Melvin had enjoyed unexpected success in his business and, by any standards, could be accounted wealthy. While he might not be considered generous with his money, neither could he be correctly characterized as parsimonious. Perhaps "careful" would be a more accurate term. He was selfish and egocentric; he believed in helping Melvin and letting the rest of the world fend for itself. His wife was a special "case"; he gave her a small allowance for personal items plus a separate allowance for household expenses, but she had no control over their funds or other assets.

For the first four years, their marriage had been a happy one, but at the beginning, it had been far from certain that there would be a marriage because of Melvin's adamant insistence upon a prenuptial agreement. He insisted upon controlling everything, which was precisely the reason for his remarkable success in business.

But his wife was not an employee and she resented being cast in a subservient role. More and more she began to resist his overbearing manner; their wills clashed more frequently and their disagreements became more severe and acrimonious. Notwithstanding these circumstances, she really loved him and attempted to resolve their differences by resort to logic and reason.

As a general rule, her efforts failed. From time to time, however, he would present her with an expensive piece of jewelry as a peace offering. Not without good reason did she suspect that these overtures were intended to assure him access to her attractive body. It must be remembered, however, that , under the terms of the prenuptial agreement, Melvin retained title to the jewelry. Thus, Melvin had inadvertently implanted in her mind the idea that she could control at least part of her life by permitting only limited access to her body; he could have her only so long as the flow of jewelry continued.

She fully understood that the judicious use of her physical endowments and the resulting flow of wealth from her mate represented her sole means of escape from her prison and she meant to exploit it to the fullest extent. Accordingly, she evolved a plan to cache pieces of jewelry from time to time, looking to the day when she would need them for her flight. At the same time, she used them selectively so that her husband would have no occasion to wonder why she hadn't worn a particular piece. She knew well enough that she was playing a dangerous game, but, with time, their relationship began to deteriorate.

Inevitably, the time came when she felt that she could no longer endure her life as it now existed. She no longer enjoyed their sexual encounters, notwithstanding the fact that her independence depended upon it. Having made the fateful decision to leave, she began to formulate a plan.

She had very little cash and the jewels represented her freedom. She, however, had no desire to deprive him of the jewels because she knew that that would guarantee a bitter marital battle which she was ill-equipped to wage. She knew that she had to devise a plan which would assure her of adequate funds to set up a new life while, at the same time, not depriving Melvin of his legal title to the jewels.

It took her nearly three weeks before she was satisfied that she had an answer which, with all of the drawbacks, might still work. She would find an out-of-the-way pawn shop where neither she nor Melvin were known. She would be dressed appropriately so that there would be no reason to suspect that the jewels were stolen. She would pawn them and leave the pawn ticket where Melvin would find it. He could have his jewels back simply by redeeming them. That way, he would have his jewels back, she would have the money she needed to start a new life, and there would be only the matter of her having "stolen" the jewels. She did not believe that what she planned to do would be considered theft because, after all, they had been given to her although title remained in Melvin. At the very most, it would be a civil matter between them and if she knew him as well as she thought she did, he would rather lose the money quietly than to stir up a public scandal.

Several days after she reached a final decision, she put her plan into operation. The pawn shop which she found at Maple and East 10th streets was perfect and the operation went off without a fault. She stopped on the way home and picked up some small personal items of clothing to provide a reason for her absence. She put the pawn ticket in her purse with some of the cash, purchased her plane tickets, bought travelers' cheques with the remainder, and placed everything in the wall safe, which Melvin rarely used. All that remained to be done was to organize her move so that by the time that Melvin left for his business trip in three days, everything would be ready to go. She would depart after everyone had gone to bed for the evening. She had arranged, with the help of a modest bribe, for the handyman to help with her luggage.

Everything went as planned; the packed luggage was ready and waiting. As she looked around the room carefully to be certain that she had not forgotten anything, she heard the taxi pull silently into the driveway. Satisfied that everything was in order, she placed the envelope containing the pawn ticket and a note on Melvin's bureau and, at 2:30 in the morning, she got into the taxi and watched the street lights rapidly receding as the cab sped through the deserted streets toward the airport. Three hours later, she boarded the aircraft and embarked on a new life.

When Melvin returned, he was startled to note the absence of his wife. The servants did not know where she had gone or when; she had not mentioned to any of them that she was going out. They only knew that she had left early the first morning after Melvin's departure. Unusual as this might be, it occasioned no immediate cause for alarm.

