able t' roll 'em."

It was the coroner himself who handed Casey a "tailor-made." Casey
nodded glumly, accepted a match and lighted the cigarette almost as if
he were sober. He looked the group over noncommittally, eyed again the
handcuffs on Mart and Joe, sent a veiled glance toward Barney Oakes and
turned away. He still held the center of the stage. Fully expecting
to find him dead, the sheriff and his men were slow to adjust
themselves to the fact that he was very much alive and very drunk and
apparently not greatly interested in his rescue.

Casey halted in his unsteady progress toward the dugout. The sheriff
was already questioning his two prisoners about other members of the
gang; but he looked up when Casey lifted up his voice and spoke his
mind of the moment.

"Brung a cor'ner, did yuh, lookin' for some one to set on! Barney Oakes
is the man that'll need a cor'ner in a minute. You're all goin' to need
'im. Casey Ryan never stood around yit whilst his friends was hobbled
up by a shurf--turn 'em loose an' turn 'em loose quick! An' git back
away from Barney Oakes so he won't drop on yuh in chunks--I'll fix 'im
for yuh to set on!"

His hand had gone up to his cigarette, but only Joe knew what was
likely to follow. Joe gave a yell of warning, ducked and ran straight
away from the group. The sheriff yelled also and gave chase. The
group was broken--luckily--just as Casey heaved something in that
direction.

"I blowed up a jackass yesterday when they thought I couldn't--I'll
blow up a bunch of 'em to-day! Yuh c'n set on what's left uh Barney
Oakes!"

The explosion scattered dirt and small stones--and the sheriff's posse.
Casey sent one malevolent glance over his shoulder as he stumbled into
the dugout.

"Missed 'im!" he grumbled disgustedly to himself when he saw no
fragments of Barney falling. His ferociousness, like the dynamite,
annihilated itself with the explosion. "Missed 'im! Casey Ryan's
gittin' old; old an' sick an' a damn' fool. Missed 'im with the last
shot--drunk--drunk an' don't give a darn!"

He slammed the door shut behind him, pushed his hat forward so
violently that it rested on the bridge of his nose, and wabbled over to
his bunk. This time his foot found the edge of the lower bunk, and he
scratched and clawed his way up and rolled in upon the blankets.

He was asleep and snoring when the sheriff, edging his way in as if he
were an animal trainer's apprentice entering the lion