yours?"

John noticed Murphy's almost imperceptible jerk of his head. He drew his
bail receipt from his pocket and tossed it on the table as Murphy had
done. Holding the slip of paper in both hands "Slim" examined it
closely, looked up inquiringly at John, and then reached into his
pocket, bringing forth a thick roll of bills. He snapped the rubber band
from the roll and extracted from it four bills. Returning the roll to
his pocket he divided the four bills equally and pushed them across the
table.

Murphy took two of the bills and John reached out his hand for the other
two. As his fingers touched the bills, "Slim's" hand closed down on
them.

"Just a minute," he heard "Slim" say. His nerves jerked tight as he
looked down into the thin, hard face of the man in the chair. For two or
three seconds they looked into each other's eyes. Then "Slim" spoke.

"You're on the square with Murphy and me?" he asked.

John nodded his head. "Slim" still held his hand on the bills.

"Say it," he demanded.

"I'm on the square with you," John said.

"Slim" released his hand.

"All right, beat it now and forget you ever saw me," he said. John and
Murphy left the room, each with two $10 bills. The red-faced man with
the greasy derby winked at John as they passed him. They hurried through
the afternoon crowd in Spring street until they were a block from the
saloon.

John was the first to speak.

"Murphy," he said, "who is this man, 'Slim'?"

"'Slim's' da right-hand man for da 'Gink.' He's one of da few birds da
'Gink' will trust. And he's one hard-boiled guy, believe me."

"Whose money was that he paid us?"

"Well," Murphy replied, "'Slim' gets his jack from da 'Gink.'"

"Are you sure of that?"

"Say, whatcha think 'Slim' is, a Christmas tree?"

"Now, let me get this right," said John. "The 'Gink' knew this raid was
coming off. He arranged with you and most of the others who were
arrested to be at the places to be raided so that Gibson's men would
have a crowd to take to central station. Then each of those who were
arrested and who were 'in on the know,' as you say, were given the $10
they put up for bail and $10 extra for being on hand to be arrested. Is
that it?"

"Dat's it."

"And you figure that the 'Gink' wanted Gibson's raid to be a success
because the 'Gink' has split with the bookmakers and wants to make
trouble for them?"

"Dat's da way I dope it," Murphy assented.

"And we forfeit our bail and forget