He eventually discovered the envelope on his bureau, addressed to him in her hand. Now was the time for alarm. He snatched the envelope from the bureau, removed its contents, and began to read. His face flushed with anger as he examined the pawn ticket and read and reread that part of the note which informed him that she was going to Majorca for an indefinite period or until she was convinced that their relationship would be changed to recognize her as an equal partner in their marriage. In the note, among other things, she took him to task for his selfishness and his lack of any inclination to help others who were not as fortunate as he.

His thoughts tumbled over one another as he experienced the beginnings of panic, a sensation not well known to him. In time, he settled down and began the process of ordered reasoning. The first thing that had to be done was the redemption of the jewelry. He realized that he was in no condition to drive downtown and concluded that he would be better able to cope with this thing if he took a taxicab.

As his wife had anticipated, Melvin decided that it would be ill-advised to make his domestic problems a subject for public scrutiny. He did not care to risk having to answer many embarrassing questions. No. He was perfectly capable of handling this whole nasty episode privately. Above all, he must keep this matter from coming to the attention of his friends and associates at least until his own efforts to resolve the situation had been exhausted.

He dressed hastily and called for a cab. While he waited, he felt a startling sensation of regret and perhaps a little remorse. These were feelings which he had not experienced in the last several months with regard to his marriage. Could it be that he was, in large measure, responsible for the tensions which were destroying their marriage? Could it be that he had behaved abominably toward his wife? Could it be that he really loved her and perhaps dreaded the prospect of being unable to entice her to return to him? Could it be that he never gave her a decent chance to prove that she could be an excellent mate?

He knew what he had to do, but first came the recovery of the jewels and then the call to Majorca. His reverie was interrupted by the sound of the taxi pulling into the circular driveway. Melvin entered the cab and directed the driver to Maple and E. 10th Street. As the cab pulled away, Melvin's thoughts drifted to some of the unkind, selfish and hurtful things he had done or said to his wife. He was determined to undo the damage of the past several years, if she would give him the chance.

Things just wouldn't go right for them, not for Aubrey, not for Ellen. They had tried everything and neither of them knew a day without hard work and little to show for it. It certainly wasn't for lack of ambition or lack of motivation that they found themselves on the fringes of poverty. They were grateful, in a perverse sort of way, you might suppose, that they had no children. If you can say that a couple who had experienced a six-year run of bad luck since the heady days following their wedding had a happy married life, then that was certainly true in this case. They were never financially secure to begin with and they never really had a shot at it. For example, even their wedding left its scars: twelve minutes after the minister had pronounced them husband and wife, Uncle Ned, who had given them a set of kitchen knives for a wedding gift, collapsed and died. That is how this marriage started off.

Neither one of them was trained in any particular craft, but Aubrey had shown signs of having skills in what could best be described as mechanical drawing. He had no formal education in this field and didn't pursue it. Since their wedding, Aubrey had drifted from job to job and at this particular time, he was working as a part of the crew of a waste disposal truck. Ellen earned a meager wage as an apprentice seamstress. They had been unable to put aside any significant amount of savings and each time an extraordinary expense arose, they fell back on their savings. Even this minimal security was denied them when Aubrey fell sick and the family's resources were reduced to Ellen's paltry salary.

At this point, however pitiful their story, it did not differ substantially from that of thousands of others who lived from day to day on wages which enabled them to eat, pay the rent, pay the utility bills and little else. But there was one thing which distinguished them from their compatriots: the bracelet.

The bracelet had been handed down from generation to generation to the eldest living child for over a century and a half. After the loss of her older brother in the war, the bracelet was solemnly delivered to Ellen with the age-old admonition that it must never be sold except where its owner's life was literally in jeopardy.

It was an interesting piece of intricate artwork and clearly had been wrought by the hand of a master craftsman. It was those features which gave it its value. It was studded with sparkling diamonds in a silver setting, but the diamonds were artificial, making the tradition more of a perpetuation of a myth than the passage of a valuable heirloom. Everybody knew that the diamonds were not real, but every generation regarded it as a sacred trust ever since Uncle Josef crafted it in his little shop in Kiev and, according to tradition, endowed it with mystical powers to protect its owner's life.

Nobody knew how or where Uncle Josef got the stones, but, except to a trained eye, the piece had all of the attributes of a genuine diamond bracelet. It is true, however, that nobody ever thought to have it appraised because it didn't matter whether the stones were genuine or not and neither was the question of their intrinsic value of any moment in either case. Nevertheless, various members of the family had guessed that its value ranged between $500 and $1,000 in American dollars.

