The Trail of the White Mule

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "So that's the kind uh game yuh asked me to set in on!" Casey brokeanother long silence. He had felt in his bones that young Kenner waswatching him secretly, waiting for him to take his stand for or againstthe proposition.

  "I'd like to know who passed the word around amongst outlaws that CaseyRyan is the only original easy mark left runnin' wild, an' that he canbe caught an' made a goat of any time it's handy! Look at the crowd offolks bunched on that crossing this afternoon! Why didn't yuh pick someone else for the goat? Outa all them hundreds uh people, why'n helldid yuh have to go an' pick on Casey Ryan? Ain't he had trouble enoughtryin' to keep outa trouble?

  "Naw! Casey Ryan's went an' blowed hisself to show tickets, an' he'sheaded home, peaceful an' on time, so's he can shave an' put on a cleancollar an' slick up to please his wife an' take 'er to the show!Nothin' agin the law in that! Not a damn' thing yuh can haul 'im tojail fer! So YOU had to come along, loaded to the guards withhootch--stall your Ford on the car track right under m' nose, an' tellCasey Ryan to git in! Couldn't leave 'im to go home peaceful to 'iswife--naw! You had t' haul 'im away out here an' git 'im in wrong witha cop agin! That's a fine game you're playin'! That's a DARNED finegame!"

  "Sure, it is! It's better than the game you've been playing," youngKenner stated calmly. "Take your own story, for instance. You've beendubbin' along, tryin' t' play the way the law tells you to. An' thesaps has been flockin' to yuh like a bunch uh hornets--every birdtryin' t' sink his stinger in first. Ain't that right?

  "Keepin' the law has laid yuh in jail twice in the last month, by yourown tell. Why, a clown like you, that's aimin' t' keep the law an'live honest, is the easiest mark in the world. Them's the guys that dothe most harm--they make graftin' so darned easy! Them's the guys thesaps lay for and dust off regular in the shape of fines an' taxes an'the like uh that. Oncet in awhile they'll snatch yuh fer somethin' yuhnever done at all an' lay yuh away fer a day or two, just t' keep yuhscared and easy t' handle next time.

  "Now, yuh take me, fer instance. I play agin' the law--an' I'mcleanin' up right along, and have yet to take my morning sunlight instreaks. I know as much about the inside of a jail as I know about theWhite House--an' no more. I've hauled hootch all over the country, an'I never yet was dusted off so hard by the law that I didn't comethrough with a roll uh jack they'd overlooked.

  "Take this highjackin' to-night, for instance. Look what Smilin' Loutook off'n me! And yet," Kenner turned and grinned impudently atCasey, "don't never think I didn't come out a long jump ahead! I carrynothin' cheap; nothin' but good whisky an' brandy that the liquorhouses failed to declare when the world went dry. Then there's real,honest-to-gosh European stuff run in from Mexico; now you're in, Casey,I'll tell yuh the snap. When I said easy money, I was in my right mind.

  "You can count on highjackers leavin' yuh half your load; mebby alittle more, if yuh set purty. They don't aim t' force yuh out uh thebusiness. They grab what the traffic'll bear, an' let yuh go on anmake a profit so you'll stay.

  "Now there's a card you can slip up your sleeve for this game. Yuh loadin the best stuff first--see? Anything real special you wanta put inkegs with double sides an' ends which you fill with moonshine. Yuhnever can tell--they might wanta sample it. Smilin' Lou did once--an'you notice to-night he left the kegs be. So they get a good grade ofwhisky from the liquor houses. And they pass up the best, importedstuff that can be got to-day. We'll have regular customers for that;and you can gamble they'll pay the price!" He laughed at some secretjoke which he straightway shared with Casey.

  "You noticed I got my gas-tank behind--a twenty-gallon tank at that.Well, what if I tell yuh that right under this front seat there's afalse bottom to the tool-box and under that--well, suppose you'resettin' on forty pints uh French champagne? More'n all that, thiscushion we're settin' on has got a concealed pocket down bothsides--for hop. So yuh see, Casey, a man can make an honest livin' atthis game, even if he's highjacked every trip. Now you're in, I canshow yuh all kinds uh tricks."

  The muscles, along Casey's jaw had hardened until they looked bunched.His eyes, fixed upon the winding trail in front of him, were a pale,unwinking glitter.

