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

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.

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

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.