Uncle Josef died in one of the Czar's Siberian prison camps and no one knows to this day how the bracelet was smuggled out of Russia and into the United States. Perhaps it did have mystical powers. In any event, although its sale had been imminent upon several occasions before it passed to Ellen, whoever was the owner at those times respected the tradition and somehow survived the crisis. Needless to say, the piece was not insured.

Ellen agonized over whether the sale of the bracelet represented the only means of salvation in the present crisis. Aubrey lay sick in his bed, there was only Ellen's salary to live on and medical bills and drugs were consuming most of that. As the situation deteriorated, Ellen knew that she had to make an immediate decision. She also knew that if Aubrey found out about the plan, he would never allow her to carry it through to fruition. Knowing that she was practicing a deceit on her helpless mate only added to her misery. Furthermore, when this episode had passed, it was certain that, sooner or later, Aubrey would discover that the bracelet was missing. She couldn't stand the thought that her beloved couldn't trust her and that it was she who had introduced the element of distrust in an otherwise flawless marriage.

She spent many sleepless hours in an effort to find an acceptable solution. As she was reaching the depths of despair, she had a thought which, with some risk, might go a long way toward resolving the problem. Moreover, it appeared that the clouds might be clearing away because Aubrey was showing distinct signs of recovery and if the money from the bracelet held out until he went back to work, they might possibly make it.

It occurred to Ellen that if she could pawn the bracelet instead of selling it, she could redeem it shortly after Aubrey returned to work and have it back in its little wooden box before he could discover that it was missing. She realized that there were flaws in the plan such as what to do if Aubrey did not recover as quickly as she thought he would, or if she couldn't, for some reason, redeem the bracelet. But, for the lack of any feasible alternative, she made her decision.

Where could she take it? She recalled having seen a small shop at Maple and East 10th Street. She would tell Aubrey that she was going to work later than usual tomorrow morning and then she would walk up to the corner of Duke Street and St. Clair Avenue and take a taxi to the pawn shop. It just might work, she thought to herself, with a little help from the mystical powers of the bracelet.

The next morning, Ellen put her plan into motion, but she almost upset the entire plan when a puzzled Aubrey lifted his head from the pillow and asked what had happened to make Ellen sing. She assured him that it was because he was obviously on the way to recovery. Satisfied, he lay his head back on the pillow and was soon asleep.

Silently, she slipped out of the house and walked as rapidly as she could up Duke Street to St. Clair. Traffic was heavy and several taxis passed her, some full and some with one or two passengers. At last a taxi with but one passenger in the rear seat stopped for her. The driver rolled down the window and asked where she wanted to go. Ellen replied:

"Maple and East 10th."

"Come on, get in," the driver said. "You're lucky. That's exactly where this gentleman is going."

Melvin moved over and Ellen entered the cab. Both smiled.

Simon held down an excellent position as a stockbroker and earned a good salary. He was married and had one child; they were not rich, but they lacked none of the amenities of life in the upper middle class. He had an average size clientele which was, for the most part, loyal. But Simon was not without problems. In the first place, he was too fond of the bottle and, from time to time, intoxication rather than sobriety ruled his judgment. That isn't to say that he was an alcoholic, at least so far as he would admit, because to him an alcoholic was a person who could not avoid drinking no matter how hard he/she tried. Simon could, with determination, contain himself. It must be said that, when it most counted, Simon would appear as the model of sobriety. So far as is known, neither his clients nor his superiors nor his colleagues had occasion to complain that his work had been impaired by drinking. It may well be that he could not accurately be characterized as an alcoholic by anyone's definition. But Simon had another, far more severe problem---one which defied solution.

Simon did not follow his own advice. He was determined to get rich quickly and he was, for this purpose, an incurable gambler. His advice in the matter of which securities would be most suitable in any given situation was generally sound. In an effort to build up his own portfolio at a breakneck pace, however, he ignored the advice he had given to his clients and he recklessly invested in what appeared to be guaranteed moneymakers. He sustained loss after loss and he met this situation by borrowing money to increase the size of his purchases. The theory was sound: if the stock dropped in price, buy more of the same stock at the lower price; if it went up, sell. This was generally known in the trade as averaging down, but it had to be done with great prudence, particularly when dealing with volatile stocks. As his clients' portfolios grew in value, based largely on Simon's recommendations, his own dropped steadily. It was obvious that this could not go on indefinitely. The day of reckoning was fast approaching.

