JACK LIFTS THE LID
If Toby's manner was a trifle dictatorial when he made this demand,
perhaps he might be excused for feeling so. At least Jack did not seem
to mind in the least, if his smile stood for anything.
Toby had waited long, and suffered horribly. Minutes had dragged out in
an almost intolerable fashion as he watched the lagging sun creep down
the western heavens. But at last his time of triumph had come, when
according to the arrangement made between them he could ask Jack to
redeem his promise of a full confession.
As for Steve, he was staring as hard as he could, staring with his mouth
partly open after a habit he had when astonished. Of course he soon
grasped the idea, and across his face there began to creep a broad
smile. He gave Toby a grateful look, as though disposed to crown him
with a laurel wreath becoming a victor.
"Just as you say, Toby, the time seems to have arrived when you fellows
ought to be told the whole story," began Jack, as he settled back into
an easier position. "After what you saw today, and the discovery we both
made, it would be silly for me to keep you in the dark any longer. I
only bound you not to bother me about it until we'd had our supper, when
Steve also might hear, and so save me considerable talking.
"Well, first of all I must tell you who the lady in the case is, and how
she came to pick me out as the one she thought could best help her. She
is a leader in the Red Cross work, and a woman well liked by nearly
everybody in Chester. Her name is Miss Priscilla Haydock!"
"Do you know," burst out Toby, "I've been thinking of her ever since you
let slip that our backer wasn't a gentleman at all. Why, they say she's
got stacks of money, and uses it freely for every good purpose."
"I'm not so very much surprised myself," Steve told them, composedly;
"because I know Miss Haydock right well. She often visits at our house;
and my folks think a heap of her. But go on, Jack."
"She sent for me one day, and I called at her house, where she told me
that she had a strange job for some one to do, and somehow felt that a
wideawake boy might answer a whole lot better than a man. She also said
a few nice things about having watched me on the baseball field, and how
folks seemed to believe I tried pretty hard to _get_ there,
whenever I had anything on my hands; but I'll omit the bouquet part of
the interview.
"Coming right down to brass tacks now, Miss Haydock informed me that she
owned pretty nearly all this Pontico Hills district up here. She had
taken it some years back simply as an investment, and was holding it in
hopes that some fine day a projected railroad would go through here,
when it must become valuable property.
"Latterly she had been bothered by a nephew of hers, a man from New York
City by the name of Mr. Maurice Dangerfield, who had been trying to get
her to allow him to have an option on the entire strip of land, under
the plea that he believed he had a customer who would purchase.
"As the price he offered was considerably more than what she had paid,
Miss Haydock was almost tempted to agree. On thinking the matter over,
however, she came to the conclusion not to be too hasty about deciding.
She happened to know this Dangerfield was a clever individual, who had,
as a rule, made his living by being smarter than most people. He told
her he was in great need, and that the commission he expected to
receive, should the deal go through, would save him possibly from
becoming a bankrupt. He was working upon her generous nature, you see,
boys; but it happened that she knew a number of things not to his
credit, and so concluded to go slow about the matter.
"So she wanted me to get a couple of my chums and spend several weeks up
in the Pontico Hills camping, the only provision being that we should
take a lot of pictures to show her what the country looked like. And I
was to keep a sharp eye out for any sign of Mr. Maurice, as well as
learn, if I could, just what he was up to.
"She showed me a picture of her smart nephew, and of course as soon as
Toby here described the gentleman who came into camp that day, looking
so sour, I just knew it must be he.
"Now, when Toby and myself today discovered a man poking about, and
using a pickax now and then, as though searching for minerals, I
suspected instantly that we were on the verge of a discovery, and it
turned out that way. We hid in the bushes, and I even managed to snap
off the party, with his pick over his shoulder.
"When he had gone, Steve, we went over to see why he had been scratching
the soil as he did, and showing so many evidences of excitement. Well,
tell him what we found, Toby."
"Oil!" ejaculated Toby, theatrically, and Steve almost fell over, such
was his astonishment.
"Do you mean petroleum--crude oil?" he gasped.
"Why, in some places the ground was just rank with the black-looking
stuff," Toby assured him. "I sniffed it even before we got on the
ground; and while I'm not wonderfully bright-witted, I didn't have the
least trouble guessing what it was."
"Of course," continued Jack, "we don't know just how this Dangerfield
ever got wind of the fact that the big tract of land owned by his aunt
showed traces of being an oil district, because there are no such places
within fifty miles of here; but he must have scented it out in some way,
and then laid all his pipes so as to tie the property up under an
option."
