BOUND FOR TEXAS
"Hi! hi! phat--phat you mean py knocking mine stand ofer?" cried out a
voice from the doorway of the building, and a small, stockily built
foreigner came running forward.
"Get off of me!" spluttered Bill Glutts, who was under Gabe Werner.
"You're pressing some of this broken stuff into my face!"
Werner could not answer, being too surprised by the sudden turn affairs
had taken. But then, as he realized that the four Rovers were close at
hand, he rolled over on the sidewalk, upsetting a small boy as he did
so, and then managed to scramble to his feet.
"Come on, Bill!" he panted, and set off down the street at the best gait
he could command.
What Bill Glutts had said about being pushed into the broken bric-a-brac
was true. His face had come down into the midst of several broken vases,
and one hand rested on a broken bit of glassware. When he arose to his
feet he found himself held fast by the storekeeper.
"You don't vas git avay from me already!" bawled the owner of the place.
"You vas pay for de damages you make."
"You let me go! It wasn't my fault!" stormed Glutts.
By this time the Rovers had come up. Bill Glutts looked the picture of
despair, with blood flowing from several cuts on his face and on one
hand.
"Where is Werner?" questioned Jack quickly.
"There he goes!" exclaimed Randy. "Come on after him before he gets
away."
"Some one had better stay here and see that Glutts doesn't get away,"
suggested Fred.
"All right, Fred, you and Andy stay here until we get back," answered
Randy, and then he sped off after Jack, who was already running at his
best rate of speed in the direction Gabe Werner had taken.
By this time Werner was thoroughly scared. He knew that he was liable to
arrest for smashing the bric-a-brac stand, and he had no desire to fall
into the clutches of the Rovers, feeling instinctively that they might
pummel him thoroughly before handing him over to the authorities.
Besides that, he remembered that they might hold him to account for the
pepper incident.
He had turned down a side street where there were a number of tenements.
He dove through an open doorway and ran the length of the hall, coming
out of the building at the rear. Here there was a small yard surrounded
by a board fence. He leaped the fence with ease, and then dove into the
back end of another tenement and out at the front, and soon lost himself
in a crowd on the other street.
Jack and Randy hunted around for fully a quarter of an hour, and were
then compelled to give up the chase.
"It's too bad," declared the oldest Rover boy, "but it can't be helped.
Let us go back and see what they have done with Glutts."
They soon found their way back to where the bric-a-brac stand had been
smashed. A woman was now in charge, and she was just finishing the
cleaning away of the wreckage. Fred and Andy stood nearby watching her.
Both wore a broad grin.
"What's the matter? Couldn't you catch Werner?" questioned Fred.
"No, he slipped us," answered Jack, and gave the particulars.
"The police just carted Bill Glutts off in a patrol wagon," announced
Andy. "The keeper of the store, a Bohemian with an unpronounceable name,
went along. He declared Glutts would have to pay the bill in full, and
even then he wanted him put in prison for life or beheaded, or something
like that."
"Phew! In that case Glutts will get all that is coming to him!"
exclaimed Randy.
"He sure will if that Bohemian has anything to do with it."
The four boys took another look around for Werner, and then walked back
to Fifth Avenue and a little later went home. Here a fine dinner awaited
them.
"It's certainly been a banner day," remarked Fred. "I'll never forget it
as long as I live."
After that two weeks passed rapidly. The boys went on a visit to Valley
Brook Farm, and also met Spouter, Gif and several of their other school
chums. They had a glorious Fourth of July, and then came back to New
York City.
During that time Jack wrote two letters to Ruth, and received one in
return. The girl stated that she felt quite well, but that her eyes were
still bothering her a good deal.
"It's too bad, Jack," said Martha, when her brother spoke about this.
"Ruth is not the one to complain. Her eyes are probably in worse shape
than she is willing to admit."
"I'm worried greatly, Martha," he answered. "I wish I could do something
for her."
In a roundabout way the Rovers heard of what had happened to Bill
Glutts. He had been locked up over night, and in the morning some
relatives had come to his assistance and through paying a fine had had
him released. Then Glutts and his relatives had paid for the damage done
to the bric-a-brac stand, a damage amounting to nearly a hundred
dollars. In the meanwhile, so far as they could ascertain, nothing
further had been heard of Gabe Werner.
"Werner is evidently going to keep shady," remarked Fred. "Perhaps we'll
never see him again." But in this surmise the youngest Rover boy was
mistaken, as later events proved.
At last came another red-letter day when the command to which the older
Rovers belonged was mustered out of the United States service. Tom and
Sam came in one day, and Dick the next evening.
"Now for civilian clothes once more!" announced Tom Rover. "And then I
guess it will be high time for me to get back to the offices in Wall
Street."
"And I'm with you, Tom," said Sam. "I'd rather be at my desk than on a
battlefield, any day."