His work began to be affected by his financial concerns as was his home life. So far, only Simon knew the extent of the impending disaster and he responded by recourse to the bottle. The number and size of unpaid bills began to mount, he became irritable and defensive and was unable to explain in a reasonably coherent fashion why needed repairs were not being made or a badly needed new car was not being acquired, or why things were generally going awry. The day came upon him suddenly: his supervisor called him into the office to discuss the deterioration of his clientele base, and his wife discovered an empty savings account which, only three months ago, had exhibited a respectable balance. To climax the day, Simon found that three of the checks which he had written last month had bounced and his wife had been refused when she tried to make a purchase in a department store using her credit card.

The following week, Simon was informed that he was being discharged from his job. There was no doubt that the family was in crisis and the number and magnitude of the various problems made it apparent that no solution was readily at hand. Simon even detected muttering by his wife which, it seemed to him, represented veiled threats to leave him if he did not come up with a solution---and soon. He knew that things had to change and that little time remained to him to effect the changes. But, accepting his genuine determination to turn things around, what was to be done? In the darkness of pre-sunrise---following a night without sleep---an idea came to him. If he could somehow buy time, even just one month, he was confident that he could pull the family out of crisis. But he needed time to raise some money. He needed time, a priceless commodity so far as he was concerned. But so desperate was he that he determined to risk all on one cast of the dice. If he won his gamble, his family was saved; he chose not to consider the alternative.

Simon strode into the sporting goods store and went to the counter where a dozen starter's pistols were displayed. All he wanted was one for a one-time use; it need not be fancy nor, certainly, expensive. They

all looked realistic and he selected one which would not reduce his wallet by much. He also bought a minimum quantity of blank shells.

When the sale was completed, he dropped the package into his jacket pocket. He went into the men's room of a nearby McDonald's, took the gun out of its box, loaded it with blanks, replaced it in his pocket and strode back through the restaurant. He disposed of the wrappings at the first trash container he encountered on the street and made his way down Oak Street toward the bank. As he walked, he reviewed the plan in his mind time and time again. The keys to success were all factors beyond his control. For example, the plan depended upon a certain over-priced stock dropping substantially in value (his "short sale") so that he would realize a quick profit in order to be able to repay the bank. He realized that the project was extremely risky, but what were his options at this point?

Simon looked around carefully before he entered the bank. He saw no security guards or police. He put his trembling hand in his pocket and wrapped it around the pistol grip; he entered the revolving door. His attention was riveted on the people in the bank: ten or twelve customers, a half dozen tellers, three or four bank officers and no security guards. So intent and nervous was he that, immediately upon leaving the revolving door, he stepped upon his own untied shoe lace, fell headlong onto the floor and heard the roar of a pistol shot as his finger inadvertently squeezed the trigger.

He scrambled to his feet, reentered the revolving door and ran like a gazelle down Elm Street through the crowds of people. So far as he could determine, there was nobody in pursuit. He slowed to a rapid stride and realized that he was in panic because he had made no contingency plans for an escape! He saw a taxicab stopped at a traffic signal and, as the signal changed, he hailed the cab. It stopped and the driver rolled down the window and asked where he was going.

Simon glanced at the man and woman in the back seat; the driver repeated his question. Simon knew that he could not pass up this chance for a get-away and he responded: "Just take me where they are going," nodding toward Melvin and Ellen in the back seat, "and I can figure out where I want to go from there." The driver shrugged his shoulders and invited Simon to get into the front seat. The driver was not unaccustomed to strange passengers and he took them in stride. This one was a little weird perhaps, but he seemed harmless enough. Besides, they were only about 8 or 9 blocks from Maple and East 10th. The cab continued its journey down Elm toward East 10th; nobody took particular notice of some restrained excitement in front of the bank as they passed it.

The taxi stopped in front of the pawn shop as the driver had been directed. "Wait for me here," instructed Melvin. "I won't be long." The other two passengers got out of the cab and made motions as if they were about to pay their share of the fare, but Melvin waved them off, indicating that he would pay the entire fare when he was finished with the cab. The three passengers, to the great astonishment of each, headed toward the door of the little, dark, cluttered pawn shop.

