“Between sixteen and twenty-two I spent a pile of time in bed, Bill, and you can lay to that!”

“And you kept practicing?”

“Sure, when I found out that I had to.  I never liked shooting much.  Hated to think of having a gent’s life right inside the crook of my trigger finger.  But, when I seen that I had to get good, why I just let go all holds and practiced day and night.  And I still got to practice.”

“I seen that,” said Bill Gregg.  “Every day, for an hour or two, you work with your guns.”

“It’s like being a musician,” said Ronicky without enthusiasm.  “I heard about it once.  Suppose a gent works up to be a fine musician, maybe at the piano.  You’d think, when he got to the top and knew everything, he could lay off and take things easy the rest of his life.  But not him!  Nope, he’s got to work like a slave every day.”

“But how come you felt them scars pricking as a bad-luck sign, Ronicky?” he asked after a time.  “Is there anything that’s gone wrong, far as you see?”

“I dunno,” said Ronicky gravely.  “Maybe not, and maybe so.  I ain’t a prophet, but I don’t like having everything so smooth—­not when they’s a gent like the man with the sneer on the other end of the wire.  It means he’s holding back some cards on us, and I’d sure like to see the color of what he’s got.  What I’m going to work for is this, Bill:  To get Caroline’s brother, Jerry Smith, and rustle him out of town.”

“But how can you do that when John Mark has a hold on him?”

“That’s a pile of bunk, Bill.  I figure Mark is just bluffing.  He ain’t going to turn anybody over to the police.  Less he has to do with the police the happier he’ll be.  You can lay to that.  Matter of fact, he’s been loaning money to Caroline’s brother.  You heard her say that.  Also, he thinks that Mark is the finest and most generous gent that ever stepped.  Probably a selfish skunk of a spoiled kid, this brother of hers.  Most like he puts Mark up as sort of an ideal.  Well, the thing to do is to get hold of him and wake him up and pay off his debts to Mark, which most like run to several thousand.”

“Several thousand, Ronicky?  But where’ll we get the money?”

“You forget that I can always get money.  It grows on the bushes for me.”  He grinned at Bill Gregg.

“Once we get Jerry Smith, then the whole gang of us will head straight West, as fast as we can step.  Now let’s hit the hay.”

Never had the mind of Ronicky Doone worked more quickly and surely to the point.  The case of Jerry Smith was exactly what he had surmised.  As for the crime of which John Mark knew, and which he held like a club over Jerry Smith, it had been purely and simply an act of self-defense.  But, to Caroline and her brother, Mark had made it seem clear that the shadow of the electric chair was before the young fellow.