have been quite the same for me afterwards if I had. It would have cost me my self-respect even more than getting out of the country would; and when a man of my stamp loses his self-respect there ain't much left of him but his clothes.
So here I was, forbidden to hunt Chu-Chu under pain of being exterminated by Ivan's rat-terriers, and Chu-Chu free to slip a knife into me the first chance he got! It was a pretty exasperating state of affairs, and the more I thought it over the less good I was able to see in it—until suddenly I had an inspiration.
In the very beginning of my feud with Chu-Chu I had asked Ivan if he had any objection to my killing him, and Ivan had answered "No." He had told me that, so long as I did not furnish any information which might be dangerous to the mob, I could go ahead; and he had even given me a tip as to Chu-Chu's familiar. At that time Ivan had decided to break off all relations with Chu-Chu. Since then, however, he had come to need him again, and, as a result, he had now forbidden me to interfere.
When I had given Ivan my promise not to furnish information to the police it had been with the understanding that he was not to interfere with my feud with Chu-Chu. And now he had done it—and his doing so let me out. Mind you, the last thing in my mind was to turn State's evidence and actually lay information against the mob. That's a thing I've always despised; and besides, there were too many old, extraditable accounts against me to make such a move healthy. As the girl said