They entered the shop together; Melvin assumed, more or less accurately, that his companions were borrowers rather than buyers. Simon looked around the shop at the various show cases; Melvin nodded his head to Ellen, indicating his desire that she go first. She edged up to the counter and drew a hastily wrapped object from her purse. "How much will you give me on this?" she asked, handing the bracelet to the pawnbroker. He slipped a jeweler's loupe into his eye and studied the bracelet for a full two minutes. Melvin could not refrain from staring at the sparkling bracelet and he choked down a gasp. "Two fifty, tops," uttered the pawnbroker. "Two hundred and fifty dollars? It's worth much more than that," said Ellen. "Not to me it isn't," he said. "Take it or leave it."

Before she could respond, Melvin stepped forward and, extending his hand toward the pawnbroker, said: "Let me see that." The pawnbroker hesitated and, noticing that even Simon's attention had been arrested, looked to Ellen for a signal. When she nodded her head, the pawnbroker tentively handed the piece to Melvin. A soft whistle escaped his lips. Then: "I agree with the lady. It's worth far more than that." "Three hundred---not a cent more. If you can do better elsewhere, why I'd suggest that you do it."

"I'm quite sure that we can;" the "we" did not escape Ellen. With that, he handed the bracelet to Ellen. In the meanwhile, Simon, who was having great misgivings, began to pace back and forth restlessly. He showed no inclination to be "next". Then Melvin took the pawn ticket from his wallet and, handing the ticket to the pawnbroker, said: "I want to redeem this."

The pawnbroker looked at the ticket, then jerked his head upward and stood in silence for a full 20 seconds as he stared at Melvin. It was immediately apparent that he was suspicious of this whole crowd and was gravely concerned that, perhaps, he was dealing with stolen merchandise. It was plain that the pawnbroker remembered the transaction for which this ticket was issued and he recalled that it was an attractive woman who had brought in the jewels. Melvin accurately read the pawnbroker's thoughts. "My wife brought the jewelry in a couple of days ago. I will give you my personal check for the full amount and wait for you to call my bank to satisfy yourself of the validity of the check." Then he handed the pawnbroker his card and the telephone number of the bank.

The merchant did not hesitate. Melvin could hear most of this side of the telephone conversation: "Yes---yes---that's him---I see---oh, yes. I understand---yes---well, I thought that I had better check---I appreciate that---thank you---thank you---I'm sorry that I bothered you---yes---thank you. Goodbye." The shopkeeper returned and asked to see Melvin's identification. This having satisfied the merchant, the redemption process got under way. Melvin wrote out a check and handed it to the merchant, who then delivered a bulging leather bag and a sheaf of papers to Melvin. They all then turned to Simon.

He jumped as if he had been startled out of a trance. He stood momentarily motionless as the others gazed at him. In true Grade B movie fashion, he whipped the pistol out of his pocket and, quite in accordance with the script, aimed at nobody in particular and called:

"Stick 'em up!"

In retrospect, it was not a smart thing to do, but Melvin could not restrain himself: he burst out laughing while the others looked aghast. Ellen clutched her precious jewelry to her breast and shouted, half hysterically: "You'll not get my bracelet. You can shoot if you like, but I won't let you have it!" The pawnbroker threw his hands up into the air with fear etched on his face. Still laughing uproariously, Melvin, who, as a sportsman, well knew a starter's pistol when he saw one, visualized the panicked pawnbroker reaching for a real gun or a police officer just happening to pass by. He thereupon demanded: "Give me that gun, you fool, before somebody gets hurt."

Simon slowly lowered the gun, the pawnbroker lowered his hands and Ellen protectively clutched the bracelet. He handed the pistol to Melvin and waited to see what would happen next. Melvin turned to the merchant and, tendering the gun, said: "Here, take this damned thing and get rid of it." Turning to his companions, Melvin commanded, "Let's get out of here. We've had enough excitement for one day."

With that, the three "bandits" started out the door, but Melvin stopped momentarily and, dropping two $100 bills on the counter of the bewildered pawnbroker, said: "Here! You have forgotten all about this little misunderstanding, haven't you? There never was a stick-up and nobody pulled a gun on you, right?" The startled and confused shopkeeper nodded his head and watched the trio climb into the waiting "get away" cab. He breathed a deep sigh of relief as the cab jumped off and everything returned to normal---more or less.

