Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE DUKE AND THE DUCATS 15 dozen fields and former boom towns, He’s got money himself, and I think two Dallas men are backing him to the limit. There seems to be no limit to his capital. “The result of all this is easy to see. Before this town was well under way Derringer owned more than half the good looking acreage, bought for a song, and, his organized mob, growing every day was running things. Weve got no officials yet, nominally, but actually Slats runs the works. He isn’t particular about how, either. If he wants machinery, he takes it, pays for it, although it’s price- less at this time, and asks the real owner what the hell he’s going to do.about it. His friends own the principal dives—and other saloon keepers are liable to find their places of business wrecked if they don’t throw in on Derringer’s side. To- morrow he'll be elected chief cook and bottlewasher of the town, be the head of the vigilantes or whatever the law’ll be, and be officially in office. He is the high- muckymuck, the political boss, the rich- est. man, the most active driller, the biggest owner of acreage, and all the rest of the works. I’m telling you the truth when I say that I» have been forced to give him machinery which was sold to somebody else three times. I tried to hold out once—and that was enough.” ““He sounds,” drawled Tex, “like what might’ be called a worthy foeman.” “And a crooked one. He’s the boy that owns our acreage now. Naturally those negroes and spigs are scared to death of him. There isn’t a chance that they'll ever throw in on our—the right— side.” ““He aims to be the king of the field, eh?” asked Daly. “Exactly. And he will be. The big companies are watching, waiting a bit longer for the field to prove itself, before stepping in and taking it over. Slats Der- ringer wants to be kingpin of a field in full operation, from pumping stations to loading racks, and to turn it over fora healthy few million and retire, I guess. He has ambitions to be a new oil king, and I guess he will be. It’s a cinch that he'll take his pick of everything—and any- thing he wants and can’t get will be quite a burden to its owner.” “Tex got to his feet as though im- patient for action. His brown hair, usually neatly parted, was now down over his eyes and he pushed it back. “Well, where do we come in?” “In the first place, there’s no use right now of even thinking of bucking Der- ringer. There wouldn’t be a chance. I am outwardly good friends with him, laughing off what he’s done by the old oil field motto of getting away with what you can. I acknowledge myself out- witted, so to speak, and he is one of my best customers, of course. Any day, how- ever, he'll be around to take over this business and hire me to run it for him. Wait and see. “However, I do think that we ought to do this. Get at least a part of our legiti- mate profit out of the acreage, some way or other and then sell it to him at what we paid for it—which he’s willing to give. And it’s wortha hundred thousand! That is, he’ll give the original owners the money, if they need it, to return your father and me what we paid them.” He stopped talking, and took a medi- tative drag on his cigar. “T forgot to mention another string to his bow,” he went on finally. “He also owns the biggest gambling house in town, right next door here.” Those impersonal eyes were suddenly gleaming as they rested on the Duke’s emotionless countenance. “He sure has got this town tied up!” Tex drawled. “That is, he backs it,” Ivers said. “A gambler named Draw One Donnelly, last from Smackover, runs it for him. Oper- ated in Tia Juana and Havana before hitting the oilfields. But I know abso- lutely that it’s Derringer’s money. He’s getting the dinero out of this field from all directions.” “Well, I don’t know. That’s why you're here. When I give you proof of the fact that Derringer has openly robbed us comicloooks.com