Norfleet: the actual experiences of a Texas rancher's 30,000-mile transcontinental chase after five confidence men. Page: 15 of 369

CHAPTER I.
ENTERING THE WEB.
Reno Miller Hamlin was the first member of the
"Bunco ring" that I met and that meeting was so casual
that even at this time, I cannot say positively just how
it came about.
I was stopping at the St. George Hotel in Dallas,
waiting for Captain Dick Slaughter to return to his
office so I could make a trade with him to buy 10,000
acres of land out of the Hale County ranch owned by
his family.
This was in the early part of November, 1919. I
had just sold a car load of mules at Dublin, Texas, which
was then on a big oil boom, and intended selling my
improved stock farm in Hale County so I could pay
cash for the Slaughter land.
To one of my raising, the most lonesome place in
the world is a large city, especially when a fellow is
almost entirely among strangers. Therefore, it was a
relief to find in Reno Hamlin a man of apparently
kindred tastes and experience.
Hamlin posed as a mule buyer, and looked the part.
He could talk mules so well that never once did I suspect
him of being other than he pretended.
He introduced himself as "R. -Miller" and claimed
he was from Hill County, Texas. He said he had
handled many car-loads of mules and grain from West
Texas but had never been there.
At his request I gave him a general description of
my part of the state and told him I was trying to sell
2,050 acres of improved land out there to get money for
the purchase of a larger tract.
He looked deeply interested at this, then said:
"Norfleet, I may help you out. A friend of mine is
purchasing agent for the 'Green Immigration Land Company'
of Minneapolis, Minnesota and is now trying to