HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1929-04-19, Page 7By
BE . rEACIEI
Publishers
The Musson rook Comp:,'ny, Vatdl.
Toronto
(Continued from last week)
'Bo, indeed, it appeared, for not
Iong thereafter he actually felt, or
thought he felt, the vengeful claws
of his enemy. A new strike in one
of the western counties had become
public, and a brand-new oil excite-
ment was born overnight, Trains
were crowded, roads were jammed'
with racing automobiles; in the neigh-
borhood of the new well ensued scenes
to duplicate those of other pools. For
the first week or two t'here was a
frenzy of buying and selling, a specu-
lation in oil acreage and town lots.
The Nelsons, of course, were early
on the ground, for in spite of the
father's contention that they could ill
afford, at the moment, to tie up more
hi unproductive properties, the son
had argued that they must have "pro-
tection," and his arguments had pre-
vailed.
,Henry went in person, and he was
floss eeably an ar,
Garay on the ground aa&aaii I a
nip. latter, bogie, e ee' x'44
age in 'the Shag ed a blush 9ZTA, and
rumerous bandages, imputed to he r e
result of nto,.bele collision.
Henry regretted, that.,Ms mammy's in-
juries were en $Itvi L At was indeed
a pity thele so few accidents are fatal.
life ibo.ugh't ?apildlyn right' anal left,
as much to forestallaway aapity-
thing else, 'and he was back at the
bank shortly with a number of leas-
es, Not until some time later did he
lease that he had paid a price for
them 'twice as high as t. • t charged
for properties closer in.
It was : ell who brought this un-
welcome information home to him—
brought at home in his characteristic
manner.
"What the hell ails you, anyhow?"
the father inquired, in apoplectic
wrath. ' "Have you gone clean
crazy."
After some inquiry ':! entry realized
what ailed him and who had caused
flim to throw away his money, but he
did not apprise Bell. More than once
they had been parties to "wash sales,'
and had helped to establish artificial
values, but to be victimized in the
same manner was like the taste of
poi son.
Of course, it meant little in; the big
game. At most, the firm had been
"Winced"
only a comparatively few
.housel-a! dollars, and the loss could
pre ally be recouped by a resale;
nes- rtheless, the incident was signifi-
cant, .and, upon second Vie/fight, it
appeared to shed light upon certair.
other expensive transactions in other
fields.
ow, oddly enough, this new oil
discovery did not develop as had been
expected—in fact, the excitement died
out quickly—and when Henry Nelson
undertook to dispose of his holdings
he was faced by a heavy loss, for
Gray was offeting adjoining acreage
Vi at la W lgea,
llOVnng Unhaa eapperlience,
the semndal about the ! a ilia p well be,
came public—the 4tlaniic Offfed$0,31Y
having at lett located the leak ala . its
puleline—and the whole Red IPieerc
district enjoyed a great laugh. ale
Nelson did knot laugh. He torus
green when he realm- '.bow close he
had come to buying that lease. Of
course, here was a swindle that Gray
could heave had nothing to do .with,
and yet—Nelson wondered Why "Bob"
Parker had failed to sell it to him.
"Bob" had tied it upoqn an option,
awaiting his return, and he h hur-
ried back on purpose to examine it.
Why hadn't he bought it? ':!entry ask-
ed that question of the girl, and, when
she told him as 'much as she knew,
he began to believe that the -Whole
thing was, indeed, an incredibly bold
attempt to swindle him, and him
alone.
Miss Parker, of course, was deeply
chagrined at her connection with the
fraud; nevertheless, the banker felt
his flesh turn cold at the narrowness
of his escape. He assuredhimself,
upon calmer thought, that his imag-
ination was running away with him;
this was too devilishly ingenious, too
Frooked; and besides, Gray had prom-
ised to fight fair. All the same, the
thing had a suspicious odor, and Nel-
son slept badly for a few nights. He
decided to use extra caution thereaf-
ter and see that he neither paid more
for leases than they were worth nor
permitted anybody to "salt" him.
Salting, after all, was rare; one read
about it in books, but no experienced
operator had ever been fooled in that
way.
