It was Ben's policy while in the oil country to be constantly on the lookout for new fields of operation. This was due to the fact that while a sporting-house or free-and-easy was a novelty in any place, it did an overwhelming business, but when the novelty wore off, the profits dwindled. Ben was ready by the time the cream was skimmed in one place to open up in another. He did not wait for others to make a beginning, but pushed ahead and built a business wherever the chance offered. Leaving Jennie in charge of the Bullion house, he visited Tarport, which he believed to be a promising point for operations. He landed in the town with just fifteen dollars. This sum he speedily increased to two hundred dollars by means of a friendly game of draw poker with Captain Moner and Pete Holmes. Thus supplied with a little ready money, he bought a house from Mr. Keefe, paying four hundred dollars for the property, and afterward enlarging and remodeling it at a cost of one thousand dollars. This was the first dance-house ever opened in that section of the oil region. It created an immediate and decided sensation. The fame of Hogan had preceded him, and the good people of Tarport thought it a terrible calamity that such an infamous character should take up his abode in their midst. Their indignation, however, did not prevent them from calling around to satisfy themselves as to the nature of the house. And Ben satisfied them all at fifty cents admission. The place opened with six women, and employed, after it was fairly under way, from fifteen to eighteen. Rhodes' full string-band furnished the music, and the redoubtable Nibbs acted as doorkeeper. This man Nibbs, who has previously been mentioned in these pages, under the alias of Scotty, in Tidioute, proved himself treacherous to the interests of his employer. Knowing that Ben was accustomed to carry large sums of money about his person, Nibbs conceived the idea of entering into a conspiracy with Jennie to rob Hogan. The proposition was that Jennie should take Ben's clothes, while the latter was asleep, and throw them out of a window where Nibbs would be in waiting. With the three or four thousand dollars which this venture would yield, the doorkeeper suggested that he and Jennie could set out for California, and enjoy themselves to their heart's content. Or, if it was more to her liking, they could strike out thirty or forty miles and open a house similar to the one in Tarport. "I ain't afraid of Ben," added the intrepid doorkeeper; "and if we once got a place started, I wouldn't care for anything he might do!"