asey tells you a thing like that, yuh got a right to put it down for
the truth. I'm going to Barstow for a breath uh fresh air. This is a
feller that knows Bill Masters. I'll be home to breakfast. I ain't in
no trouble an' I ain't goin' to be. You can believe that or you can set
there callin' Casey Ryan a liar till I git back. G'by."

Whatever the Little Woman thought of it, Casey really meant to do
exactly what he said he would do. And he really did not believe that
trouble was within a hundred miles of him.

CHAPTER TEN

"Wanta drive?" Casey's friend was rolling a smoke before he cranked
up. "They tell me up in Lund that no man livin' ever got the chance to
look back and see Casey Ryan swallowing dust. I've heard of some
that's tried. But I reckon," he added pensively, while he rubbed the
damp edge of the paper down carefully with a yellowed thumb, "Fords is
out of your line, now. Maybe you don't toy with nothin' cheaper than a
twin-six."

"Well, you can ask anybody if Casey Ryan's the man to git big-headed!
Money don't spoil ME none. There ain't anybody c'n say it does. Casey
Ryan is Casey Ryan wherever an' whenever yuh meet up with him. Yuh
might mebby see me next, hazin' a burro over a ridge. Or yuh might see
me with ten pounds uh flour, a quart uh beans an' a sour-dough bucket
on my back. Whichever way the game breaks--you'll be seein' Casey
Ryan; an' you'll see 'im settin' in the game an' ready t' push his last
white chip to the center."

"I believe it, Casey. Darned if I don't. Well, you drive 'er awhile;
till yuh get tired, anyway." He bent to the crank, gave a heave and
climbed in, with Casey behind the wheel, looking pleased to be there
and quite ready to show the world he could drive.

"Say, if I drive till I'm TIRED," he retorted, "I'm liable to soak 'er
hubs in the Atlantic Ocean before I quit. And then, mebby I'll back
'er out an' drive 'er to the end of Venice Pier just for pastime."

"Up in Lund they're talkin' yet about your drivin'," his new friend
flattered him. "They say there's no stops when you get the wheel
cuddled up to your chest. No quittin' an' no passin' yuh by with a
merry laugh an' a cloud of alkali dust. I guess it's right. I've been
wantin' to meet yuh."

"That there last remark sounds like a traffic cop I had a run-in with
once!" Casey snorted--merely to hide his gratification. "You sound
good, just to listen to, but you ain't altogether believable. There