“We’ll make the pinch along about daylight,” Noonan explained as we rode. “Whisper’s got a joint over on King Street. He generally leaves there along about daylight. We could crash the place, but that’d mean gunplay, and it’s just as well to take it easy. We’ll pick him up when he leaves.”

I wondered if he meant pick him up or pick him off. I asked:

“Got enough on him to make the rap stick?”

“Enough?” He laughed good-naturedly. “If what the Willsson dame give us ain’t enough to stretch him I’m a pickpocket.”

I thought of a couple of wisecrack answers to that. I kept them to myself.