ht to be shot."

"Why, Governor! We wouldn't hurt that kid. She's aces."

"I told you my fight with Nelson was to be fair and square."

There followed a moment of silence. Mallow and Stoner exchanged
glances. "What percentage of that goes?" the former finally inquired.

"One hundred."

"So? Then it's lucky Nelson didn't fall. But there's no harm
done--nobody's hurt."

"It is lucky, indeed-for me. I'd have felt bound to make good his loss,
if you had hooked him. I presume I ought to expose this swindle."

"Expose Jackson?" Stoner inquired, quickly. When Gray nodded, there was
another brief silence before the speaker ventured to say: "I know this
bird Nelson, and, take it from me, you're giving him the best of it. If
I hadn't known him as well as I do, I wouldn't of put in with you to
break him. It's all right to trim a sucker once; it's like letting the
blood of a sick man--he's better for it. But to ride a square guy to
death, to keep his veins open--well, I ain't in that kind of business.
Now about this Jackson; you can land him, I s'pose, if you try, but it
would be lower than a frog's foot, after him playing square with you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He could have stung you, easy, couldn't he? You surged out here on
purpose to buy the lease, but he hid out all afternoon to avoid you."

"He is a thief. He is stealing hundreds of dollars a day."

"Sure! From the Atlantic, that has stolen hundreds of thousands from
the likes of him--yes, millions. It was the Atlantic that broke the
market to sixty-five cents, filled their storage tanks and contracted a
million barrels more than they had tankage for, then gypped the price
to three dollars. I can't shed any tears over that outfit."

"Let's not argue the ethics of big business. The law of supply and
demand--"

"Supply and demand, eh? Ever strike you as queer that crude never
breaks as long as the big companies have got their tanks full? The
price always toboggans when they're empty, and comes back when they're
filled up. That's supply and demand with the reverse English, ain't it?
Say, the Atlantic and those others play with us outsiders like we was
mice. When their bellies get empty they eat as many of us as they want,
then they let the rest of us scurry around and hunt up new fields. We
run all the risks; we spend our coin, and when we strike a new pool
they burgle us over again." Stoner was speaking with a good deal of
heat. "Big business, eh? Well,