Then of a sudden he jumped from
his bed and, stooping over Frank, shook him violently.
"Wake up!" he cried. "Wake up! I gotta tell somebody or the Canyon'll
drive me crazy. I'll tell you why I'm bad. It's because my mother was
bad before me. She was Luigi's mistress. She was a bad lot. It was
born in me."
Frank sat up, instantly on the alert. "How old were you when she
died?" he demanded.
"Six," replied Nucky.
"Shucks! you don't know anything about it, then! Who told you she was
bad?"
"Luigi! I guess he'd know, wouldn't he?"
"Maybe he did and maybe he didn't. At any rate, I wouldn't take the
oath on his deathbed of a fellow who ran a joint like Luigi's and
taught a kid what he's taught you. He told you that, of course, to
keep a hold on you."
"But she lived with him. I remember that myself."
"I can't help that. I'll bet you my next year's pay, she wasn't your
mother!"
"Not my mother?" Nucky drew himself up with a long breath. "Certainly
she was my mother."
Frank uncovered some embers from the ashes and threw on wood. "I'll
bet she wasn't your mother," he repeated firmly. "Seaton told me that
that policeman friend of yours said she might and might not be your
mother. Seaton and the policeman both think she wasn't, and I'm with
'em.
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