Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

26 THOMSON BURTIS there was murder in those murky depths, so Daly wasted no time. He pushed back his chair a little more. “Donnelly, and the rest of you—you know we’re wise,” he said very slowly and coolly. “No monkey business from now on. This game is over here and now. You’ve been outcrooked. I saw you switch decks. Now listen.” He leaned forward, and his hand, un- obtrusively, was on the butt of his gun. Silence was like a wet fog over the table. “Cash in our chips now, and in cash. You don’t dare monkey with us. There are a lot of people on the outside—and outside of Verona—who know what we’re here to do. If you make one false move, your gambling dump is going on the fritz right tonight. I'll tell everybody in the place about it, and have it out of business tomorrow. If there’s anything more ugly than just cheating, you and your place and your friends are going to be blown to hell tomorrow. Get that? Now you call somebody and you get us our money pronto or you'll be searched for proof within one minute publicly, and worse than that will happen in twenty- four hours. : ‘I’m not getting tough. I’m telling you, before you tell me something.” “I’m leaving. I have no idea what this is all about.” It was Derringer’s harsh voice. “T’ll settle tomorrow,” he went on gruffly, and walked out of the alcove as though leaving something very unpleasant behind him. For a long moment Donnelly sat there. The Duke felt that he could watch his mind, like a rat in a trap, doubling and redoubling, trying to find a way out. Then, so suddenly that it was a shock, the fleshy gambler relaxed, and that false smile spread over his face. “You won, and won right, and you get your money,’ he said with his grin ‘widening. There was no trace of shame on his face. Daly scarcely knew why, but he had a feeling that Donnelly felt that it was a loan. MOMENT later he and Tex were leaning against the alcove, close together. They had allowed Don- nelly to go down after the money, finally. The Duke was certain that it would be forthcoming. “Duke, my hand,’ Tex whispered as they supposedly watched the room. “Did we rook em? And how! Say, Derringer hasn’t left yet. What are we going to do with the dough?” “Inasmuch as it’s a dead cinch that Henry Ivers is as crooked as a cork- screw,” Daly said evenly, his eyes on the tall oil man who was conversing earnestly in a corner. “T can’t believe it,” Tex said slowly. ‘Somebody may have been listening in in that warehouse when we were talking to Henry.” ““He’d have been in the room behind the office then, and how’d he get there with- out Ivers knowing about it?” MacDowell’s tanned face was suddenly set in grim lines. “Boy, how he worked it!’ he said. “Didn’t suggest it himself—but we fell for his trap! Doublecrossing dad, eh, and getting us down here to lose twenty thou- sand or so besides all that he and Der- ringer are rooking the old man out of in other ways,” he ruminated, slow venom in his voice. “‘Ifit’s true, and it sure looks it, what a frame up it is! Maybe, to give the old boy credit, this Slats Derringer has something on him and forced him to cooperate: Hank and Dad buy acreage on a gamble, and then Ivers plays Der- ringer’s hand and lets or helps Derringer tie it up now that it’s valuable. They take no chance if it wasn’t—and take no chance of losing the acreage now that it’s valuable. Why, that old skinflint is probably embezzling from the business, too—shooting machinery to Derringer, giving him all the breaks, fooling with the books—everything! And to cap it off, he gets us down here to lose thousands more of the old man’s good dough—” “It strikes me that we'd better fly that money out of this town pronto!” Daly said quietly. Now, the excitement of the comicloooks.com