The scene was shot.
Step by step, under the patient coaching of Baird, the simple drama unfolded.

It was hot beneath the lights, delays were frequent and the rehearsals tedious, yet Merton Gill continued to give the best that was in him.

As the day wore on, the dissipated son went from bad to worse.
He would leave the shop to place money on a horse race, and he would seek to induce the customers he waited on to play at dice with him.

A few of them consented, and one, a coloured man who had come to purchase pigs'-feet, won at this game all the bills which the youth had shown to Merton on entering.
There were moments during this scene when Merton wondered if Baird were not relapsing into Buckeye comedy depths, but he saw the inevitable trend of the drama and the justification for this bit of gambling.

For the son, now penniless, became desperate.