up and his whole gang. But
Bill's gone, too."

"Bill, too?" Jessie murmured.

Scipio nodded; and perplexity stole over his face again.

"Yes. I--I don't seem to understand. Y'see, he done James up, an'--an'
James done him up--sort o' mutual. Y'see, they told me the rights of
it, but--but ther's so many things I--I don't seem to got room for
them all in my head. It seems, too, that Bill had quite a piece of
money. An' he's kind of given it to the kids. I--I don't--"

"How much?" demanded the practical feminine.

"Seventy thousand dollars," replied the bewildered man.

"Seventy thou--Who told you?"

"Why--Minky. Said he'd got it all. But--but that ain't the worst."

"Worst?"

Jessie was smiling now--smiling with that motherly, protecting
confidence so wonderfully womanly.

Scipio nodded; and his eyes sought hers for encouragement.

"Ther's the oil, millions an' millions of it--gallons, I mean."

"Oil? Millions of gallons? Oh, Zip, do--do be sensible."

Jessie stood before him, and his worried look seemed to have found a
reflection upon her handsome face.

"It isn't me. It ain't my fault. It sure ain't, Jess," he declared
wistfully. "I've seen it. It's there. My pore claim's jest drowned
with it. I'll never find that gold now--not if I was to pump a year.
It's just bubbling up an' up out o' the bowels of the earth, an'--an'
Minky says I'll have to set up pumps an' things, an' he's goin' to
help me. So is Sunny Oak, an' Toby, an' Sandy, an' he sez we'll find
the gold sure if we pump the oil. Sez it's there, an' I'll be rich as
Rockefeller an' all them millionaires. But I can't seem to see it, if
the gold's drownded in that messy, smelly oil. Maybe you ken see.
You're quicker'n me. You--"

But Jessie never let him finish.

"Oil?" she cried, her eyes swimming with tears of joy and gentle
affection for the simple soul so incapable of grasping anything but
his own single purpose. "Oil?" she cried. "Oh, Zip, don't you
understand? Don't you see? It's oil--coal-oil. You've been searching
for gold and found oil. And there's millions of dollars in coal-oil."

But the little man's face dropped.

"Seems a pity," he said dispiritedly. "I could 'a' swore ther' was
gold there--I sure could. I'd have found it, too--if the oil hadn't
washed us out. Bill thought so, too; an' Bill was right smart. Guess
we'll find it, though, after we pumped the oil."

Suddenly the woman reached out both arms and laid her hands upon h