nd 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