e game. It's a shrewd device, and my hat's off to
the guy that invented it."

"Very true. Very well expressed. But in the statute governing the
procedure there is wrapped up a bundle of bad news, for it is provided
that any officer or stockholder may become personally liable for the
entire debt of the association. There is going to be a lot of sleep
lost over that fact when the truth becomes known."

"You mean if I got stock in a company that's blowed up, and I'm living
in Oshkosh, all pretty, that I can be hooked for the debts some crook
runs up here in Texas?"

"Precisely."

This intelligence brought no consternation to the partners; on the
contrary, McWade, the optimist, grinned widely. "Goes to show you we
have been playing the game along safe and legitimate lines," said he.
"We don't own a share in any of our own enterprises, and if we have to
pick up a few now and then to boost the market, we drop them again as
if they were hot. It's a pretty thought, though. Why, I can see years
of activity ahead of Brick and me, buying up the debts of defunct oil
companies and collecting in full from prosperous strangers hither and
yon. For Heaven's sake, don't let it get out!"

"I won't, at least until after I have accumulated a number of potential
judgments against Henry Nelson. He has had his share of cats and dogs,
of course, and some day I hope to lead them back to his doorstep. If
they return at the right moment, they may prove an embarrassment. Who
knows?"

"Got anything else up your sleeve?" Behind Mallow's dark glasses his
eyes could be dimly seen, and they were active with curiosity.

"Plenty. But we have enough here to start on. First, I want these
various leases, then I want a company promoted and a well started on
that twenty we talked about."

For some time longer the conspirators busied themselves over the
details of their plans, and Gray was beginning to feel some
satisfaction at his rate of progress when an interruption occurred that
threatened to delay action and even to rob him of the services of the
two partners. That interruption took the form of a call from a group of
highly excited and indignant purchasers of stock in the Desert Scorpion
Company, that promotion in which Professor Mallow had assisted on the
morning of Gray's arrival. These stockholders swarmed into the office,
bringing with them an air of angry menace; they were noisy; they all
talked at once.

From out of the confusion it soon