Let 'im come an' tell me that there story!" Casey was still slightly abnormal, I noticed, so I calmed him as best I could and left him alone for a time.

There was some hesitancy about the bail, too, which I wished to overcome.

Throwing that half-stick of dynamite might be construed as an attempt at wholesale murder.

I did not want the county officials to think too long and harshly about the matter.
I explained later to Casey that Barney Oakes had reported his disappearance to the officials in Barstow.

The sheriff's office had long suspected a nest of moonshiners somewhere near Black Butte, and it was rumored that one Mart Hanson, who owned a mine up there, was banking more money than was reasonable, these hard times, for a miner, who ships no ore.