¡¡ã€€ã€€ The next time I went into one of those games, intuition told me to stick my gun under my belt rightdown the middle of my back. Sure enough, someone had squealed. Two big, beefy-faced Irish copscame in. They frisked me-and they missed my gun where they hadn't expected one.

　　Hundreds of thousands of New York City Negroes, every day but Sunday, would play from a pennyon up to large sums on three-digit numbers. A hit meant duplicating the last three figures of the StockExchange's printed daily total of U.S. domestic and foreign sales.

　　Negroes being questioned by policemen would be very hard to pin down on any exact time.

　　I hesitated, with the platter in mid-air; then I passed it along to the inmate waiting next to me. Hebegan serving himself; abruptly, he stopped. I remember him turning, looking surprised at me.

　　They were like old friends when I came back down. Ella had even made tea. Ella's hawk-eye just aboutraked my zoot right off my back. But I'm sure she was grateful that I'd at least put on the blue one.

　　Next, an announcement was made throughout the Nation of Islam that I would be reinstated withinninety days, "_if he submits_."This made me suspicious-for the first time. I had completely submitted. But, deliberately, Muslimswere being given the impression that I had rebelled.

　　That paragraph is deliberate, of course; it's just to display a bit more of the slang that was used byeveryone I respected as "hip" in those days. And in no time at all, I was talking the slang like a lifelonghipster.

　　Every time I saw Ella, even brushing my teeth in the morning, she turned on the third degree. Whenwas I seeing Laura again? Was I going to bring her by again? "What a nice girl she is!" Ella had pickedher out for me.