me anyhow!" "Oh!" ejaculated Seaton as a sudden light came to his groping mind. "Oh, I see! What a chump you are, old man! Of course, I despise the kind of life you've led, but I blame Minetta Lane for that, not you. And I believe there is so much solid fine stuff in you that I'm giving you this trip to show you that there are people and things outside of Minetta Lane that are more worth a promising boy's time than gambling. But, you won't play the game. You are so vain and ignorant, you refuse to see over your nose." "I told you, you despised me," said Nucky, sullenly. The man smiled to himself. Suddenly he took the boy's hand in both his own.