Melvin, in his usual manner, persuaded the cab driver, with a $100 bill, that he had seen nothing untoward in the pawn shop. By way of reinforcement, Melvin suggested to the driver that if he did recall seeing anything out of the ordinary occur in the shop, he, the cab driver, could be held as an accessory to the "crime". The cab driver, thoroughly persuaded, dropped the three "bandits" off in the driveway of Melvin's mansion and wasted no time in getting away. The three exhausted people slowly dragged themselves inside and dropped like stones in the upholstered chairs which ringed the circular walnut coffee table in the opulent parlor.

Melvin summoned the butler and ordered hors-d'ouerves and three sherries. He then sat back in his over-stuffed arm chair, folded his hands in front of him, tilted his head back as if he were looking at the ceiling, closed his eyes and said: "I think that we must tackle Ellen's situation first." Nobody remembered agreeing to discuss anyone's situation, but Ellen and, certainly, Simon, were entangled in "situations" which needed tackling and neither of them could forget that they had been extricated from the taxicab caper by this man. "If you want me to help you, you'll need to co-operate with me and describe to me fully the events which brought you to this house. Start from the beginning and omit nothing. Are we agreed?" He looked at Ellen and waited for a response. Without hesitation, she nodded her head in assent.

As promised, she began her story from the carefree days before she and Aubrey got married and painfully recounted the events which led them into poverty. She also carefully recited the legend of the bracelet and scoured the faces of her companions to detect any signs of ridicule. There were none. While she narrated her tale, the butler delivered the food and drinks. Melvin interrupted the narrative only to instruct the butler to "get Lou on the phone for me." When she had finished, the three of them sat in thoughtful silence. Melvin swallowed some sherry and, turning to Ellen, said: "The first thing I want to do is to have your bracelet appraised, and then I would be willing to lend you, without interest, up to whatever Lou says the bracelet is worth. You will retain custody of the bracelet and I will pay the first year's insurance and safe deposit box rental for you." At this point, the butler came in and handed the cordless telephone to Melvin.

"Lou, I need you to come to my home as soon as you possibly can and bring with you whatever you need to appraise some jewelry." It will be remembered that Melvin purchased jewelry frequently and all of his purchases were from or through Lou. Melvin was too good a customer for Lou to do anything but reply that he was on his way. Returning to Ellen, he resumed:

"When Aubrey has fully recovered and feels that he is ready to return to work, if he is agreeable, I will arrange for an interview for him with the head of our drafting department. If Aubrey demonstrates that he is even minimally qualified for the job which we have available, he will be referred to Personnel for processing. If he likes the job and does well, he can begin to repay the loan as soon as he feels that your financial situation will permit it." Ellen did not know how to express her gratitude and, between sobs, she thanked him profusely. "I am glad to be able to help," he said. "I have some personal reasons for doing what I am doing. I have something to prove and you would be helping me by allowing me to help you." He said no more and it was clear to his visitors that he did not wish to discuss the matter further.

They sat in silent contemplation for a few moments. Eventually, the silence was broken by Melvin's address to Simon: "Do you want to discuss your problems with me? I think that you, of all of us, have the most need for help." Then, smiling broadly, he said to Simon, "I think that you have provided us with a most interesting day, turning what would normally have been uneventful business transactions into a taxicab caper. You certainly took an unusual approach to your problem-solving effort." Simon did not reply nor did the humor of Melvin's remarks move him. He was, after all, the only one who actually committed a crime and he was unable to regard the events of the day with Melvin's light-hearted approach. He was, understandably, chagrined and humiliated by the manner in which he had bungled the would-be bank robbery. With a shrug of his shoulders and a deep sigh, Simon began to recount his story. He had not gotten very far when the butler entered and announced that Lou had arrived.

After the introductions were completed without any reference to who these people were or why they were there, Melvin indicated to Ellen that she should give her most cherished possession to Lou for study. She complied and Lou gave it a cursory glance and whistled softly in amazement. He said nothing. He placed his loupe in his eye and turned the piece over and over slowly, studying it thoroughly and uttering an "uh-hunh" here and a "hmmm" there. "I have seen very few of these in my lifetime" he said, looking at Melvin. "They are extremely rare. I would guess that this was hand-made by an expert jeweler, probably somewhere in Eastern Europe. It shows signs of fine craftsmanship such as is seldom encountered these days. But," he said hesitantly, "most of these 'diamonds' are fakes, artificial; even at that, they were excellently crafted. The larger stones, however, are genuine diamonds."

