Mason broke off at the startled exclamation from Ellen Robb.
"What is it?" he asked.
She instinctively started to close the lid of the suitcase, then checked herself.
"Let's take a look," Mason said.
"I'll take a look," the chief of police said, pushing forward.
"What is it, Ellen?"
Ellen Robb reopened the lid, then pulled forward the elastic which held closed one of the compartments in the lining of the suitcase. A wad of currency had been thrust hurriedly into this compartment.
"I'll take that into my custody," the chief of police said.
Mason moved so that he interposed a shoulder between the officer and the suitcase. "We'll count it," he said.
Ellen Robb glanced at him in questioning panic, then with trembling fingers counted the money. "Five hundred and sixty-eight dollars," she said.
"Good," Mason told her. "We'll give George credit for that on the amount of back wages due and our claims against him for defamation of character."
George, who had quietly entered the room with Alton at his side, started to say something, but just then the curtained doorway was flung back with such violence cloth was almost ripped from the guide rings on the overhead pole. A woman's voice said angrily, "Defamation of character, indeed! That's a laugh-pot calling the kettle black, I'd say!"
Her eyes blazed hatred at Ellen, then she turned back to George.
"But I didn't come here to see that husband stealer, I came to see you. Just what do you think you're doing to my husband?"
"Why Mrs. Ellis!" George said, stepping forward and smiling cordially. "This is-that is-we aren't really open for business yet. I had some people come in and- Come on with me and I'll buy a drink."
She ignored the man's proffered hand, said furiously, "You've been trimming my husband in a crooked game here and I am tired of it. He tells me you took him for six thousand dollars last night. We don't have that kind of money to lose, and I'm not going to let you make a sucker out of my husband. I want the money back."
"You want it back!" George said incredulously.
"That's right, you heard me. I want it back."
George said soothingly, "Your husband was in a little private game last night, Mrs. Ellis. I don't know how he came out. I believe that perhaps he did lose a little, but I haven't tried to figure up just how much. I can assure you that the game was on the up and up. I was in it myself. If we gambled with people at night, let them take a chance on winning the place, and then, if they weren't lucky, gave them back the money they had lost the next morning, it wouldn't be very long before I'd be selling apples on the street corner."
He laughed at the idea, his mouth making the laughter, his eyes anxiously watching her, appraising her mood.
"As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly where you belong," Mrs. Ellis said. "I want our money back. That's money my husband earned, and I have other uses for it than giving it to you. I'm not going to let you cheap crooks rob us of that money and get away with it."
The chief of police said, "I hope I don't have to take you into custody for disturbing the peace, Mrs. Ellis. If you continue to make abusive statements of that sort in public, I'll have to take action."
"You!" she snapped at him. "You fatheaded nincompoop! You're just a shill for these gambling houses. George Anclitas has you right in his hip pocket. You don't dare to hiccup unless he gives you permission. Don't tell me what I can do and what I can't do!"
"You're using loud and profane language in a public place," the chief said.
"I haven't moved into profanity yet," she told him, "but I'm getting ready to, and when I do, I'm going to have some very biting adjectives and a few nouns that may startle you… you-"
"Just a minute," Mason interposed. "Perhaps I can be of some help here."
"And who are you?" Mrs. Ellis demanded, turning to regard Perry Mason belligerently. "You… I've seen your pictures… why, you're Perry Mason!"
Mason bowed, said, "I think it might be better to control your temper, Mrs. Ellis. Apparently you aren't going to get anywhere making a personal demand, and I think perhaps a written demand made in a more formal manner through an attorney would do you more good."
"What are you talking about, through an attorney?" George said scornfully. "You know as well as I do that when a guy loses money gambling he can't get it back."
"Can't he?" Mason asked.
George laughed sardonically. "You're damned right he can't. Even if the game was crooked, he can't. He was engaging in an illegal activity and-"
"Careful," Jebley Alton interposed. "Let us put it this way, George. There are certain contracts that are against public policy as far as the law is concerned. It's against the policy of the law to raise those activities to the dignity of legitimate business enterprises. Therefore, the courts are not open to persons who have participated in those activities."
"Never mind all that double talk," George said. "Let's give it to her straight from the shoulder. Tell her she can't get a dime back."
"That's right, Mrs. Ellis," Alton said with his toothy smile. "You can readily understand how things are in that regard. A man can't sit in on a game at night, trying to win money, and then come back the next day and say that the activity was illegal and that he wants the money back that he's lost. If he could do that, he'd keep all of his winnings and then whenever he'd lost he'd recoup his losses. Now, George is in a legitimate business and-"
"And they've rigged up a deal on my husband," she said. "They had already got him for something over four thousand dollars. I was willing to let that ride. He promised me that he wouldn't do any more gambling, but they started in easy last night and lured him into the game. Then they started to take him. He thought his luck was bound to turn and stayed with it and-"
"And there you are," Alton said, shrugging his shoulders. "He was trying to win. If he had won, he'd have pocketed his winnings and both of you would have been very satisfied this morning. But he didn't win, so-"
"So I want my money back," she said. "The game was crooked."
"You can prove that?" George asked ominously.
"I don't need to prove it," she said. "You know it was crooked. Everybody here knows it was crooked. You aren't running this place on the square. Don't be silly."
"Those are words that would lay you wide open to a claim for damages," George said. "I suggest you be more careful, Mrs. Ellis."
"All right," she said, raising her voice. "All I know is that my husband has lost something like ten thousand dollars here within the last few weeks and I'm not going to stand by and see him robbed. Now, are you going to give him his money back or-"
"Definitely, absolutely, positively not!" George Anclitas interrupted firmly. "Your husband doesn't get back a nickel, and in view of what you've just said and the scene you've created here, he doesn't even get back inside this place. I'm leaving orders with the doorman not to admit him. If you'd come to me like a lady and told me that you didn't want your husband gambling here, he couldn't have got in last night. But you never said a word about it. He came and went just like any other man and he gambled. He's a good poker player. He knows what he's doing but he just happened to have a run of bad luck last night. That's all there was to it.
"However, now you've said you don't want him gambling here, that's good enough for me. We won't ever let him sit in another game."
Jepley Alton said, "I think that's fair enough, Mrs. Ellis. If you didn't want your husband gambling, I'm quite certain that George wouldn't have wanted him sitting in on the games. I don't think you ever said a word to George about not wanting Helly to gamble. After all, he's been trying his best to win. You don't have any legal recourse and-"