The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-07

Bunny went home to his father.
Dad, just what was it made you
get rid of Ben Skutt?"
"Why, | found he'd been taking
commissions from the other fellow.
He'd been up to other rascalities.
too"
Just what?"
Dad laughed. "He had scheme
that was a wonder. You know, down
there at Prospect Hill people were
in crazy hurry to drill; the owner
of the next lot was getting his we'll
down first, and draining all your oil
away. Ben and another Teller would
find bunch of lot owners jist on
the point of making a good lease,
and Ben would have his pal give
him quit-claim deed to one of
those lots Ben would record the
deed, and, of course, when the title
company come to report on the
property there was that cloud on
the title. The owner would come
hustling after Ben Skull in q panic,
what the hell was this? And Ben
would look shocked, and tell how
he had bought the lot from some
Teller in good faith. Who was the
Teller? Well, the Teller had dis
appeared, and nobody could find
him. But there Ben had the lease
tied up, and the drilling couldn't
start. The lot owner would rage
and swear-all the lot owners IN the
lease was all tied up together, and
nobody could do anything with their
property till that one lot had got
free. To go into court and clear
the title would take six months or
so, and meantime the chance to
lease would be gone; so the owners
would have to chip in and pay Ben
five thousand or so-whatever he
claimed he had paid to the other
man."
Il should think that trick would
have been tried lot of times" re-
marked Bunny, and Dad answered,
it would be tried jist long enough
for the news to git round, and then
some lot owner would stick q gun
under Ben's nose, and settle 1t that
way. What had happened In his
case was the usual thing, . woman
had got hold of him and plucked
him clean, and that was why he was
doing spy work for the patriotic So
cieties.
Bunny knew that his father didn't
owe anything to this slippery ras-
cal, and wouldn't mind his being ex-
posed, provided Bunny's name was
not dragged in. 1t would be easy to
trace the matter down, by looking
up Ben's real estate transactions in
the county records; he would have
given quit-claim deed to the lot
owners whom he had held up, and IL
these men were still in the neigh
borhood no doubt they would tes-
tify, or could be made to. Bunny
saw Rachel at the university next
morning and told her the story, and
gave her a hundred dollar bill to
cover the costs of a title search.
She passed it on to Joe or Ikey, and
two days after Ben was confronted
by half a dozen enfuriated citizens,
male and female, who did a good
deal to shake the jury's faith in his
testimony as to secret conspiracies
in the Workers Party. The jury dis
agreed in the case of all but two
men, the leading party directors;
these got six years apiece, but the
Menzies boys got off, and the party
held a celebration, which was de
scribed in the newspapers as an
orgy of red revolutionary raving.
X.
Dad was not so much troubled by
the news which Bunny told him.
that Dan Irving was on the trail OF
Vernon Roscoe in the national cap
ital. There was bound to be gossip
about the lease, of course; there
was always "soreheads," trying to
make trouble, but everybody would
understand it was jist politics. lit
was the biggest killing" of Dads
lifetime, and of Verne's too; they
would go ahead and drill the land
and get out the oil and nothing
else would count You had to be a
sort of hard-shell crab in this oil
game; it was too bad Bunny wasn't
able to grow the necessary shell.
Also, it was too bad that a nice
young Teller like "the professor"
couldn't find anything better to do
with himself than to go smelling
round Verne's clubhouse. wr
There had been a new company
formed, to develop this greatest oil
field in America, and Dad was part
owner of the stock, and vice-presi-
dent, with another hundred thou
sand year for directing the devel-
opment work But he wasn't going
to wear himself out with detail, he
promised Bunny; he had trained
some competent young fellers by
now, and all he had to do was d.
rect them. 1t was a wonderful job,
and he was all wrapped up in put
ting 1t through, working harder than
ever, in defiance Of his doctors.