"You was drivin' this car yourself when Smilin' Lou stopped us, recollect.-He had yuh placed as one of that Black Butte gang quick as he lamped yuh.-Yuh think Smilin' Lou is goin' to take a chance? You was caught with the goods t'night, old-timer, an' it's the second time inside a month.-It'd be the third time you an' the law has tangled.-Why, you set there yourself an' told me how you was practically run outa L. A., right this week.-You set still a minute and figure out about how many years they'd give yuh!
"How come Smilin' Lou overlooked cleanin' yuh of your roll when he took mine, do yuh think?-He was treatin' yuh white, an' givin' yuh a chance to come back strong next time--that's why.
They got so much on yuh now after to-night, that he knows you got just one chance to sidestep a stretch in the pen.-That's to play the game with pertection.-Smilin' Lou never to my knowledge throwed down a guy that come through on demand.
"Smilin' Lou stood there an' sized yuh up about the same as I did, somethin' like this: 'Here Is Casey Ryan--a clown that's safe anywhere in the desert States.-He got honest prospector wrote all over 'im.-Why, if you boarded a street car the conductor would be guessin', wild-eyed, how much gold dust it takes to make a nickel, expectin' you to haul out your poke an' look around fer the gold scales.-Why, you could git by where a town guy couldn't. You've got a rep a mile long as a fightin', squareshootin' Irishman that's a drivin' fool an' knows the desert like he knows ham-an'-eggs. Tie on some picks an' shovels an' put you behind the wheel, and only the guys that are in the know would ever get wise in a thousand years.
"Why, look what he said about you havin' 'em all bluffed in San Berdoo! Grabbed you with a bunch uh moonshiners, and you fightin' the saps harder'n any of 'em--and then, by heck, you slips the noose an' leaves 'em thinkin' you're honest but unlucky.
"So you 'n' me is pardners till I say when.-We'll clean up some real jack together.-Minin' ain't in it, no more, with hootch runnin'--if yuh play it right.-The good old White Mule goes under the wire, old-timer, an' takes the money.-Burros is extinct."
"Burros ain't any extincter than what you'll be when I git through with yuh," gritted Casey savagely, shutting off the gas.
"Bill Masters can like it or not--I'm goin' to lick the livin' tar outa you here an' now.-When I'm through with yuh, if you're able to wiggle the wheel, yuh can take your load uh hootch an' go tahell! I'll hoof it down here to the next station on the railroad an' ketch a ride back to L. A."
Kenner laughed.-"An' what would I be doin', you poor nut?-Set here meek till yuh tell me to git out an' take a lickin'?-Yuh feel that gun proddin' yuh in the ribs, don't yuh?-I can't help wonderin' how your wife would feel towards you if you was found with a hole drilled through your middle, an' a carload uh booze.
That'd jar the faith of the most believin' woman on earth.-You take this cut-off road up here an' drive till I tell yuh t' stop.
As you may know, a man can't be chickenhearted and peddle hootch--an' I'm called an expert.-So you think that over, Casey--an' drive purty, see?"
Casey drove as "purty" as was possible with a six-shooter pressed irritatingly against his lowest floating rib; but he did not dwell upon the spectacle of himself found dead with a carload of booze. He wished to heaven he hadn't let the Little Woman talk him out of packing a gun, and waited for his chance.
Young Kenner was thoughtful, brooding through the hours of darkness with his head slightly bent and his eyes, so far as Casey could determine, fixed steadily on the uneven trail where the headlights revealed every rut, every stone, every chuck-hole.
But Casey was not deceived by that quiescence.-The revolver barrel never once ceased its pressure against his side, and he knew that young Kenner never for an instant forgot that he was riding with Casey Ryan at the wheel, waiting for a chance to kill him.
By daylight, such was Casey's driving, they were well down the highway which leads to Needles and on through Arizona. Casey was just thinking that they would soon run out of gas, and that he would then have a fighting chance, when he was startled almost into believing that he had spoken his plan.