king out there and taking a look
around?" suggested Fred. "We've got the whole day before us."

"You can do that and welcome," said Jack's father. "But take my advice
and take a good lunch along, because you may not be able to get anything
up there. I don't know whether there are any farmhouses around or not."

An hour later Dick Rover was off for Wichita Falls by train. Then the
lads asked the restaurant man to put up a substantial lunch for them,
and a little later they set off in the direction where the Lorimer Spell
tract was located.

Around Columbina the walking was anything but good. But presently they
found themselves on a country road which had not been cut up by a steady
stream of wagons and automobiles, and here they found going better.

They had covered about two miles when they came to a bend in the road,
and there Andy called a halt.

"I've got something in my shoe. Wait till I take it off," he said, and
sat down on a rock.

They were all resting when they saw an automobile truck rumble past
them. There were three men on the front seat, and the lads were very
much surprised to see that two of them were Jake Tate and the man called
Jackson.

CHAPTER XXII

AMONG THE OIL WELLS

"Did you see those fellows?" exclaimed Randy, after the automobile truck
had rumbled out of sight.

"I did," answered Jack. "They were Tate and Jackson."

"Can they be going up to the Lorimer Spell claim?" exclaimed Fred.

"It's possible."

"I don't think they saw us," put in Andy, lacing up his shoe again.

"No, they didn't seem to look this way at all. And, anyhow, they were
too busy talking to notice," answered Jack.

The four Rovers continued on their way, following the automobile.
Occasionally they met other automobiles, as well as wagons, some piled
high with oil-drilling machinery. Then they came to a place where a pipe
line was being constructed.

"We are certainly in the oil fields," announced Jack. "See all the
derricks in the distance?"

Being-good walkers, it did not take the boys long to reach the Spell
tract of land. To make sure that they had found the right spot, they
asked an old teamster who was at the roadside mending a harness.

"Yes, that's Lorimer Spell's ground--or at least it was his ground
before he was killed. There is the old shack just as he left it."

The boys walked over to the house, which stood among some low bushes. It
was a dilapidated structure, and had evidently been o