Then he'd go and do some piss-ass thing that didn't count for beans and blow his horn.

Working together with a highly-respected and well-connected gang leader like Lion reduces the risk of detection. Such men wire themselves into the happenings of the pen; they know who can pay how much, and they have finely tuned instincts for the rackets they control. The Nelsons work as a husband-and-wife team, which makes escaping detection easier.

My last act as an earthperson, she says, was t' snatch off my landlawd's glasses and punch and punch 'im in the nose.

The nobleness of life / Is to do thus, when such a mutual pair / And such a twain can do ’t, in which I bind, / On pain of punishment, the world to weet / We stand up peerless.