"Why, it would be well worth a million, if a cent," said Toby, "in case
the wells panned out half-way decent. I've read a heap about this oil
business, and how many a poor farmer who had never been able to scratch
a decent living from his hundred-acre farm, woke up some fine morning to
have speculators pounding on his door, and offering him all kinds of
money up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars to sell out to them."
"So that's really all there is to the story," Jack went on to say. "You
know as much as I do now. Dangerfield is here on the ground. He's
conducting some sort of work over where we heard those explosions, and I
think he must be trying to put down an experiment well, so as to
convince the men he means to take into the deal with him that it means a
fortune for each one of them."
"Yes," Toby went on to say, breathlessly, "and mebbe those dull shocks
we heard came from their shooting the well. I understand they have to
start things with a blast of dynamite, when the gusher begins to flow."
"That may be the case," Jack admitted, "though I hardly think a shrewd
man like Dangerfield would go quite so far until he had actually secured
the option from his aunt. It may be he feels certain she will give it to
him, and is going ahead on that foundation. No matter, he certainly
showed signs of being mighty well pleased at what he saw today, didn't
he, Toby?"
"Just what he did, Jack, as happy as a clam at high tide," came the
answer. "Why, there was one time I actually thought the gent was getting
daffy, for he began to dance about like a darky boy, and slap his thigh
again and again. After that he hurried away. I guess if he had any
doubts lingering over, what he discovered today did for them."
"As likely as not," mused Jack, "he'll go back to Chester again, and try
harder than ever to coax Aunt Priscilla to give him the option, making
out that he's doomed to go to prison, and drag the family name in the
dust if she refuses. But she told me she was resolved not to take a
single step until she had my report."
"Then it's goodbye to all those castles in Spain that Maurice has been
building on the strength of deceiving his rich aunt," chuckled Steve, as
though highly amused at the way things were turning out, and proud of
the part he and his chums had taken in the game.
"Are you satisfied with what you've learned so far, Jack?" Toby wanted
to know with an anxious look on his face. "I certainly do hope you won't
be wanting to skip out of this the very first thing, and breaking up our
vacation camp before we've gotten settled down and hardly more than
started enjoying it."
Jack smiled at the earnest manner of the other.
"That would be too cruel, Toby," he assured him. "If I thought it
necessary that Miss Haydock should know what we've learned, why, I'd go
myself and tell her, leaving you fellows here to keep camp while I was
gone."
Thereupon the cloud gathering on Toby's face was suddenly dissipated,
and he grinned happily again.
"Oh! I hope you won't even have to think of doing that, Jack," Steve
remarked.
"I don't see any necessity just yet," Jack decided, "and unless some new
and very important developments come along I think I can hold off until
we all go back home. Besides, I hope to do a little more looking around,
and perhaps take more pictures while I'm up here."
"I get you, Jack!" cried the alert Toby. "Chances are that you're making
up your mind to drop in and see what they're doing over where those
blasts came from. How about that for a guess, Jack?"
"You hit the bull's-eye plum centre that time, Steve," laughed Jack;
"because while my plans are not exactly complete, I have that in mind.
But we'll talk it over again. There's no particular hurry, you see, if
we expect to stay here ten or twelve days longer. The more time we take
to enjoy ourselves the better it would look, in case a spy was hovering
about, trying to learn just what we wanted up here."
"One thing sure, Jack, I hardly think we'll be able to do much tomorrow,
because all the signs point to our having wet weather," Steve went on to
say, with the air of a prophet who could read the signs about as well as
the head of the weather bureau at Washington.
"There is a feeling in the air that way," admitted Jack. "I've noticed
it myself even if I didn't say anything about it. So I'm glad, Steve,
that you proved a good provider while at home today, laying in a fine
stock of firewood that ought to last us through a couple of days. It'll
come in handy in case we're shut in by the rain."
"Oh! we're well fixed for anything like that, Jack," chuckled the other.
"There's that dandy camp stove we fetched along, and haven't had a
chance yet to try out. I made a place in the tent for it, and Mr.
Whitlatch has an asbestos collar to use so that the pipe can't set fire
to the canvas, no matter how red-hot it gets. Why, it would be well
worth enduring a rainy spell just to see how the thing works."
"And I haven't forgotten either, Steve," spoke up Toby, "that you
promised to make a fine batch of biscuits in the oven of that same camp
stove the first chance you got. I want to open that bottle of honey, and
have been keeping it to go on hot biscuits--of course providing they're
a success."
"Now don't you worry about that," said Steve, boldly. "I took lessons
from our hired girl, and she said my biscuits were mighty near as good
as hers. Why, at the table they were sure enough surprised when she told
Mom I'd made the bunch."
And so they chatted and laughed until it was time to turn in again.