"What do you think the bracelet is worth?" Melvin queried. Lou sat silently for a minute or two and finally said: "I wouldn't pay more than twelve to fifteen thousand," he announced. Ellen's jaw dropped and no sound came from her. She didn't believe what she had just heard until she remembered that it had never been appraised before. Simon stared in disbelief, remembering that the pawnbroker had offered a maximum of $300. Melvin, more accustomed to such figures, reacted with great satisfaction. "I had no idea," he said, "that it was worth anything like that, but I was reasonably certain that it was worth far more than the pawnbroker offered for it."

"Pawnbroker?" said Lou in utter confusion. "Why a pawnbroker? Who---what---." "Never mind," said Melvin, "I'll fill you in later about the whole thing. In the meanwhile, I thank you very much for getting here so fast. We'll discuss it later," he said, standing up to indicate to Lou that his services were no longer required.

When Lou departed, Simon began, once again, his recital of the events which landed him here in Melvin's mansion. He missed no facts, pausing from time to time to choke back some tears as he described how his conduct had affected his wife and child. He described the intense trauma which he suffered when he reported to his wife that be had been fired. He acknowledged, like someone at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, that he was an incurable gambler in the sense that, despite his amazing aptitude for picking the right stocks, he persisted in hazardous investment practices although he knew that it was in conflict with his own better judgment. He described the events of the day which brought him to the brink of disaster and caused him to resort to the desperate course which could have ended, literally, in his destruction. At the end of the narrative, silence enveloped the trio.

After what seemed to be an interminable pause, Melvin broke the silence. "It seems to me," he began,"that you have been the architect of your own near-demise. That being so, I suggest that your salvation lies in a determined effort to make some radical alterations in your life style." Melvin realized that he was preaching and that this approach seldom worked, but he was no expert in this field and he did not know what else to do. Simon, he thought to himself, would simply have to endure the preaching if he really wanted to be rescued. "Are you really willing to reform your way of living and thinking because, if you are, I will help you, but if you are not, then I cannot do anything for you." "Tell me what to do and I will do it," he responded. "I want to go back to the life I knew before I got us so deeply in debt." "Good, then. The first thing which needs to be done is for you to enroll in an Alcoholics Anonymous program and to attend each session religiously. You are going to give up alcohol completely, except, perhaps, for a glass of wine from time to time upon appropriate occasions. Agreed?"

Simon answered with a nod of his head. "Agreed!" said he. "I have some well-placed connections in the stock brokerage firm where you were lately employed. I am confident that, under the conditions which I will impose on you, they will agree to reinstate you. Among those conditions will be one which requires that your acquisition of securities will be subject to review by your supervisor; he will only consider whether the information which you have gathered on a particular security supports your decision to buy or sell. He will not question whether you should buy something different than you propose. Agreed?" asked Melvin. "Agreed."

Melvin proposed several other conditions, including a limit on the amount and purpose of any debt which he can incur. "I will stand behind you to see that you do not falter financially if you perform faithfully your undertakings here tonight. Do you understand?" Simon blurted out an enthusiastic "Yes!" "Good. Then we are in complete agreement and you have no illusions about what will happen if you fail?" "None." "Well," said Melvin, "I don't think that any of us has reason to continue this discussion. I think that I speak for all of us when I say that we have had a full day and we are entitled to a good night's rest. I will make my phone calls tomorrow as I promised." With that, Melvin summoned the butler and asked him to bring a car to take his two guests home. As they rose to leave, Melvin uttered under his breath, "And the most difficult call of all which I must make is one about which you know nothing!"

The next morning, Melvin got dressed early and went into the breakfast room for his breakfast, as usual. As usual, the morning paper was on the breakfast table. Nothing unusual was in the paper that morning, but as he turned to the back page, a small news item in a box caught his attention. Its entire contents were as appears below.

Less than an hour later, police received a call that an armed robbery was under way at a pawn shop at Maple and East 10th. The informant reported that a gang of three heavily armed bandits, one of which was reported to be a woman, held up the manager, filled two bags with cash and jewels and escaped in--of all things--a taxicab. The police questioned bystanders, but nobody could give a description of the robbers. In fact, nobody had noticed anything unusual occurring in the pawn shop. When police questioned the alleged victim, he said that he knew nothing about a robbery. "People imagine that they have seen some mighty strange things sometimes," said the pawnbroker. "It's that time of the year!" added one of the police officers.

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