Damn, 4 spokes? I definitely wouldn't trust my life to that ride.
I was extremely, beyond broke at one point and so I had to ride to job interviews on a wheel with one broken spoke. I put hundreds of miles on that wheel. Then broke spoke number 2 and since I had been working a few weeks, I treated my bike to a new wheelset.
There is also a nylon/kevlar temporary spoke available that handles the linear tension similiar to a spoke....I can't remember the brand name or who makes it though.