l revulsion against the city and
all its ways.

Pasadena, Lamanda Park, Monrovia--it was not until the car slowed for
the Glendora speed-limit sign that Casey lifted himself off his
shoulder blades, and awoke to the fact that he was some distance from
home and that the shadows were growing rather long.

"Say! I better get out here and 'phone to the missus," he exclaimed
suddenly. "Pull up at a drug store or some place, will yuh? I got to
talkin' an' forgot I was on my way home when I throwed in with yuh."

"Aw, you can 'phone any time. There is street cars running back to
town all the time I or you can catch a bus anywhere's along here. I got
pinched once for drivin' through here without a tail-light; and twice
I've had blowouts right along here. This town's a jinx for me and I
want to slip it behind me."

Casey nodded appreciatively. "Every darn' town's a jinx for me," he
confided resentfully. "Towns an' Casey Ryan don't agree. Towns is
harder on me than sour beans."

"Yeah--I guess L. A.'s a jinx for you all right. I heard about your
latest run-in with the cops. I wish t' heck you'd of cleaned up a few
for me. I love them saps the way I like rat poison. I've got no use
for the clowns nor for towns that actually hands 'em good jack for
dealin' misery to us guys. The bird never lived that got a square deal
from 'em. They grab yuh and dust yuh off--"

"They won't grab Casey Ryan no more. Why, lemme tell yuh what they
done!"

Glendora slipped behind and was forgotten while Casey told the story of
his wrongs. In no particular, according to his version, had he been
other than law-abiding. Nobody, he declaimed heatedly, had ever taken
HIM by the scruff of the neck and shaken him like a pup, and got away
with it, and nobody ever would. Casey was Irish and his father had been
Irish, and the Ryan never lived that took sass and said thank-yuh.

His new friend listened with just that degree of sympathy which
encourages the unburdening of the soul. When Casey next awoke to the
fact that he was getting farther and farther away from home, they were
away past Claremont and still going to the full extent of the speed
limit. His friend had switched on the lights.

"I GOT to telephone my wife!" Casey exclaimed uneasily. "I'll gamble
she's down to the police station right now, lookin' for me. An' I want
the cops t' kinda forgit about me. I got to talkin' along an' plumb
forgot I wasn't headed home."

"Aw,