DAYS OF ANXIETY
"I wonder what Davenport will say when he finds those men are working
here?" remarked Fred.
"I don't care what he says," answered Jack.
"Do you think he'll dare come over here and have it out with Uncle
Dick?" questioned Andy.
"I don't think so," answered his brother. "I believe behind it all he is
afraid we'll have him arrested for the theft of those documents."
"If he really took them, what do you think he did with them?" came from
Fred.
"More than likely he destroyed them," answered Jack. "He wouldn't want
evidence like that lying around loose, you know."
When Carson Davenport learned that six of his men had deserted and gone
over to the Rovers he was more angry than ever.
"They're going to do their best to undermine us," he said to Tate. "I
wish I knew just how to get square with them."
"We'll get square enough if we strike oil here," said Tate. "Those
Rovers will feel sick enough if they learn we are making a barrel of
money."
"It's easy enough to talk about making a barrel of money," came from
Jackson, who was present. "But I don't see the money flowing in very
fast." He had been talking to a number of his friends, and many of them
had said they thought the chances of getting oil from the Spell claim
were very slim.
"Oh, you just hold your horses, Jackson," said Carson Davenport
smoothly. "Take my word for it, this well we are putting down is going
to be one of the biggest in this territory."
But though he spoke thus, Davenport did not believe what he said. He,
too, was becoming suspicious that they might be drilling a well which
would prove dry. However, he had the traits of a gambler, and was
willing to go ahead so long as there was the least possibility of
success.
As the days slipped by the work on both claims progressed rapidly. Nick
Ogilvie managed to hire a few men in and around Wichita Falls, and
Davenport also picked up some workers to take the places of those who
had deserted him.
In those days the Rover boys became almost as enthusiastic as Jack's
father, and their enthusiasm increased when Tom Rover and Sam Rover took
a run down from New York to see how matters were progressing.
"It certainly is a gamble--this boring for oil," remarked Sam Rover.
"But it looks like a good gamble to me," answered his brother Tom. "And
I like the way that man Fitch talks." He had had an interview with the
oil expert which had pleased him greatly.
On one occasion the Rover boys rode over from Pottown to Columbina.
There, at the shooting-gallery they had visited before, they ran most
unexpectedly, not only into Nappy and Slugger, but also Gabe Werner. At
the sight of them Werner tried to get out of the gallery by the back
way, but was stopped by the proprietor.
"You haven't settled with me yet," said the shooting-gallery man.
"Oh, that's all right. Take it out of this," growled Werner, and threw
down a dollar bill. Then he tried to pass out again, but before he could
do so Randy and Fred caught and held the rascal.
Cornered, Gabe Werner tried to put up a fight, and in this he got by far
the worst of it. He managed to get in one or two blows, but then Randy
knocked him down, and when he arose to his feet Fred landed on his ear
so that the bully spun around and lurched heavily against the counter on
which rested a number of guns.
"You let me alone!" roared Werner. And then he suddenly caught up one of
the guns and made a move as though to aim it at the Rovers. But the
keeper of the shooting gallery was too quick for him, and wrested the
weapon from the big youth's grasp.
And then Gabe Werner did catch it. Not only did Randy and Fred pounce
upon him, but also Jack and Andy, and as a consequence, bruised and
bleeding, the big bully staggered from the shooting gallery and set off
down the muddy street at the best speed he could command.
"There! I guess we've settled him for a while," panted Randy, when the
encounter was over. "Hello! where are Nappy and Slugger?"
"They slid out while we were taking care of Gabe," answered Andy. "I
guess they thought things were getting too warm." And in that surmise
the fun-loving Rover was correct. Dismayed by the beating Werner was
receiving, Nappy and Slugger had lost no time in departing for parts
unknown. It was a long time before the Rovers saw them again.
A few days later came word from the Spell claim that filled the Rovers
with astonishment mingled somewhat with dismay. Oil had been reported,
and every one connected with the Davenport outfit was of the opinion
that the well when shot off would open up big.
"Gee! suppose they do strike it rich?" cried Fred.
"I don't think they will--not after what the experts said," answered
Jack.
"But even Mr. Fitch said they sometimes made mistakes," put in Randy.
A few days later the well on the Spell claim was shot off, and this was
followed by a flow of oil amounting to forty or fifty barrels a day.
Then it was announced that the Davenport crowd was going to sink the
well several hundred feet deeper and they were also going to put down
another well farther up the brook.
"I reckon that flow of oil has got 'em a-going," remarked Nick Ogilvie,
and there was just a trace of envy in his tones. "Well, that's the luck
of it. You can't tell anything about it," and he shook his head
wonderingly as he went about his duties.
