San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-25
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"Over in HongkOng," said Arnold
Hatch. II expect some Chinese Max
inc Partee would say, 'Okoochiei 1t
sounds like an Indian war drum. 1t
thrills me-
Sometimes Maxine showed signs of
melting. But she always CONCEALED
again under the influence of her re-
solve. One evening an Out-of-town
diner, on hearing her name, said,
"Pardee! Hin, Probably corruption
of Pardieu. A French name origin
ally, l suppose.
After that there was no approach
ing her for weel5. Maxine Pardieu,
by God!" it meant. A chevalier he
must have been, this Pardieu. A
musketeer! A swashbuckler, with
lace falling over his slim white hand,
and his hand always ready on his
sword. Red he. Plumed hat.
Pardieu!
How she hated anew the great oil
tanks that rose on the towns out
skirts, guarding it like giant sentinels.
The new houses. The new country
club. Twenty-one miles of asphalt
road. Population in 1900, only 467.
In 1920 over $4,000. Slogan. Watch
Us Grow. Seventeen hundred oil and
gas wells. Fields of corn and cotton.
Skyscrapers. The Watonga Building,
twelve stories. Haynes Block, four
teen stories. Come West, young man!
Ugh.
Sometimes she made little rhymes
in her mind.
There's Singapore and Zahzibar,
And Cairo and Calais.
There's SamarIand and Alcazar,
Rangoon and Mandalay.
"Yeh," said Arnold Hatch. one
evening, when they were talking in
the Pardee back yard. 1t was nine
o'clock. Dishes done. A moon.
October. Maxine had just murmur-
ed her little quatrain. They were
standing by the hedge of pampas
grass that separated the Pardee yard
from Hatch's next door.
"Yeh," said Arnold Hatch. like
wise:
"There's Seminole and Shawnee,
Apache, Agawam.
There's Aqua and Pawnce,
Walinga, Waukeetom."
He knew his Oklahoma.
:" exclaimed Maxine, in n little
burst of fury; and stamped her foot
down hard. Squ-ush! said something
underfoot. "Oh." said Maxine again :
in surprise this time. October was n
dry month. She Deerd down. Her
shoe was wet. A Shiny something
chung TO 1t. A scummy something
shonc reflected in the moonlight. She
had not lived ten years in Oklahoma
for nothing. Arnold Hatch bent down
Maxine bent down. The greasy wet
patch lay Just between the two back
yards. They touched it, fearfUlly.
with their forpfingers. Then they
srraigilt"ned and looked at each othf..
Oil. Oil!
Things happened like that in Okla
hOma.
You didn't try to swing a thing like
that yourself. You leased your ind
for number of years. A well cost
between forty and sixty thousand dol
lars. You leased TO company rep
resented by one or two of these cold
bloodcd Steely-eyed young men from
pennsylvania or New York. There
was good deal of trouble about it.
too. This was n residence district
one of the oldest in this new town.
But they bought the Pardee place and
the Hatch place. And Arnold Hatch.
who had learned q thing or two in
the offices of the Okoochee Oil and
RnfiDinC Tomnopv J,o,o d, L,.1 -.
gain for both. The yard was over
run with drillcrs. lawyers, engineers,
superintendent, fOremen, machinery.
Arnold came with papers to sign.
Give hundred a day." he said, "and
a percentage" He named the per-
centage. Maxine and her mother re-
peated this after him. numbly.
Mrs. Pardee had been the book
keeper in the Pardee menage. She
tried some mathematical gymnastics
now and bumped her arithmetical
nose.
Five hundred a day, including Sun
days, Arnold?"
"Ineluding Sundays"
Her lips began to move. "Seven
times five thirty-five hundred
a fifty-two times thirty"
She stopped. overcome. But she be-
gan again. wildly, as n thought came
to her. why, l could build house.
A house, IN on Edgecombe. A house
like the BarstOws' with lawns, and
gardens, and sleeping porchcs, and