Carmella Commands
low pup like you. So I reckon you’d better make love to your mother, for a change, you rat!”
“Aw, you go to hell,” he snarled.
“That’s fine! You’re a yellow pup, I said, and that goes. But your mother’s the only one that can bail you. You better open up and spill the works, or you’ll land for as long as I can land you. Remember, you’re just over age for reform school. You’ll get everything that’s coming to you. And if it wasn’t for your mother, I’d try to have ’em double it.”
His mother, knowing nothing of what Carmella had said to him, but seeing his distress, put her arm about him. This time he did not draw away.
“Why did you do it, Nicolo, my Nicolo?” she asked, sobbing.
“Aw—because.”
“Why? I said.”
“Well, folks thought I was a bootlegger. Kid Kate herself thought so.”
“Why did you steal?” repeated his mother, in the strained voice of anguish.
“I’ve told you!” shouted Nicolo. “I’ve told you. They thought I was a bootlegger. They thought that working for Mike I got a lot of money. Kid Kate thought so. They all thought so. Mike paid me ten dollars a week—ten dollars a week.
“And they all thought I was getting rich because I worked for Mike. That’s the hell of this bootleg busi-
[225]
