[_All are puzzled._]

It didn't sound right to me, even the first time I read it. Looks like he's got the wrong words, crossed over.

FRANKEL: Why, gross receipts last month was over twenty-four thousand dollars!

s...o...b..RG: Yes, and that was a fall off from the month before.

CARTER [_rubbing his head_]: Well, I don't pretend to understand it, but he told me all them was mostly payments on old sales anyhow.

RILEY: Read it again, read it again!

SIMPSON: Yes, let's see if we can't get what the sense of it is.

CARTER: It says "Gross receipts, $2,162.43"--that's over here. "Cash paid out, $19,461.53."

[_All seem dazed._]

RILEY: What else you got there?

CARTER: As near as it seems to me, just a lot of items.

SALVATORE: Well, we must have a lot of money in the bank; what's the matter we draw that out and divide it?

RILEY: Wait a minute! What's there besides them items?

CARTER: He's got a note. "Note," he says; here it is: He says: "Bank notified us this morning we're overdrawn $59.01."

RILEY: Overdrawn?

s...o...b..RG: Then we got to deposit some to our account. Who's got charge of the checks that comes in?

NORA: The bookkeeper has charge, but there aren't any checks.

CARTER: No, they ain't been any checks comin' in for some days; a week or so, or two weeks, you might say. We've looked everywhere for 'em--

FRANKEL [_aghast_]: You looked all through them letters?

CARTER: They ain't none left in 'em that wasn't took out a good while ago.

SALVATORE: You ain't looked through the safe, have you?

CARTER: They ain't a one in it; it's got me all puzzled up, I tell you.

I was jest waitin' for the meeting to settle it.

FRANKEL: But heaven's sakes! There must be checks comin' in from new sales!

CARTER: It says here sales has fallen off. So fur this month they was only three instruments sold.

SIMPSON: But, my gosh, this is the _end_ of the month!

CARTER: They was two sold in Council Bluffs and one in Detroit.

[_General agitation and excitement._]

MRS. SIMPSON [_trembling with rage and fear_]: You mean to stand there and tell me we ain't goin' to git any money to-day, and my flat rent to pay to-morrow?

RILEY: Don't talk about your flat rent to me, lady! There's others of us got a few things to pay.

s...o...b..RG: But, my golly, when _do_ we git paid?

CARTER: I can't make out from what he's got here.

SALVATORE [_rapping fiercely on the table_]: Hey! I got to have my money!

CARTER: Well, I got to have mine, don't I?

SIMPSON: Go on. See what else it says.

CARTER: Well, here he's got this. Here it says: "Bills payable, $17,162.48."

FRANKEL [_leaping up_]: Bills payable! My G.o.d, no money in bank, and we're $17,162.48 in debt!

MRS. SIMPSON [_shrieking_]: Who owes it?

SIMPSON: We do!

s...o...b..RG: Who's goin' to pay it?

RILEY: Who run us into debt that way?

SALVATORE: That's the man we're after!

FRANKEL: Who's the man responsible for us bein' $17,162.48 bankrupt?

RILEY [_hammering the table_]: Who run us into debt over seventeen thousand dollars?

SIMPSON: Well, give him a chance to answer.

CARTER: What do _I_ know about it? That's what the report says. That's all _I_ know.

s...o...b..RG: Well, somebody's got us into debt. And who is it?

NORA: It's all of us! Haven't we all done this thing together?

FRANKEL: Well, who's got to pay it?

NORA: We've all got to!

s...o...b..RG, SALVATORE, FRANKEL, AND MRS. SIMPSON: You expect to git blood out of a stone? What do you take us for? You're crazy! You helped get us into this! [s...o...b..RG _and_ SALVATORE _begin shouting at each other._]