“‘The jane, brother, was a slicker.”
“How do you know, Louie?”
“How does a guy know anything? Shucks, I had her spotted ever since I came here.”
“How long’s that been?”
“About ten days or two weeks. She’s been a slot-machine fiend. She played it on the square at first, all right. That’s where she threw me off guard, and she’s such a cute little trick. She certainly did play me for a sucker. She’d play those machines. I don’t think she was doing much more than breaking even. So I’d look the machines over after she left, and there wouldn’t be nothing wrong with ’em. Well, she fooled me all right. She drilled a couple of machines after I’d classed her as okay. She’d been milkin’ them for a couple of days, and then she and this boy friend of hers showed up for the big clean-up tonight. They were going co cup ’em dry. And if it hadn’t been for you winning that big jackpot on the machine that was rollered off, I’d have had ’em.”
“Where you from?”
“N’Orleans originally. I came here from San Francisco. I looked over the machines, and seen about half of ’em was drilled. I went up to Harvey Breckenridge and told him he was a sucker, that they was milking him dry. So after I’d talked with him awhile, and showed him the machines, he give me the job of taking charge of the joint. I told him I knew all the mobs that was working the machines. And I did, too. I didn’t know Sid Jannix had gone into the machine racket, and this jane is a new one. But all the regulars I know. You understand they ain’t so bad here in Las Vegas as they are in California.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s illegal in other states. Here in Las Vegas it’s legal.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”