As this story begins, oil has been struck!! Big City denizens celebrate and a mass migration is planned for "Californee." (Okay, I made that last part up.) Unfortunately, the happy days come to a screeching halt when well production mysteriously plummets.
We join Dave Clark and Alice Taylor (remember her from "The Circus Mystery" ) on a date at a local night spot. Alice points out that a fellow diner--one conspicuously riotous Mr. Hobbs--is supposedly among the unfortunate well-owners in danger of losing everything. Dave speculates that Hobbs could be trying to drown his sorrows with wine, women, and song.
A page interrupts to announce a "Call for Mr. Hobbs!" The broke bacchanalian exits the scene, but not before asking his female companions to "Stick around...I'll be right back!"
Five minutes later, in another section of Big City, we drop in on another oilman. J. A. Carlson is anxiously placing a phone call to the Big City police with news "of the utmost importance." Tragically, before he can reveal his secret, Carlson is cut down by an unseen gunman. Hearing the shots over the phone line, the desk sergeant dispatches officers to Carlson's residence.
Meanwhile, Gabby and Doc Wackey--who've been listening in on police calls--spring into action. Gabby bounds outside just in time to hitch a ride on the police cruiser headed to the Carlson home. Once there, he learns that the oilman has--indeed--died.
Despite his best efforts, Gabby finds nothing but a few bits of brightly-colored paper. Feeling he's exhausted his own investigative skills, the talking monkey decides to call in Midnight.
Still at the "niteclub," Dave receives the call on his wrist radio, whereupon, he awkwardly excuses himself from Miss Taylor by claiming to have, "forgotten an important bit of business I must attend to!" On his way out of the club, Dave accidentally bumps into the returning (and perturbed) Mr. Hobbs.
I have a number of problems here. First, on this page, Cole refers to the locale of Clark and Taylor's date as a "niteclub." Okay, so that's not a standard spelling for the opposite of daytime, but I could look over it--if it weren't for the fact that Cole referred to the place as a "night spot" on the first page of the story! C'mon, brother! Pick a spelling and stick with it.
Secondly, you get the impression that Cole had absolutely no idea how to write about Alice. For example, she apparently has no response at all to: (1) her date's watch buzzing, (2) her date putting said watch to his ear and voices coming from it as from a telephone, (3) her date verbally responding to his watch. Really?! I didn't realize watch-phone combinations were so commonplace in 1940s America.
But wait! (as an infomercial pitchman would say) there's more! Not only does Alice have nothing to say about the watch-phone, when Dave suddenly up and ditches her (for the second time now--remember the Circus Mystery story--all she can muster in response is, "Well I like that!" ??? Really? What does that even mean? Was Cole trying to smooth things over and make it look like Alice really was happy to be getting dumped because her absentminded boyfriend had some "business" that needed tending?
As soon as Dave (now fully-garbed as Midnight) sees the bits of paper Gabby collected, he announces, "That's all the evidence necessary! I think I can name the killer!" If the reader hasn't already deduced that Hobbs is the suspect, all ambiguity is removed when Midnight tells Gabby they must make a quick stop to investigate Hobbs' oil wells before apprehending the murderer.
The duo arrive to find that the supposedly-dry wells feature an extra-large pipe, which Gabby speculates must be pumping "10,000 barrels a day!" Hidden beneath a trap-door, they discover a number of branch wells siphoning-off the black gold of Hobbs' competitors.
Just at that moment, two of Hobbs' men (Chad and Butch, we'll learn) get the drop on Midnight and Gabby and a raucous brawl ensues. Meanwhile, two more Hobbs-men observe this and telephone their boss asking what to do. Hobbs tells them to close the hatch, sealing in the three men (and monkey) until Hobbs himself can get there.
When Hobbs arrives, the heartless cur sets about opening a spigot in order to flood the shaft with oil, drowning all of its occupants.
With the oil rising, Midnight grabs a nearby barrel and has Gabby take refuge beneath apparently to secure an air supply. This, however, is another aspect of the story that doesn't make sense to me. If Midnight wants air, why would he artificially restrict his supply to the confines of the barrel? Isn't the top of the shaft full of breathable air as well--and a lot more of it?! If the argument is that the air in the shaft is becoming unbreathable due to oil fumes, how exactly is the air inside the barrel any different? Wouldn't the oil trapped under the barrel also be releasing toxic fumes?
Fortunately for our heroes, Doc Wackey has been watching events unfold on the visoscope, and promptly springs into action to save his pals. After scattering Hobbs and his accomplices by ramming a car into the nearest Hobbs oil derrick, the Doc unlatches the trap door, freeing Midnight and Gabby.
Midnight gives chase to the fleeing Hobbs. For some unexplained illogical reason, Hobbs decides to flee by climbing yet another oil derrick. Once at the top, Hobbs produces a hand-gun and takes aim at our hero. Yet for some reason, the same man who killed Carlson earlier is unable to hit a man climbing up a ladder towards him?! Midnight, apparently utilizing the equivalent of go-go-gadet arms, manages to land a haymaker in the middle of Hobbs' chest, knocking the villain off-balance. Before Midnight can save him, Hobbs drops off the side of the derrick to his own poetic demise.
After rejoining his companions on the ground, Midnight treats the reader to a moralistic assessment that Hobbs has, essentially, reaped that he he'd sown. As a final wrap-up, when Gabby expresses regret that they never caught the murderer of Carlson, Midnight reveals that--DUH! DUH! DUH!--the scraps of paper Gabby found at the murder scene gave it away. They were confetti that had gotten on Hobbs during the initial party at the night spot. They fell from him during the murder, leading to Midnight's immediate identification of the killer.
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