ide of Babcock, and I
am certain they won't stop in the town. So I think we shall be safe to
drive as far as there. The chances are that the thieves will drive
through the town in the night, and stop in the first likely place they
come to on the other side. We can start in the morning again, about as
early as they can."

"Then that is what we will do," said George, satisfied that Bob had
deliberated upon this plan until he was convinced it was the best that
could be done.

"Do you believe we shall catch them?" asked Ralph, speaking for the
first time since he had met Bob.

"Catch them!" echoed the moonlighter. "I wish I was as sure of striking
a thousand-barrel well as I am that we shall be interviewing the young
gentlemen before to-morrow night."

But if Bob's hopes of striking a big well had been dependent upon
catching the thieves before the next night, he would never have made a
success in the oil region, save as a moonlighter.

"There is our wood-lot," said George, as he pointed to a grove on the
opposite side of the creek, near which a very old and a very dilapidated
house could be seen.

Bob was curious, of course, to know what George meant, and, after the
story had been told him, he said:

"It was a big thing for you to do, boys, and Simpson probably
appreciates it as much as any man could; but I tell you for a fact that
you will get your reward for that good deed sooner than you expect.
There's oil in that same wood-lot, and I've sort of reckoned on buying
it myself some day. If I had known how Simpson was fixed, it would have
been mine before now, for two hundred and seventy-five dollars is cheap
for ten acres, even if there is nothing there but rocks."

"But Simpson says he has had oil men examine the place, and there's
nothing there," said George, half believing Bob had some good reason for
speaking as he did.

"Yes, he had a lot of old fogies there who couldn't tell the difference
between oil and a tallow candle. They walked around ten minutes,
collected twenty-five dollars from the old man, and then walked away.
Simpson was probably paying ten per cent to old Massie, for I've heard
he was the one who held the mortgage, and if he could have got half the
amount loaned, don't you suppose he would have waited any length of time
if he hadn't seen a chance to make more? Massie knows the oil is there
as well as I do, and the old miser thought he was going to get the whole
farm for his five hundred dol