ping ground where people know you. If you're careful
in picking your men, you could locate some hootch, couldn't you,
without attracting attention?"

Casey studied the matter. "Bill Masters could mebby help me out," he
said finally. "Only I don't like the friends Bill's been wishin' onto
me lately. This man Kenner, that held me up, knowed Bill Masters
intimate. I'm kinda losin' my taste fer Bill lately."

Mack Nolan seized upon the clue avidly. Before Casey quite realized
what he had done, he found himself hustled away from camp in Mack
Nolan's car, headed for Lund in the service of his government. Since
young Kenner had been able to talk so intimately of Bill Masters, Mack
Nolan argued that Bill Masters should likewise be able to give some
useful information concerning young Kenner. Moreover, a man in Bill
Masters' position would probably know at least a few of the hidden
trails of the White Mule near Lund.

"If you can bring back a load of moonshine Ryan, by all means do so,"
Nolan instructed Casey at the last moment. "Here's money to buy it
with. We should have enough to make a good haul for Smiling Lou.
Twenty gallons at least--forty, if you can get them. Keep your weather
eye open, and whatever happens, don't mention my name or say that you
are working with the law. In five days, if you are not here, I shall
drive to Las Vegas. Get word to me there if anything goes wrong. Just
write or wire to General Delivery. But I look for you back, Ryan, not
later than Friday midnight. Take no unnecessary risk; this is more
important than you know."

Nolan's crisp tone of authority remained with Casey mile upon mile. And
such was the Casey Ryan driving that midnight found him coasting into
Bill Masters' garage in Lund with the motor shut off and a grin on the
Casey Ryan face.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mack Nolan had just crawled into his bunk on Wednesday night when he
thought he heard a car laboring up the gulch. He sat up in bed to
listen and then got hurriedly into his clothes. He was standing just
around the corner of the dugout where the headlights could not reach
him, when Casey killed the engine and stopped before the door. Steam
was rising in a small cloud from the radiator cap, and the sound of
boiling water was distinctly audible some distance away.

Mack Nolan waited until Casey had climbed out from behind the wheel and
headed for the door. Then he stepped out and hailed him. Casey
started percep