into your
system."

Mack Nolan's gray eyes were still watching Casey with a steadfastness
that was disconcerting to a man in Casey's dilemma.

"It might help us both considerably," he said quietly, "if you told me
all about it. You can't cache that booze you've got in the car--I
won't let you, for one thing; for another, that would be merely dodging
the issue, and if you'll forgive my frankness, dodging doesn't seem to
be quite in your line."

Casey puffed hard on his pipe. "The world's gittin' so darned full uh
crooks, a man can't turn around now'days without bumpin' into a few!"
he exploded bitterly. "What kind uh hold-up game YOU playin', Mr.
Nolan? If that's your name," he added fiercely.

Mack Nolan laughed to himself and rubbed the ash from his cigarette
against the sole of his shoe. "Why," he answered genially, "my game is
holding up bootleggers--and crooked cops. Speaking off-hand (which I
don't often do) I should say you have a fine chance to sit in with me.
I'm just guessing, now," he added dryly, "but I'm tolerably good at
guessing; a man's got to be, these days."

"A man's got to do better than guess--with Casey Ryan," Casey remarked
ominously. "The last man that guessed Casey Ryan, guessed 'im plumb
wrong."

"Meaning that you'd refuse to help me round up bootleggers and the
officers that protect them?" A steel edge crept into Mack Nolan's
voice. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his eyes boring
into Casey's mind.

"Man, don't stall with me! You've got brains enough to know that if I
were a crook I'd have held you up long before now. You gave me three
splendid opportunities to stick a gun in your back--and I could have
made others. And," he added with a smile, "if I had thought that you
were a bootlegger or a crook of any other kind, I'd have had you in Las
Vegas jail by this time. You're no more a crook than I am. You've got
neither the looks nor the actions of a slicker. I may say I know you
pretty well--"

Casey thrust out a pugnacious chin. "Say! D' you know Bill Masters,
too? That's all I wanta know!"

"Bill Masters? Why, is he the fellow who stepped out from under this
load of hootch? If he is, he must have picked himself a new name; I
never heard it."

Casey glared suspiciously for twenty seconds before he settled back
glumly into his mental corner.

"Ryan, I've been all day sizing you up. I'm going to be perfectly
honest with you and tell you why I thin