od-lot,
with all there is or may be on it, and since it was the last time I
should have the right to do anything regarding it without his knowledge,
I refused to tell him where I was going. But now that he owns an equal
share with you, Mr. Simpson and me, he will have a perfect right to
question me."

Bob looked up in blank amazement, but made no attempt to speak, and
after waiting several moments, during which no one save the two original
partners seemed to understand the situation, Ralph said, as he handed
Bob one of the documents:

"Believing that but for you 'The Harnett' would not have been opened, at
least for some time, we have thought it best to divide the property into
fourths, one of which belongs to you."

Perhaps for the first time in his life, Bob was unable to make any
reply, and he walked quickly out of the room to the wood-pile, where he
sat for some time as if trying to make himself believe that what Ralph
had said was true.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

RED ROCK.

The idea that Ralph and George would voluntarily give him a portion of
what he considered to be very valuable property, was the farthest
thought from Bob's mind. He had gone to work to open the well simply
because he was anxious to prove to those who had declared he knew
nothing about it, that there was a large deposit of oil where he had
always insisted there must be. If any one had said to him that he was
entitled to any considerable reward because he had given up his own
business to improve the value of his friend's property, he would have
said truly that he had not neglected his own business, since just at
that time there was no work for moonlighters to do.

He had started in on the work with no idea of being paid for his
services, although if oil was found, and he had needed any small amount
of money, he would not have hesitated to ask for it. The work had been
begun by him upon the impulse of the moment, and this making him an
equal owner in the well, simply because of what he had done, surprised
him even more than it did any one else.

It was after he had been sitting on the wood-pile long enough to
understand why this property had been given him, reading first the deed,
and then looking toward the wood-lot, where he could hear the sounds of
activity, that he entered the house, where both his old and his new
partners were discussing, as they had ever since the work had begun, the
probabilities of finding oil.

"I tell you what