In the mid 1970s, a band of men with little expertise in the oilfield defied the hard ground of Giddings, Texas, to search for oil in a barren, poverty-stricken land that was littered with dry holes, shattered hopes, and empty pockets. Max Williams, the former hot-shot basketball player at SMU, and Irv Deal had been in high-dollar real estate until the real estate market collapsed. Both were facing the wrath of hard times. Pat Holloway was a lawyer who operated drilling funds but had never tested the ill-fated Austin Chalk. He drilled the most and earned the most but lost it all in the shady confines of a Dallas courtroom. Jimmy Luecke was a highway patrolman who stopped Holloway for speeding one night and promised not to take him to jail if the lawyer/oilman would agree to drill on his family's land. Bill Shuford was right out of college and more interested in finding the next beer joint than his next job. Jim Dobos was a constable who used his badge to lease land, struck it rich, and was found with a gunshot in his head. Was it murder or suicide? Clayton Williams was the only big-time oilman in the bunch, but in the beginning, he made the mistake of employing the wrong geologist. Only those who used the geologic genius of Ray Holifield found oil. Holifield had cracked the code of the chalk. Gamble in the Devil's Chalk is the true story of their fights, their feuds, their trials, their tribulations, and their triumphs as they discovered the second largest oilfield in the United States during the past half century. Once they came, Giddings would never be the same again.

Difference between Gaming and Gambling-Universality and Antiquity of Gambling-Isis and Osiris-Games and Dice of the Egyptians-China and India-The Jews-Among the Greeks and Romans-Among Mahometans-Early Dicing-Dicing in England in the 13th and 14th Centuries-In the 17th Century-Celebrated Gamblers-Bourchier-Swiss Anecdote-Dicing in the 18th Century. Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen, meaning joy, pleasure, sports, or gaming-and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble-to play extravagantly for money, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later-as we see in Cotton's Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word: -"Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten between Idleness and Avarice: an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula, are laughing themselves to death; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Frederick Forsyth delivers a frighteningly possible novel of international terrorism and impending war… As the Russian people face starvation, the Politburo is faced with a hard choice: negotiate with America for food, go to war for national survival, or deal with an uprising in the motherland. Through an informant, British Agent Adam Munro learns that the situation is growing dangerously tense, with powerful forces in the USSR maneuvering for supremacy. But even as East and West conduct delicate talks, events spiral out of control and threaten to undo every step taken. The world’s largest oil tanker is hijacked by terrorists, and a Ukrainian “freedom fighter” is rescued in a bloody catastrophe on the Black Sea. From Moscow to Washington, the stakes grow ever more perilous as the mad actions of a few threaten to engulf the entire world in nuclear war—unless Munro can stop them.

Spider She's mine. Not because she's in love with me, but because as the Sergeant At Arms for the Devil's Outlaws MC, I'm expected to handle her. I enjoy punishing her for her crime against the MC. I'm glad she did what she did. Because now I get to keep her. But she's not who she says she is. I'm going to get to the bottom of her little game and shut it down. Now I can't figure out if I need to kill her or protect her. I'll keep her alive...as long as she doesn't lie. Emma What did I do? One bad decision sent my world spiraling into hell. Straight into the arms of a monster. I had no choice. Now the question is which is better, The cult whose horrors I barely escaped, Or the nightmare my outlaw captor has trapped me in? I may hate where I am now, But I can't stop thinking about him. I loathe him with every fiber of my being, yet when he leaves, I crave his touch. I'm his captive, his prisoner. I'm playing a role, Planning my escape. As long as he doesn't see through my facade, I'll make it out alive. I'll make it out before he destroys me. ***DISCLAIMER: Cliffhanger ahead. Spider's story will conclude in book 2, EVIL'S PACT. The following two books will feature another couple. This is a Dark MC Romance containing triggering elements. Read at your own risk.

This book is about a history of the vice in ancient and modern times all over the world and makes an exposition of its alarming prevalence and destructive effects. This work discusses with an unreserved and exhaustive disclosure of such frauds, tricks and devices as are practiced by "Professional" gamblers, "Confidence Men" and "Bunko Steerers", in order to alert readers not to fall into a trap.

Vols. 4- include Annual report of the American Fern Society, 1913-