Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

38 THOMSON BURTIS was there and there was a sparkle in his eyes which took no heed of fatigue. = “You probably don’t feel so good, but I feel fine,” he drawled. ‘They say you’re all right—burns not so damn’ serious, and lungs O.K.” Daly smiled briefly. “How is everything in the oil village?” he asked weakly. : “Not so bad. Did you know that the ship you shot down had Hank Ivers in itr” “Uh-huh, I thought so.” “Tell me what happened up there first after I teft,’’ Tex commanded. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, and his glowing eyes were hard for Daly to meet. Daly told the story briefly and haltingly, and MacDowell’s eyes grew brighter all the time. “Well,” he said slowly, “I guess, as a matter of fact, that there were only a couple of people who knew about that Fitzpatrick incident. One was Ivers, and the other this head bandit that had me in charge. He was enjoying himself so much I was scared of what would happen. The rest of ’em were just supers. Dumb spigs, in for a little money. From the way he talked, this blond boy—you re- member we saw him on. the street—was a follower of Dave Fitzpatrick’s, and to get me, who’d got Dave put in jail, was a great pleasure. Between him and Ivers, from what you said, I’d have had a nice time.” “Laredo got my message all right, did they?” “Sure. And found the town in a hell of a mess. The sheriff's theré now with a big posse. I guess he isn’t happy. They like to Iet these oil towns alone—but it had to be done. The boys here say you told ’em to get Conklin and Derringer and hold ’em. Well, they found Slats badly wounded. Some guy he’d rooked took a pot shot at him in the fights, I guess.” “Is he alive?” “Yeah, but nobody knows whether he’ll live or not,” Tex said without sor- row. “I tipped off the sheriff and, sick or no sick, they gave him the third degree. Didn’t need much. He figures he’s a goner and came pretty clean. Admits everything, including airplane smuggling on the side, except that he was not in on the kidnaping at all and had nothing to do with it. It was Ivers’ cute little idea to have dad pay him fifty thousand which he hadn’t spent, see?” ““How’s that little banty rooster, Conk- lin?” inquired Daly, and for a second a real grin was on his pallid, drawn face. Tex laughed long and loud. “He admitted what he was up to, and” the little squirt was pretty near right. He’d been about ruined by Derringer’s crooked work, and he aimed to get a chance to live by fair means or foul. He didn’t want us messing in just at the moment when he started to take Der- ringer for a ride. They let him go, I guess—nothing on him that isn’t taken for granted in a town like that.” Daly felt better. Somehow it always gave him a feeling of contentment to have Tex around. It was great to have an anchor of some sort, somebody to tie to. He was busy figuring things out more in detail. “Assuming that this bandit I killed—” “He had the poker money, which I got!”’ Tex interrupted with a grin. “Good. Anyway, assuming that he was tickled to be in on the deal just to get back at a patrolman who'd put his boss in jail, how do you explain Ivers? He was sure poison.” Tex nodded. “Dad’s coming down in a week,” he stated. ‘Wired me, in answer to mine, that it must have its root in some business deal where dad got the best of him. Probably partly just the money angle, too. Dad said he was always a penny pincher, and through that lost out on a lot of stuff around Texas in the past. You never can tell about these fifteen year grudges. They get big when you think of ’em all that time. Dad fights hard, but he fights clean. I know that.” “Also,” nodded the Duke, “all this murder and stuff he was driven to. When comniclooolks.com