Casey Ryan

n extra horn which he happened to have in stock. One of those terrific things that go far toward making the life of a pedestrian a nerve-racking succession of startles. Casey tri

ossing the street in a hurry and a stiff breeze. Bill came down on the metal plunger

t here and show me how yuh work the damn thing. Guess she'll hold six Bohunks, won't she-with

rom Lund to Pinnacle. He had driven it himself, with a conscious sigh of relief when he had safely negotiated the last hair-pin

you mind gettin' out insurance on this auty-mo-bile. What you wanta

on both sides by cliffs, and proceeded to give Casey a lesson in driving. Casey did not think that he needed to be taught how

escapes. "And the man that made 'er sure oughta known better than to make 'er neck rein in harness. And I don't like this

ter 'phone up to Pinnacle that Casey's on the road-and tell 'em he

ic backers had a right to expect- for there were bets laid on the outcome there in Pinnacle-on the brow of the hill a swirl of red dust grew rapidly to a cloud. Like a desert whirlwind it s

ustomed to that method and on the lookout for it. Horses have a way of stiffening their forelegs and sliding their hind feet and giving a lot of dramatic finish to the performance. But there is no dramatic sense at all in the tin brain of a Ford. It just stopped. And the insecure fourth Bohunk in the tonneau went hurtling

'are! I gotta deliver yuh up

a shrill voice rose be-seechingly in English. "We will walk, meester'. If

He reached for his stage whip, and missing it used his ready Irish fists. So the Bohunks

ride, they're goin' to ride till the

er until the motor howled, turned in the shortest possible radius and went lunging up the croo

ey Ryan and his new Ford? He had? By golly, he sure had nerve. One man passed the peak for sheer bravery and rode twice

rgued that he was also a safe driver, and that they had no business to make such a fuss over riding with him. Didn't he ride after his own driving every

down the road fast as any man in the country, why don'

who secretly timed their traveling so that they would not see Casey Ryan at all, and I

ns-and stop in twice the car's length without scouring more rubber off your tires than a capacity load of passengers will pay for. Besides, you run short of passengers if you persist in doing it. Even the strangers who came in on the Salt Lake line were quite likely to look once at the cute

was less, though I wan

and standing bow-legge

garage

little. "I guess mebby I oughta take two or three-but I'm a little shor

r two while he led Case

t in from

a fool if he didn't grab any easy money like that. And so I pounded 'er on the tail, coming down. And I had eight minutes peeled off my best time, and then Jim Black he had to go git in the road on that last turn up there. We rammed our noses together an

on. Casey did not mind repair bills, so long as he achieved the speed he wanted. But he did mind not being able to pay the repair bills when they were presented to him. Whatever else were his faults,

their backs, could not go back to driving horses. The speed fiend of progress had him by the neck. Horses were too slow for Casey. Moreover, when he began to think about it, he knew that the thirty-mile stretch between Pinnacle and Lund had become too tame for him, too monotonous. He knew in the dark every twist in the road, every sharp turn, and he could tell you offhand what every sharp turn had cost him in the

A gold mine, or perhaps silver or copper,-what matter which mineral he found, so long as it spelled wealth for him? Then he would buy a bigger car and a faster car, and he would bore farther and farther into yonder. In his past were tucked away months on end of tramping across deserts and up mountain defiles with

les. I'll git me a radiator that don't boil like a teakettle over a pitch fire, and load up with water and grub and gas, and I'll find the Injun Jim mine, mebby. Or some other darn

g and deep and planned trips they had refrained from taking heretofore, and wished Casey luck. Bill Masters laid

r a day or two, Casey, and let me show yuh a few things about that car. If you bust down on the desert you'l

had to go lookin' for

need to lea

that burned out and had to be replaced, a transmission that absolutely must have grease or something happened, bearings that were prone to burn out if they went dry of oil, and a multitude of other mishaps that could happen and did happen if one did not watch out, would have filled Casey with foreboding if that were possible. Being an optimist to the middle of his bones, he merely felt

and a load uh tires and patches, and Casey'll come back and hand yuh a diamond big as your fist, some day. Ole Lady Trouble's always tryin' to take a fall outa me, but she's never got me down so't I had to holler 'nough. You ask anybody. Casey Ryan's goin' out to see what he can see. If he meets up with Miss Fortun

monkey wrench could not mend, Casey sat down on the shadiest running board and conned the Instruction Book which Bill ha