Losing and Losing and Losing No More.

Edit:I decided to find a drink mix for a Silver Fizz. Enjoy the weekend you heels!

When Paul walks out of Ned Beaumont’s and Janet’s life, he mumbles something about luck. Fortune, not the material kind, is a very important characteristic that Ned values, especially as a gambler. Entirely throughout Hammet’s novel, Ned is placing his bets not on dice games or horses, but on human beings.  Paul Madvig is certainly Ned’s greatest gamble. He stays with him despite the consequences. His temptation against his loyalty results in physical violence from Shad O’Rory’s thugs. His search for Taylor Henry’s murderer also forces his peers to stay away from him.

“What good am I if my luck’s gone?” Ned says to Paul early on. This narrative concerns Ned Beaumont trying to regain his humanity through luck so he may “feel that [he’s] a person again.” Janet Henry is another gamble that Paul must take. He’s aware that she’s of another class and he warns Paul of this, but as the story continues and once Ned regains his fortune, he finally feels confident enough to not follow his own advice and allows Janet to come along with him.  He’s also confident enough to stop betting on Paul’s success, finally becoming his own man.

The key has shattered in Janet’s dream, and could mean a couple of things.

1. Ned’s masculinity has shattered now that he has accepted Janet as a companion, meaning that he is no longer his own man. 

2. Ned and Janet have broken free from their masculine superiors, Paul Madvig and Senator Henry, this makes them vulnerable, but as Ned says “It was only a dream.”

I like the second option better.