Adventure Magazine Cover — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

52 was nearer five feet than six feet tall. Some of the best men that ever sat in a saddle west of the Mississippi weighed less than one hundred and thirty pounds. Timmy Keyes was afraid, so he was small. His wealth made him tremble lest some- body kidnap him; his feeling of weakness did not leave him day or night; he could not get over the bashtulness, the modesty, the dread of meeting strong men. He was the strange, meager, central figure of a great turmoil, of big doings, of vast fortunes flying hither and yon, and because he was the owner of lands, the driller of new wells, the real dictator of that region, hundreds looked to him in the tumultuous weeks while the oil find was coming into its Own. Keyes, in business, was shrewd, strong and competent. He drew his contracts, laid down the terms of his deals, claimed his equitable share in the enterprises. He was a different man, bargaining over pipe-line rights and for the sale of his oil as his wells came in, from the man who shrank along the streets of Keyeswells, afraid of his skin —literally. BA “WAD” METCHLER arrived in ra ' Keyeswells a little late for first pickings. He was more than six feet tall, had killed two men that people knew of, and had a low, growling voice that backed up the menace of his staring eyes, in their shadow of grisly gray brows. Metchler had made and lost fortunes. None knew now whether he had a fortune or a shoe-string. Keyes was walking down the new side- walk from his concrete-block ofiice building, looking over his shoulder at the southeast where he.had a glimpse of a new gusher, which was just being throttled down, when he bumped into Wad Metchler, who was looking in the same direction. Metchler with an oath, turned on Keyes, who shrank back in haste. “You—” Metchler began; but ‘‘Paraf- fine Webb, a friend of Wad, broke in sharply, saying— “This is Mr. Timothy Keyes, Metchler; let me introduce you!” Metchler hesitated. Keyes sprang for- ward eagerly. Then Metchler squeezed the little hand of the great oil man till the bones crinkled, and Keyes rose on his tiptoes in anguish only partly concealed. Mr. Adventure By the look of Keyes, Metchler knew that the man was afraid, small, and therefore just the man Metchler was looking for. In an oil town a man must be his own man. There are things that influence, money, possessions and all the perquisites of posi- tion and wealth do not buy. Metchler had some of these things. He was a bully, and claimed the respect due to a man whose fist preceded his smile, and whose guns were the enforcers of his judgments. There was law in the oil camp, now be- coming an oil town with the certainty of becoming an oil city before long. There were deputy sheriffs, a competent city marshal and a city board of trade of which Timmy Keyes was the chairman. Evewthing that money could buy was Timmy’s; yet his associates saw him now, growing pale and wan as Wad Metchler, with twenty years’ oil-town experience be- hind him, applied the screws to the biggest opportunity of a long, bullying and nervy life. He crossed Keyes to the ill-defined limit of Keyeswells. His methods were skilful and obvious. He made a duel of what against any other kind of man must have been an attack on the law and order of a surging and ill-controlled community. He challenged the individual; he addressed the chairman of the board of trade with the utmost civility and respect. He suggested improvements, which would tax especially the property of Timmy Keyes. He demanded an aggressive policy of compe- tition with other oil regions, which would especagily hurt the income of Timmy Keyes. He started a campaign for a strong man for chairman of the board of trade in Keyes- wells, and all the malcontents, who had found no fortune where they expected or at least hoped for easy pickings, joined with Metchler in attacking Keves politically. All the business ventures of Metchler were directed at undermining the public’s confidence in the financial leadership and suzerainty of Keyes. Physically Metchler seized every opportunity to have the thronged streets see him bullying the under- sized, fearful man whose faith in that land had made him wealthy, and whose lack of courage in the physical sense made him prev to just this kind of assault. The associates of Timmy Keyes went to him one by one and urged on him the neces- sity of doing something. cCOmiclook S (© iin