"All right--I'm the goat," he surrendered and sat down again on his canvas-covered bed.-He did not immediately crawl between the blankets, however, because interesting things were happening over at Jim Cassidy's car.
Casey watched Jim Cassidy go picking his way amongst the tree roots and camp litter, his back straightened under the load of hootch he was carrying to Smiling Lou's car.-With Jim Cassidy also, Smiling Lou was crisply official.-When the last of the hootch had been transferred, Casey heard Smiling Lou tell Jim Cassidy to drive in to headquarters after breakfast next morning--but he did not see Smiling Lou wink when he said it.
After that, Smiling Lou started his motor and drove slowly up through the grove, halting to scan each car as he passed.-He swung out through the upper driveway, turned sharply there and came back down the highway speeding up on the downhill grade to San Bernardino.
Jim Cassidy came furtively over and settle down for a whispered conference on Casey's bed.
"How much did he get off'n YOU?" he asked inquisitively.-"Did he clean yuh out?"
"Clean as a last year's bone in a kioty den," Casey declared, hiding his satisfaction as best he could.-"Never got my roll though."
"He wouldn't--not with you workin' on the inside.-Guess it must be kinda touchy around here right now.-New officers, mebby. He wouldn't a' cleaned us out if we'd a' been safe.-He never came into camp before--not when I've been here.-Made that same play to you, didn't he--about givin' yourself up in the morning?-Uh course yuh know what that means--DON'T!"
"He shore is foxy, all right," Casey commented with absolute sincerity.-"You can ask anybody if he didn't pull it off like the pleasure was all his'n.-No L. A. traffic cop ever pinched me an I looked like he enjoyed it more."
"Oh, Lou's cute, all right.-They don't any of 'em put anything over on Lou.-You must be new at the business, ain't yuh?"
"Second trip," Casey informed him with an air of importance-- which he really felt, by the way.-"What Casey's studyin' on now, is the next move.-No use hangin' around here empty.-What do YOU figger on doin'?"
"Well, Lou didn't give no tip--not to me, anyway.-So I guess it'll be safe to drive on in to the city and load up again.-I got a feller with me--he caught a ride in to San Berdoo; left just before you drove in.-Know where to go in the city?-'Cause I can ride in with you, an' let him foller."
"That'll suit me fine," Casey declared.-And so they left it for the time being, and Cassidy went back to bed.
A great load had dropped from Casey's shoulders, and he was asleep before Jim Cassidy had ceased to turn restlessly in his blankets. Getting the White Mule out of his car and into the car of Smiling Lou had been the task which Nolan had set for him.
What was to happen thereafter Casey could only guess, for Nolan had not told him. And such was the Casey Ryan nature that he made no attempt to solve the problems which Mack Nolan had calmly reserved for himself.
He did not dream, for instance, that Mack Nolan had watched him load the stuff into Smiling Lou's car.-He did know that an unobtrusive Cadillac roadster was parked at the next campfire.
It had come in half an hour behind him, but the driver had not made any move toward camping until after dark.-Casey had glanced his way when the car was parked and the driver got out and began fussing around the car, but he had not been struck with any sense of familiarity in the figure.
There was no reason why he should.-Thousands and thousands of men are of Mack Nolan's height and general build.-This man looked like a doctor or a dentist perhaps.-Beyond the matter of size, similarity to Mack Nolan ceased.-The Cadillac man wore a vandyke beard and colored glasses, and a panama and light gray business suit.-Casey set him down in his mental catalog as "some town feller" and assumed that they had nothing in common.
Yet Mack Nolan heard nearly every word spoken by Smiling Lou, Casey and Jim Cassidy.-(Readers are so inquisitive about these things that I felt I ought to tell you--else you'll be worrying as hard as Casey Ryan did later on.-I'm soft-hearted, myself; I never like to worry a reader more than is absolutely necessary.
So I'm letting you in, hoping you'll get an added kick out of Casey's further maneuvers).
The Cadillac car, I should explain, was only one of Mack Nolan's little secrets.-There is a very good garage at Goffs, not many miles from Juniper Wells.-A matter of an hour's driving was sufficient at any time for Mack Nolan to make the exchange. And no man at Goffs would think it very strange that the owner of a Cadillac should prefer to drive a Ford over rough, desert trails to his prospect in the mountains.-Mack Nolan, as I have told you before, had a way with him.