  "Who says I'm in? Yuh ain't heard Casey Ryan say it yet, have yuh? Yuhbetter wait till Casey says he's in b'fore yuh bank on 'im too strong.Casey may be an easy mark--he may be the officious goat pro tem ofevery darn' bootlegger an' moonshiner an' every darn' cop that crosseshis trail; but you can ask anybody if Casey Ryan don't do 'is owndecidin'!

  "Before you go any further, young feller, I'll tell yuh just how furCasey's in your game--an' that's as fur as Barstow. When Casey sayshe'll do a thing he comes purty near doin' it. I ain't playin' nobootleg game, young feller; White Mule an' me ain't an' never was trailpardners. Make me choose between bootleggers an' cops, an' I'd have toflip a dollar on it. Only fer Bill Masters bein' your friend, I dunnobut what I'd take yuh right back with me t' L. A. an' let yuh sleep ina jail oncet--seein' you've never had the pleasure!"

  The young man laughed imperturbably. "Flip that dollar for me, Casey,to see whether I shoot yuh now an' dump yuh out in the brushsomewheres, or make yuh play the hootch game an' like it. Why, youdidn't think for one minute, did yuh, that I was takin' any chance withyou? Not a chance in the world! Go squeal to the law--an' what wouldit get yuh?

  "You was drivin' this car yourself when Smilin' Lou stopped us,recollect. He had yuh placed as one of that Black Butte gang quick ashe lamped yuh. Yuh think Smilin' Lou is goin' to take a chance? Youwas caught with the goods t'night, old-timer, an' it's the second timeinside 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 runouta L. A., right this week. You set still a minute and figure outabout how many years they'd give yuh!

  "How come Smilin' Lou overlooked cleanin' yuh of your roll when he tookmine, do yuh think? He was treatin' yuh white, an' givin' yuh a chanceto come back strong next time--that's why. They got so much on yuh nowafter to-night, that he knows you got just one chance to sidestep astretch in the pen. That's to play the game with pertection. Smilin'Lou never to my knowledge throwed down a guy that come through ondemand.

  "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 anywherein 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' youto haul out your poke an' look around fer the gold scales. Why, youcould git by where a town guy couldn't. You've got a rep a mile long asa fightin', squareshootin' Irishman that's a drivin' fool an' knows thedesert 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 wouldever 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 sapsharder'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 realjack together. Minin' ain't in it, no more, with hootch runnin'--ifyuh 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 withyuh," gritted Casey savagely, shutting off the gas. "Bill Masters canlike 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 cantake your load uh hootch an' go tahell! I'll hoof it down here to thenext station on the railroad an' ketch a ride back to L. A."

  Kenner laughed. "An' what would I be doin', you poor nut? Set heremeek till yuh tell me to git out an' take a lickin'? Yuh feel that gunproddin' yuh in the ribs, don't yuh? I can't help wonderin' how yourwife would feel towards you if you was found with a hole drilledthrough
your middle, an' a carload uh booze. That'd jar the faith ofthe most believin' woman on earth. You take this cut-off road up herean' drive till I tell yuh t' stop. As you may know, a man can't bechickenhearted and peddle hootch--an' I'm called an expert. So youthink that over, Casey--an' drive purty, see?"

  Casey drove as "purty" as was possible with a six-shooter pressedirritatingly against his lowest floating rib; but he did not dwell uponthe spectacle of himself found dead with a carload of booze. He wishedto 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 darknesswith his head slightly bent and his eyes, so far as Casey coulddetermine, fixed steadily on the uneven trail where the headlightsrevealed every rut, every stone, every chuck-hole. But Casey was notdeceived by that quiescence. The revolver barrel never once ceased itspressure against his side, and he knew that young Kenner never for aninstant forgot that he was riding with Casey Ryan at the wheel, waitingfor a chance to kill him.

  By daylight, such was Casey's driving, they were well down the highwaywhich leads to Needles and on through Arizona. Casey was just thinkingthat they would soon run out of gas, and that he would then have afighting chance, when he was startled almost into believing that he hadspoken his plan.

  "I told you there's a twenty-gallon tank on this car; well, it holdstwenty-five. I've got a special carburetor that gives an actualmileage of twenty-two miles to the gallon on ordinary desert roads. Ifilled 'er till she run over at Victorville--and I notice you're easyon the gas with your drivin'. Figure it yourself, Casey, and don't becountin' on a stop till I'm ready t' stop."

