when the lad with his true-ringing, youthful voice,
exclaimed, "Slippery, you are going to be my partner, for all of us
working together can accomplish much more in Chicago to make our way to
wealth and fame than we two could. And then, when we have made our
fortune, I will want you to come back with us to Rugby and stay with us,
even if you have to buy for yourself a prairie farm, for I know mother
will wish that you stop with us, because she will always thank you for
having taken such good care of her Joe." After he had given vent to this
boyish dream he paused, expecting to receive an answer from his older
companion, but Slippery only nodded in assent, while at the same time he
rubbed his eyes with his hands as if tiny cinders had lodged in them.
His emotions caused him to avert his face so Joe could not see the tears
of repentance which his hurting conscience forced to run down his
cheeks. And then his better self got the master hand over him and he
silently swore that at this moment had arrived the oft wished for
opportunity for him to forsake the road and quit the crooked game of
crime.

Now came Slippery's time to make plans. His first thoughts were to
discover the best method to fullfil the promise he had just made to
himself to lead a new and different life. The best method as it appeared
to him would be for Joe and himself to ramble on to Chicago and there
procure employment, as he realized that to separate from his younger
companion would mean to him a rapid drifting back into his old ways.
This plan looked mighty good and he slyly chuckled as he thought that it
would be only a short time until his pay envelope would bulge from the
sum to which his wage would quickly increase, for he felt assured that
it would be an easy matter for him to be advanced into an ever better
salaried position, for a man who had the nerve to attempt to force a
living for himself from the world by means of the dangerous ways of
crime could easily accomplish anything once his perverted ambitions were
directed into the straight and narrow path. But suddenly his smiles
ceased and he felt a queer shuddering sensation shake his spine, for he
thought of the many criminals who made their headquarters in Chicago,
and who would be only too willing to spoil his plans to quit their
company and reform, so as to keep others of the brotherhood from
quitting the game and thereby making it all the more hazardous for
hardened and irreformable crimin