When Dick Rover came back he was more filled than ever with a desire to
get down to Texas to look over the land which had been left to him by
Lorimer Spell.
"I've found out that it is right in a territory where a number of
well-paying oil wells have been located," said he. "But I'm not
altogether certain that his claim is a sure one, and it might be just
possible that some prospectors might try to jump it, now that word has
gone forth that he was killed in battle. They may think he died without
leaving any heir."
"Well, Dad, you know what I said," cried Jack quickly. "If you went to
Texas I'd like first rate to go along. Maybe I could help you with your
claim."
"Oh, Uncle Dick! won't you take us all with you?" pleaded Fred. "It
would be a grand outing for this Summer. We've been working very hard at
school, you know."
"A trip to Texas would put us in A, Number One condition for Colby Hall
this Fall," added Andy, with a grin.
"We wouldn't interfere with your business in the least," commented his
twin.
At first Dick Rover was rather doubtful about taking four lively boys
with him on the trip. But then he felt that they deserved something for
applying themselves so diligently to their studies during the Winter,
and also for helping matters to run smoothly while he and his brothers
had been in France.
"You can go," he announced the next day, after a consultation with his
brothers and their wives. "But I am going very quickly--by to-morrow
night at the latest. Can you boys get ready so soon?"
"Can we get ready!" exclaimed Andy. "Say, Uncle Dick, just let me run
upstairs and get an extra pair of socks and a toothbrush and I'll be
ready to go to the North Pole if you say so!" And at this sally there
was a general laugh.
After that matters moved with incredible swiftness. It was decided that
the boys should take no baggage but what would go in their suitcases for
the trip, and these were speedily packed. In the meanwhile, Dick Rover
obtained the necessary railroad tickets and sleeping-car accommodations.
"Hurrah! we're off for Texas and the oil fields!" cried Fred.
"Off for the land of luck!" exclaimed Dick Rover, with a smile.
"The land of luck?" questioned Jack. "Is that what they call it, Dad?"
"Yes, Son. And it's truly the land of luck for some. For others it is
the land of bitter disappointment."
"Then I would call it the land of luck--good or bad," announced Andy.
They were to leave from the Pennsylvania Terminal late in the evening.
The whole family had dinner together, and those to be left behind did
not hesitate to give the boys a great deal of advice.
"I hope you don't fall in with any rough characters down there," said
Mrs. Dick Rover. "They tell me there are some men in the oil fields who
are anything but nice."
"You may find you will have to rough it," said Tom Rover. "I understand
some of the oil fields are ten or fifteen miles away from the nearest
town."
"Well, we've roughed it before," answered Jack.
The mothers of the boys might have been more upset, but they felt
relieved to think that Dick would be with the lads.
Soon the time came for parting, and all drove quickly to the railroad
terminal. Then finally good-byes were said, and those bound for Texas
hurried downstairs to the big underground train station. Porters with
their bags took them to the proper car, and they soon found themselves
settled. A few minutes later they were off.
The trip during the night was uneventful, and, strange as it may seem,
all of the boys slept soundly. But they were up early and ready for
their breakfast just as soon as that meal was announced from the diner.
"I'm afraid we're going to have a rainy day of it," said Dick Rover, as
the four boys sat down to a large table while he took his place at a
smaller one opposite. "But as we'll be on board all day, it won't
matter."
During the meal Jack noticed that his father was reading a letter very
attentively, and when the party walked back to their Pullman he
mentioned this fact.
"This is a letter from an oil well promoter," said Dick Rover. "I don't
exactly know what to make of it. He makes a proposition which on the
face of it looks rather good, but somehow or other I have got it in my
head that he is a crook."
"In that case, Dad, I'm sure you won't want to have anything to do with
him."
"Is he a New York man or one from down in Texas?" questioned Fred, who
overheard this conversation.
"He operates mostly in Texas, although he has some connection in New
York. He is very anxious to form a new company, and, of course, sell the
stock. Well, I am willing to go into a new thing and take stock for
myself and try to dispose of some to others, provided the company is
really a good one. But I don't want to get mixed up in any shady
transaction."
"I should say not!" cried Jack. "The Rover name has always been a clean
one."
"What is the name of this promoter?" questioned Fred.
"Carson Davenport."
"What's that?" exclaimed Jack, somewhat startled.
"Carson Davenport. Did you ever hear that name before?"
"I certainly did, Dad. This Carson Davenport has a son Perry, and this
Perry Davenport and Nappy Martell were great chums, and unless I am
mistaken, Mr. Martell and Carson Davenport were once partners in some
mining scheme. I heard Perry and Nappy talking about it several times."
"Humph! if this Carson Davenport was a partner of Nelson Martell, I
don't know as I want anything to do with him. That whole bunch is tarred
with the same stick. Not one of them is honest," declared Dick Rover
bluntly.