  Casey grunted, more crestfallen than he would ever admit. But he hadn'tgiven up; the give-up quality had been completely forgotten whenCasey's personality was being put together. He drove on, around therubbly base of a blackened volcano long since cold and bleak, and boredhis way through the sandy stretch that leads through Patmos.

  Patmos was a place of unhappy memories, but he drove through the littlehamlet so fast that he scarcely thought of his unpleasant sojourn therethe summer before. Young Kenner had fallen silent again and they drovethe sixty miles or so to Goffs with not a word spoken between them.

  Casey spent most of that time in mentally cursing the Ford for itsefficiency. He had prayed for blowouts, a fouled timer, for somethingor anything or everything to happen that could possibly befall a Ford.He couldn't even make the radiator boil. Worst and most persistent ofhis discomforts was the hard pressure of that six-shooter against hisside. Casey was positive that the imprint of it would be worn as apermanent brand upon his person for the rest of his life. YoungKenner's voice speaking to him came so abruptly that Casey jumped.

  "I've been thinking over your case," Kenner said cheerfully. "Stopright here while we talk it over."

  Casey stopped right there.

  "I've changed my mind about havin' you for a pardner," young Kennerwent on. "You'd be a valuable man all right; but when a harp like yougets stubborn-bitter, my hunch tells me to break away clean. You're amick--an' micks is all alike when they git a grudge. I can't bebothered keepin' yuh under my eye all the time, and the way I've feltyuh oozin' venom all this while shows me I'd have to. An' bumpin' yuhoff would be neither pleasant ner safe.

  "Now, the way I've doped this out, I'm goin' to sell yuh the outfitfer just what jack yuh got in your clothes. Fork it over, an' I'llgive yuh the layout just as she stands."

  "Yuh better wait till Casey says he wants t' buy!" Swallowingresentment all night had made his voice husky; and it was bitter indeedto sit still and hear himself called a harp and a mick.

  "Why wait? Hand over the roll, and that closes the deal. I didn't askyuh would yuh buy--I'm givin' yuh somethin' fer your money, is all. Icould take it off yuh after yuh quit kickin' and drive your remains into this little burg, with a tale of how I'd caught a bootlegger thatresisted arrest. So fork over the jack, old-timer. I want to catchthat train over there that's about ready to pull out." He proddedsharply with the gun, and Casey heard a click which needed noexplanation.

  Casey fumbled for a minute inside his vest and glumly "forked over."Young Kenner inspected the folded bank notes, smiled and slipped theflat bundle inside his shirt.

  "You're stronger on the bank roll than what yuh let on," he remarkedcontentedly. "I don't stand to lose so much, after all. Sixteenhundred, I make it. What's in your pants pockets?"

  Casey, still balefully silent, emptied first one pocket and then theother into Kenner's cupped palm. With heavy sarcasm he felt in hiswatch pocket and produced a nickel slipped there after payingstreet-car fare. He held it out to young Kenner between his finger andthumb, still gazing straight before him.

  Young Kenner took it and grinned. "Oh, well--you're rich! Drive onnow, and when you get about even with that caboose, slow to twelvemiles whilst I hop off; and then hit 'er up again an' keep 'er goin'.If yuh don't, I'll grab yuh fer a bootlegger, sure. And I'd have thehull train crew to help me wrassle yuh down. They'd be willin' tosample the evidence, I guess, an' be witnesses against yuh. An' bearin mind, Casey, that yuh got a darned good Ford and all its valuablecontents for sixteen hundred and some odd bucks. If you meet up withthe law, you can treat 'em white an' still break even on the deal yuhjust consummated with me."

  "Like hell I consummated the deal!" Casey was goaded into muttering.

  He drove abreast of the caboose, and at a final prod in the ribs Caseyslowed down. Young Kenner dropped off the running board, alightedrunning with his body slanted backwards and his lips smilingfriendly-wise.

  "Don't take any bad money--an' don't let 'em catch yuh!" he criedmockingly, as he headed for the caboose.

  At a crossing, two miles farther on, Casey came larruping out of thesand hills and was forced to wait while the freight train went rattlingpast, headed east on a downhill grade.

  Young Kenner, up in the cupola, leaned far out and waved his hat as thecaboose flicked by.