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Updated: June 22, 2025
Begin now, 'There were more'n a hundred pieces, and every one of 'em gold. Oh, YOU know; come on, come on." "I don't remember nothing of the kind," protested Maria, reaching for the bottle. Zerkow snatched it from her. "You fool!" he wheezed, trying to raise his broken voice to a shout. "You fool! Don't you dare try an' cheat ME, or I'll DO for you.
"What gold dishes?" said she. "The ones your people used to own in Central America. Come on, Maria, begin, begin." The Jew craned himself forward, his lean fingers clawing eagerly at his lips. "What gold plate?" said Maria, frowning at him as she drank her whiskey. "What gold plate? I don' know what you're talking about, Zerkow." Zerkow sat back in his chair, staring at her.
He gnawed at his bloodless lips, at the hopelessness of it, the rage, the fury of it. "Go on, go on," he whispered; "let's have it all over again. Polished like a mirror, hey, and heavy? Yes, I know, I know. A punch-bowl worth a fortune. Ah! and you saw it, you had it all!" Maria rose to go. Zerkow accompanied her to the door, urging another drink upon her. "Come again, come again," he croaked.
"Perhaps it's buried near your old place somewhere." "It's gone gone gone," chanted Maria in a monotone. Zerkow dug his nails into his scalp, tearing at his red hair. "Yes, yes, it's gone, it's gone lost forever! Lost forever!" Marcus and the dentist walked up the silent street and reached the little dog hospital. They had hardly spoken on the way.
It was somewhere, somebody had it, locked away in that leather trunk with its quilted lining and round brass locks. It was to be searched for and secured, to be fought for, to be gained at all hazards. Maria must know where it was; by dint of questioning, Zerkow would surely get the information from her.
At all events Maria did not remember; the idea of the gold plate had passed entirely out of her mind, and it was now Zerkow who labored under its hallucination. It was now Zerkow, the raker of the city's muck heap, the searcher after gold, that saw that wonderful service in the eye of his perverted mind. It was he who could now describe it in a language almost eloquent.
I saw our postman going away with a lot of the pictures. Zerkow has come, on my word! the rags-bottles-sacks man; he's buying lots; he bought all Doctor McTeague's gold tape and some of the instruments. Maria's there too. That dentist on the corner took the dental engine, and wanted to get the sign, the big gold tooth," and so on and so on.
"Had a flying squirrel an' let him go," she muttered, absently. Zerkow was puzzled; he looked at her sharply for a moment, then dismissed the matter with a movement of his head. "Well, what you got for me?" he said. He left his supper to grow cold, absorbed at once in the affair. Then a long wrangle began. Every bit of junk in Maria's pillow-case was discussed and weighed and disputed.
Why, that punch-bowl was worth a fortune alone " "And it rang when you hit it with your knuckles, didn't it?" prompted Zerkow, eagerly, his lips trembling, his fingers hooking themselves into claws. "Sweeter'n any church bell," continued Maria. "Go on, go on, go on," cried Zerkow, drawing his chair closer, and shutting his eyes in ecstasy.
See here, Miss Baker, you know how crazy old Zerkow is after money and gold and those sort of things." "Yes, I know; but you know Maria hasn't " "Now, just listen. You've heard Maria tell about that wonderful service of gold dishes she says her folks used to own in Central America; she's crazy on that subject, don't you know.
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