“We talked that over,” he replied, “and decided you were entitled to an even cut. It was your caper, you located it. You had the nerve to propose what we first thought was a bughouse caper. We are clean so far as the coppers are concerned. If we ever do any time for this we’ll have to plead guilty to it. The constable of that town would be our best witness if we got picked up on it. He would never admit that we could screw (key) out of his jail, beat that box, plant the coin, throw the jail screws in the creek, and go back and lock ourselves up. He might admit that it could happen to some other jail, but he will swear it couldn’t be done to his, see?

“But here’s the main reason we gave you an even cut of the coin. From the way you stepped in Smiler’s case, and the way you took your jolt in the cooler at the big house we know you are right. If anything had gone wrong with this caper and we had to take a pinch, we figured you would have been a big help on the outside. That’s why you are declared ‘in and in’ with the works.

“And now that we can lay off for a while, where will we go?” turning to Johnnie.