Casey Ryan

uck at their pipes and cackle reminiscently while they tell you of Casey's tumultuous youth-when he drove the six fastest horses in Colorado on the stage out from Cripple Creek, an

w the mountain and met Casey coming springily off the box with whip and six reins in

yuh, b-by gosh, you s-stop. I-I'd ruther be shot t-than p

wned a pale blue, unwinking squint which he uses with effect. He halted w

busted in no canyon. Any time a man gits shot outa Casey Ryan's stage, he'll have to jump out an' wait for the bullet to ket

for the solacing plug of chewing tobacco. Opposition

that ha-hairpin turn up there on tw

ne; but the leaders wasn't runnin' right to-day. That nigh one's cast a shoe. I gotta have that looked after." He gave up the reins to the w

e years behind him he left a straggling procession of men, women and events. The men and women would always know the color of his eyes and would recognize the Casey lau

ed from mountain to desert, from desert to plain and back again, blithely meeting hard luck face to face and giving it good day as if it were a friend. For Casey was born an optimist, and misfortune never quite got him down and kept him there, though it tried har

that ever infested the trail. Infest is a word that Casey would have used often had he known its dictionary reputation. Having been deprived of close acquaintance with dictionaries, but having a facile imagination an

d ore down the mountain on wagons built to bump over rocks without damage to anything but human bones. You are Casey Ryan, remember; you never stopped for stage robbers or

re you count on making time. When you are about halfway down and the four horses are running even an

! Can-n yuh pl

I-I-kin play

e hill on "high." The driver honks wildly at you to give him the road-you, Casey Ryan! Wouldn't you writhe and invent words and

twin-six swerving sharply to the edge of a ditch, and even Casey Ryan m

held of making the thirty miles from Pinnacle to Lund in an hour and thirty-five minutes, twenty-six days in the month. (He did not publish his running expenses, by the way, nor did

rain for Salt Lake which she had been anxious to catch. Casey had known she was anxious to catch the train, and he had made the trip in an hour and twenty-nine minutes in spite of the fact that he had driven the last mile with a completely unconscious lady leaning heavily against his

never before occurred to him, and the thought was disquieting. Casey Ryan too old to lick any man who gave him cause, too old to hold the fickle esteem of those who met him in the road? Casey squinted belligerently at the Old-m

ahead. Casey pulled his lash off the nigh leader, yelled and charged straight down the road. Did they think they

the road above him the driver of the Ford inspected bent parts and a smashed headlight and cranked and cranked ineff

driver of the Ford because he had applied a word to Casey which had never failed as automatic prelude to a Casey Ryan combat. Casey was fran

done from now on, it'll be Casey Ryan doin' it! Faint! I'll learn 'em something to faint about. If it's Fords goin' to run horses off'n the trail, you watch how Casey Ryan'll drive the livin' tar outa one. Do

ubiquitous Ford agencies that write their curly-tailed blue lettering across

sleeves. "Here's four horses I'll trade yuh, with what's left of the harness. And up at the third turn you'll find a good wheel off'n the stage

ey. I ain't got any place to keep 'em, nor a

sure the horses were standing quiet, d

," he stat

if that's the way yuh feel. What yuh a

'er loose. And run the damn thing out here right away and show me how it works, and how often you gotta wind it and when. Lucky I didn't bring no passengers down-I was r