and hear himself called a harp and a mick.

"Why wait? Hand over the roll, and that closes the deal. I didn't ask
yuh would yuh buy--I'm givin' yuh somethin' fer your money, is all. I
could take it off yuh after yuh quit kickin' and drive your remains in
to this little burg, with a tale of how I'd caught a bootlegger that
resisted arrest. So fork over the jack, old-timer. I want to catch
that train over there that's about ready to pull out." He prodded
sharply with the gun, and Casey heard a click which needed no
explanation.

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

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

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

Young Kenner took it and grinned. "Oh, well--you're rich! Drive on
now, and when you get about even with that caboose, slow to twelve
miles 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 the
hull train crew to help me wrassle yuh down. They'd be willin' to
sample the evidence, I guess, an' be witnesses against yuh. An' bear
in mind, Casey, that yuh got a darned good Ford and all its valuable
contents for sixteen hundred and some odd bucks. If you meet up with
the law, you can treat 'em white an' still break even on the deal yuh
just 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 Casey
slowed down. Young Kenner dropped off the running board, alighted
running with his body slanted backwards and his lips smiling
friendly-wise.

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

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

Young Kenner, up in th