s ears, hoping to gather more information, but having
heard of this desirable farm, Fluss and Blosser were apparently
unwilling to discuss it further. In reality, had Bob only known,
they were mulling the situation over in their respective minds, and
Carson knew they were. That night, over a game of cards, a finished
proposition would doubtless be perfected, and a partnership formed.

"What about you?" Fluss did say.

"Who? Me?" asked Carson inelegantly. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't go
in with you. I'm going right on through to the coast. Oklahoma isn't
healthy for me for a couple of months. All I'll charge you for the
information is ten per cent. royalty, payable when your first well
flows. My worst enemy couldn't call me mean."

"Got something to show you, Carson," said the man with eye-glasses.
"Come on back into the sleeper and I'll unstrap the suitcase."

The three rose, tossed away their cigar butts, and went up the aisle.
Bob waited till they had gone into the next car, intending then to go
back to Betty. His intentions were frustrated by a lanky individual
who dropped into the seat beside him.

"Smoke?" he said in friendly fashion, offering Bob a cigarette. "No?
Well, that's right. I didn't smoke at your age, either. Fact is, I
was most twenty-three before I knew how tobacco tasted. Slick-looking
posters went up the aisle just now, what?"

Bob admitted that there was something peculiar about them.

"Sharpers, if I ever saw any," said the lanky one. "We're overrun
with 'em. They come out from the East, and because they can dress and
know how to sling language----Say," he suddenly became serious,
"you'd be surprised the way the girls fall for 'em. My girl thinks if
a man's clothes are all right he must be a Wall Street magnate, and
the rest of the girls are just like her. They're the men that give
the oil fields a shady side."

In spite of his roughness, Bob liked the freckle-faced person, and he
had proved that he was far from stupid.

"You've evidently seen tricky oil men," he said guardedly. "Do you
work in the oil fields? I'm going to Oklahoma."

"Me for Texas," announced his companion. "I change at the next
junction. No, the nearest I ever come to working in the oil fields is
filling tanks for the cars in my father's garage. But o' course I
know oil--the streets run with it down our way, and they use it to
flush the irrigation system. And I've seen some of the raw deals
these sharpers put through--