So far, there had been no indications of oil at the first well which the
Rovers were boring. But Mr. Fitch had told Jack's father not to expect
too much until a depth of at least twenty-five hundred feet was reached.
It made the boys feel a little blue to think that the Davenport crowd
had been the first to strike oil.
"Won't Nappy and Slugger crow over this--especially as their folks have
an interest in the well?" remarked Jack.
But the next day something happened which made Jack forget all his
troubles for the time being. A telegram came in from his sister Martha,
reading as follows:
"Ruth's eyes operated on yesterday. Very successful. Expert says
she will see perfectly."
"Isn't this grand!" cried Jack, his whole face beaming with pleasure. "I
declare, this is the best news yet!"
"I don't blame you for being pleased, Jack," answered Randy. "I'll wager
the Stevensons feel relieved."
The telegram was followed by a letter which gave many details. But the
main feature was that the operation had been entirely successful and
that the surgeon in charge had said positively that Ruth's eyes would
soon be as well and as strong as they had ever been.
"I am going to send her a telegram of congratulation," declared Jack.
"Even if she can't read it herself, they can read it to her," and he
hurried off to the telegraph station for that purpose.
After that the boys waited anxiously for some sort of development at the
Franklin farm. Tom Rover and his brother Sam had returned to New York,
and they had wanted the boys to go with them, but all had pleaded that
they be allowed to remain in Texas.
"We want to see the wells shot off and want to see the oil flow--that
is, provided it does flow," said Randy.
"We might as well put in our vacation here as anywhere," put in Fred.
And so the four lads were allowed to remain.
Of course, the Franklins were as anxious as any one to see how matters
would turn out. Father and son were working for the company and doing
their best to hurry matters along. Dick Rover was also on hand daily,
consulting with Ogilvie and his assistants to make sure that everything
was going right.
"These two wells are going to cost us about seventy thousand dollars,"
Jack's father confided to him. "It's a mint of money, isn't it?" and he
smiled slightly.
"It certainly is, Dad. Especially if the wells don't pan out."
"Well, we've got to take what comes. You must remember this is the land
of luck--good or bad."
At last Ogilvie announced that they were getting to the point where the
first well would soon be shot off. There were some indications of oil,
although not as strong as Mr. Fitch had hoped. The oil expert had put up
his five thousand dollars in the company which had been formed, so he
was almost as anxious as those who had larger sums invested.
"Here's news for you!" shouted Andy, bursting in on the others the next
noon. "What do you know about this? Say, I guess those fellows are going
to catch it all right enough!" and he began to dance around the floor.
"What are you talking about, Andy?" demanded his brother.
"They say the well on the Lorimer Spell claim has run dry!"
"Run dry!" came from the others.
"Yes, run dry--or next door to it! They got only fifteen barrels the day
before yesterday, and yesterday they got not more than three."
"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Jack. "Who told you this?"
"One of the men who worked there. Carson Davenport was so mad that when
the man said something to him about it he fired him. The man said he was
coming over here to look for a job--that he was sure the whole thing was
petering out."
The news soon circulated, and Dick Rover was so interested that he went
off the next day to Columbina to ascertain the truth.
"It's so, all right enough," he said, on returning. "They didn't get
more than a barrel or so to-day. It has certainly gone back on them. Of
course, they can bore the well deeper. But I guess Mr. Fitch was right.
He said that there was more or less surface oil--that they hadn't tapped
any real vein or pocket."
The day before the first of the wells on the Franklin farm was to be
shot off the Rover boys went to Columbina on an errand to one of the
stores. Just as they were coming out of this establishment they saw an
automobile dash through the mud on the way to the railroad station.
Behind it came another automobile filled with a number of men, all
yelling wildly for those in the first automobile to stop.
"Hello, something is going on!" exclaimed Jack.
"Let's go after them and see what's doing," suggested Fred.
The others were willing, and all set off on a run down the main
thoroughfare of the town. As they ran they heard the distant whistle of
a locomotive.
"I guess the crowd in the first auto want to catch that three-o'clock
express," remarked Fred.
"Yes, and evidently the second crowd want to stop them," returned Andy.
The excitement had attracted the attention of a number of people, and a
crowd of a dozen or more followed the boys to the railroad station, all
wondering what was the matter.
As soon as the first automobile reached the railroad platform a man
sprang from the car, holding a Gladstone bag in one hand and a suitcase
in the other. He looked back, and then made a wild dash for the train,
which was just rolling into the station.
"Look! It's Carson Davenport!" exclaimed Jack.
"And see who are after him--Tate, Jackson and three or four other men!"
"Stop, Davenport!" yelled one of the men. "Stop or I'll shoot!" and he
flourished a revolver, and another man in the crowd did the same. Then
the bunch jumped from the second automobile and dashed pell-mell toward
the train.