About this time a big gasser blew
in north of the Louisiana fields, and
wise oil men began to talk about Ar-
kansas and quietly to gather in acre-
age. Less than a week later one of
N:elson's field men brought into the
bank a youth who owned some pro-
perty in the latter state. This yokel
was a sick man; he was thin and
white; he had a racking cough. and
he knew nothing about oil except
from hearsay. All he knew was that
he would die if he didn't get to a
warmer, drier climate; but the story
he told caused Henry Nelson to stare
queerly at his field man. That very
night the latter left town.
On the third night thereafter, in
answer to a telegram, Nelson and the
Arkansas farmer slipped unobtrusive-
ly''. out of Wichita Falls. It so hap-
pened that Brick Stoner, en route to
Hot Springs for a little rest, was a
passenger on the same train.
Stoner returned in due time, much
rested, and he brought with him a
large check to the firm's account.
"We timed it to the minute," he
told McWade and Mallow. "That gas-
ser couldn't have come in better if
we'd ordered it. Nelson's dickering
under cover for more acreage near
what he's got, but I tipped off who he
was."
"HI•e fell easy, eh?"
Stoner grinned. "He was so pleas-
ed with 'himself at swindling an in-
valid, and so scared somebody would
discover those seepages that he could
hardly wait to sign up. If it hadn't
of been for the general excitement,
he might of insisted on time to do
some exploring, but he's pulled a rig
off another job and hers sending it
right up."
"We've got some good news, too,"
Mc Wade asserted. "Avenger Number
One is trying hard to come in."
"No?"
"I tell you Gray's got a rabbit foot.
If we continue to trail along with
him, I'll be losing you as a partner,
Brick."
"How so?"
"Why, I'll be turning honest. It
seems to pay."
"Una -m. Probably I'd better keep
all this Nelson money and leave
you—"
"Oh, not at all," the junior part-
ner said, quickly. "That isn't an oil
deal, strictly speaking, for you say
there ain't oil enough on the land to
grease a jackknife. I look on it as a
real-estate speculation."
With a laugh Stoner accepted this
explanation, and then announced that
he was hungry for his breakfast.
This time Mallow spoke up. "I'm
balky-hooing for a new joint; Fulton's
Fancy Waffle Foundry. Follow me
and I'll try to wedge you in. But
you'll have to eat fast and pick your
teeth on the sidewalk, far we need the
room." 'In answer to Stoner's stare,
the speaker explained his interest in
the welfare of Wichita Fall's newest
eating place, and en route thereto he
told how Marie Fulton came to be
running it. "Gray did it. He got
the Parker girl to help us, and we
had the place all fixed up .by the time
Margie got here. She's tickled pink
and it'll coin money—if it isn't pinch-
ed."
"Pinched?"
"Sure! Bennie's the cashier, and
he palms everything from dimes to
dishtowels. Force of habit! Better
count your change till I break him of
short-changing the customers."
"You—" Stoner stopped in his
tracks.
"Oh, Pm giving him lessons in
elemental honesty."
"My God! Are you turning honest,
too?" the other man exclaimed. Seems
like that's all I hear lately."
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29-1
MADEf V TCSE MK[a'33 OF" ME (Qm0us
It was a blue day for Henry Nelson
when Avenger Number One came in,
for it made necessary immediate dril-
ling operations on his part. And the
worst of it was the well was not big
enough to establish a high value for
his holdings. It was just enough of
a producer to force him to begin
three offsets and that, for the mom-
ent, was an undertaking decidedly in-
convenient.
Bell Nelson was even more dismay-
ed at the prospect than was his son,
for upon him fell the necessity of
raising the money. "Hell of a note,"
the old fellow grumbled, "when a wet
well puts a crimp in us! A little
more good luck like this and we'll go
broke."
