"I would daisy-chain some if statements together if I thought they would work."
Stated.
So, again, what CAN we do to accomplish the same thing as what I was attempting to convey?  Perhaps replacing the () with Null?
But how do I get it to return after setting the nonce to a W[3] value?  THAT'S the problem I'm trying to solve.  I suppose a series of #elif statements would do it.  If none are satisfied, then no nonce would be written.  Then, I just check for an existing one and the rest is finished.  Now, what I COULD do is skip nonce all together and output the nonce directly to the miner.  This way, we don't have to worry about any more instructions, statements or variables.
We get to the result as quickly as possible and cut all the crap in between.  This solves the problem of multiple nonce being wasted and cycles being lost.  Anyone for this approach instead?     Again, inspired by Diapolo code.