[_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._]