an hour or so. Then I'll go over that bill of lading
with you. Come, Betty and Bob, we'll leave the machine and take the
trail on foot. Mind your clothes and shoes--there's oil on everything
you touch."

CHAPTER XII

IN THE FIELDS

"I always thought oil was for lamps," said Betty, as she picked her
way after her uncle and Bob, "but there aren't enough lamps in the
world to use all this oil."

They were walking toward a pumping station still in the distance, and
Mr. Gordon waited for her to come up with him.

"Perhaps lamps are the least important factor in the whole big
question," he answered earnestly. "Oil is being used more and more
for fuel. Oil burners have been perfected for ships. And schools,
apartment houses and public buildings are being heated with oil in
many cities. And, of course, the demand for gasolene is enormous. I
rather think the engine of the train that brought you to Flame City
was an oil burner."

"I wish we'd gone and looked, don't you, Bob?" said Betty. "Oh, what
a big derrick! How many quarts of oil does that pump in a day, Uncle
Dick?"

Mr. Gordon laughed heartily.

"Little Miss Tenderfoot!" he teased. "I thought you knew, goosie,
that we measured oil by barrels. That well is flowing slightly over
five thousand barrels a day. Altogether our wells are now yielding
well over fifty thousand barrels of oil a day."

"I read in one of the papers about a man who paid three thousand
dollars for one acre of oil land," said Bob thoughtfully. "How did he
know he was going to find oil here?"

"He didn't know," was the prompt answer. "There is no way of knowing
positively. Many and many a small investor has lost the savings of a
lifetime because he had a 'hunch' that he would bring in a good well.
Right here in Oklahoma, statistics show that in one section, of five
thousand two hundred and forty-six wells driven, one thousand three
hundred and fifty-six were dry. Now it takes a lot of money to drive
a well, between twenty and thirty thousand dollars in fact, so you
may count up the loss."

"But there is oil here--just look!" Bob waved comprehensively toward
the beehive of industry that surrounded them.

"Right, my boy. And when they do strike oil, they strike it rich.
Huge fortunes have been made in oil and will be made again. If the
crooks who pose as brokers and promoters would keep their hands off,
it might be possible to safeguard some of the smaller speculators."

Bob was m