Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

28 THOMSON BURTIS Do you boys know that that crap game downstairs ain’t right? Do you know that the dance hall gals in Pete’s place roll you after you git poison? How many of you had yore tools stole, yore trucks highjacked, and yore acreage rooked away from you by Slats Derringer be- cause there wasn’t nobody strong enough to stop him? He’s got me about ruined, but it ain’t gonna keep up. And I know that tomorrow he had it fixed t’ be legal high mucky muck o’ this town, and that it’d be run from soup to nuts as he wanted it run—meanin’ that he’d have a finger on every crooked dollar he could make and that everybody’d take a back seat for him on anything from machinery t’ food! “Know what I’m gonna do? Gonna do if I swing for it? I’m gonna have every damn’ man o’ his herded out o’ town for the day tomorrow. I’m gonna see whether you'll vote fur me if you git a chance to vote without a gun in yore back. And then I’m gonna run this town as it oughta be run—a square deal fur everybody. Yore liquor won’t be poison —any dump that serves itll be smashed up. Yore gamblin’ houses’ll be straight. And murder and robbery’s gonna be pun- ished so fast that the execution’ll take place before Laredo’d have the man in jail. “Git ready, Slats. I’ve got the dope on you, just from what you done t’ me. You’re gonna go along with me right now. I'm givin’ this town a physic t’ clean it out. Y’ don’t want martial law, like there was in Mexia here, do you, boys? Y’ don’t want Rangers runnin’ the town, do you? I even went so far as t’ warn them Border Patrolmen t’ keep hands off— leastways until they knowed—” Daly tensed as the sound of a fusillade of shots came from the street. Sud- denly there was a great deal of shouting. In a moment the noises of a mighty battle came washing against the building. For a moment Conklin seemed thunder- struck. Suddenly Derringer was on his feet. “We'll see how much you can get away with!” he shouted. “T’ll cram every one o’ your insults down your throat, Jed Conkln. Got my men, have you? That’s them, outside!” “Come on, boys!” Conklin yelled. “Out o’ the way on them stairs!”’ N AN instant the Conklin forces which had accompanied him were plunging down_the steps. There was unmistakable evidence from without that the struggle was a gargantuan one. It seemed that the whole main street must be engaged. Shouts, curses, occasional shots, breaking glass and all the din of a rough and tumble battle were plainly audible. MacDowell’s eyes were alight with glee. “Conklin and Derringer are going to fight it out right now!” he breathed. “Say, Duke, Ivers must have tipped off Derringer.” “Sure. What do we do now?” the Duke asked absently. “Tex, there isn’t a thing we can do. Our job is to save this dinero right now—and talk to Ivers. What our job isa little later I don’t know. What may be going on with this town as a center may interest the Government very much. Let’s see this window. It’ll be as much as our life is worth to go out the front door.” The tiny window was about fifteen feet off the ground. “Tl go down on our belts, and you can drop and [ll catch you,’’ Tex suggested, and in a minute, their two belts tied to- gether and dangling from the sill, he was going down. He dropped to the ground. Daly released the belts, and then dropped into the Texan’s arms. “Listen to that!” Daly said, with what was almost awe in his voice. The street battle was an epic. Guns were not in use, now, but the thorough- fare was a solid mass of heaving bodies. Everybody had joined in, it seemed. It was a battle royal, and’ Verona was a madhouse. Some dives were being looted, it seemed, as a sideline to the fight for supremacy. ‘Derringer either didn’t take Ivers’ comicloooks.com