"We can't afford to let go, or to
sub -lease—"
"Of course not, after the stand we
have taken. There's talk on ' the
street about the blank, now, and --I'd
give , a good deal to know where it
comes from." The junior Nelson had
heard similar echoes, but he held his
tongue. "I never did like your way
of doing businmss, ° the speaker re-
named, fretfully. "Veva oFi'eS-Mael.,
rim
e
Your claw= will telll you hour the
ant of chewing Moues and soothes
ow -aimed nerves, and how the healthy.
full ,rmnnlmrigqs action. of Wrigley's
uefreolbeo and tonnes you up ahl-
rtaannadl. Aldo digestion.
ed. You wanted it all and -,this is
the result."
Now Henry Nelson was warranted
in resenting this accusation, for it
had ever been Bell's" way to pursue a
grasping policy, therefore he cried,
angrily:
"That's right; pass the buck. You
know you wouldn't listen to anything
else. If we're in deep, you're more
to blame than I"
"Nothing of the sort." Old Bell
began a profane denial, but the youn-
ger man broke in, irritably:
"I've never won an argument with
you, so have it your own way. But
while you're raising money for the
Avenger offsets, you'd better raise
plenty, for Gray is going to punch
holes down as fast as ever he can."
"Who is this Gray? What's he got
against you?"
Henry's eyes shifted. "Has he got
anything against me? He bought a
good lease and was wise enough to
get somebody to make a well for
him—"
"Those crooks! Those wildcatters!"
"Now, he proposes to develop his
acreage as rapidly as possible. Noth-
ing strange about that, is there?"
"Is he sore at you?"
"We didn't get along very well in
France."
"Humph! I suppose that means
you fought like hell. And now he's
getting even. By the way, where
am I going to get this money?"
"That is up to you," said Henry,
with a disagreeable grin, whereupon
his father stamped into his own of-
fice in a fine fury.
Not long after this father and son
quarreled again, for of a sudden a
perfect avalanche of lawsuits was
released, the mysterious origin and
purpose of which completely mysti-
fied Old Bell. The Nelsons, like ev-
erybody else, had unsuccessfaTIy dab-
bled in oil stocks and drilling com-
panies for some time before the boom
started, also during its early stages,
and most of those failures had been
forgotten. They were painfully
brought to mind, however,_ when
Henry was served with a dozen or
more citations, and when inquiry elic-
ited the reluctant admission from the
hank's attorney that a genuine liabil-
ity existed --a liability which inc`Ttrded
the entire debts of those defunct joint
stock associations in which he and
his father had invested. This was
enough to enrage a saint.
Henry argued that he had invariab-
ly signed those articles of association
with the words, in parentheses, "No
personal liability," and he was gen-
uinely amazed to learn that this pre-
caution had been useless. He protest-
ed that scores—nay, hundreds --of
ether people were in the same fix as
he, and that if this outrageous pro-
vision of the law were strictly en-
forced and judgments rendered wide-
spread ruin would result. His lawyer
agreed to this in all sympathy, but
read aloud the provisions of the
statute, and Nelson derived no com-
fort from the reading. The lawyer
was curious to know, by the way,
who had taken the trouble to acquire
all of these claims—a task of heroic
size—lbut about all the encourage-
mcnt he could offer was the probab-
ility of a long and expensive' series of
legal battles, the outcome of which
was problematical. That meant an-
royance at best, and a possible im-
pairment of credit, and the Nelson
credit right now was a precious thing
as Henry well knew. Eloquently -he
cursed the day he had met Calvin
Gray. What next, he wondered.
He discovered what next when the
driller he had sent up to Arkansas in
charge of his rig one day came into
the office in great agitation. The
man's story caused his employer's
fare to whiten.
"Salted! I --don't believe it." Nel-
son seized his head in his hands. "Oh,
my God!" he gasped. Misfortunes
were coming with a swiftness incred-
ible. Salted! Victimized, like the
greenest tenderfoot! A small fortune
sunk while the whole country was
still chuckling over the -Jackson scan-
dal! This was a nightmare.
Henry was glad that. his father
was in Tulsa in conference with some
other bankers over that Avenger off-
set money, otherwise there was no
telling to what extreme the old man's
rage would have carried him at this
final calamity. And that whining,
coughing crook, that bogus farmer,
was in Arizona—or elsewhere—out of
reach of the law! The younger Nel-
son turned desperately sick. If this
was not more of Gray's work, it was
the direct result of the curse he had
called down.
"Does anybody know?" Henry in-
quired, after he had somewhat recov-
ered his equilibrium.
"Nobody but us fellows."
"You—you mustn't shut down. You
have got to keep up the bluff until—
until I get time to turn."
"You going to hump off that land
to somebody else?"
"What do you think I'm going to
do?" Nelson was on his feet now
and stride's . cTaksesoffice with jerky
a loss hike,thot?' lire
inter > at ,
Y aua.,n;t 'Y0 , ' ,
that it?{' -
n'WbU i xfi Werth semething
turn 'a trick like tin's,"
"Iflow much?1A
"It's a big deal.- WU tale 4946 e-
thing substantia& omaethan substan-
tial and paid in advance , to make our
boys forget all the. interesting eigl4s
they've seen. But it'd rather leave
the amount to you, Henry. Yon know
me; I wouldn't be a party to a crook-
ed deal, not for anything, except to
help you out—"
"How much?" the banker repeated,
hoarsely.
But the field man merely smiled
and shrugged, so, with a grunt of
understanding, Henry seated himself
and wrote out a check to' bearer, the
amount of which caused him to grind
his teeth.
Now it was impossible to dispose
of a large holding like that Arkansas
tract at a moment's notice. In order
to evade suspicion, it was necessary
to go about it slowly, tactfully, hence
the financier moved with as much cir-
cumspection as possible. Hits careful
plans exploded, however, when he
met 'Calvin Gray a day or so later.
Gray had made it an invariable
Practice to speak
affably
to his en-
emy
emy in passing, mainly because it so
angered the latter; this time he in-
sisted upon stopping. He was de-
bonair and smiling, as alw ys, but
there was more than a trace lof mock-
ery in his tone as he said: '
"So your luck has changed, hasn't
it? That Avenger well of mine has
put a good value on your property. I
congratulate you, Colonel."
"Humph! I don't believe in luck,"
Nelson mumbled. "And the Avenger
isn't enough of a well to brag about."
"So? You don't believe in luck?
It seems to be our lot invariably to
differ, doesn't it? Now, my dear
Colonel, I'm not ashamed to confess
that I am deeply superstitious, and
that I believe implicitly in signs and
prodigies. You see, I was born under
a happy star; 'at my nativity the
front of heaved was full of fiery
shapes,' as it were. Comfortable feel-
ing, I assure you. Take that incident
at Newton, not long agd; doesn't that
prove my contention?"
"What incident?"
Gray's brows lifted whimsically. Of
course. How should you know ?
There was a clumsy attempt to do me
bodily harm, to—assassinate me. Fun-
ny, isn't it? So ill considered and so
impracticable. But about this Aven-
ger matter, if you find it inconvenient
to offset my wells as fast as I put
them down, perhaps you'd consider
selling—"
"Inconvenient?" Nelson felt the
blood rush to his face at this insuf-
ferable insult, but he calmed himself
with the thought that his opponent
was deliberately goading him. After
all, it served him right for permitting
the fellow to stop him. "Inconveni-
ent! Ha!" He turned away care-
lessly.
"No offense, my dear Colonel. I
thought, after your Arkansas fiasco,
you might wish—"
"What Arkansas fiasco?" Nelson
wheeled, and in spite of himself his
voice cracked.
"Ah! Another secret, eh?" Gray
winked elaborately—nothing could
have been more deliberately offensive
than that counterfeit of a friendly un-
derstanding•. "Very well, I sha'n't
say a word."
"You—" The hanker was gasping.
"You're doing your damnedest to --to
start something, aren't you?"
"Every day. Every hour. Every
minute." The speaker bowed. "In
defense of my promise to fight fair,
let me assure you, however, that I
did not start this. As a matter of
fact. I know nothing about it until
you had been hooked. Apropos of
that quixotic promise, please remem-
ber that your own actions have absolv-
ed me from it."
(Continued next week.)
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