tel. The man was about middle age, and had a most
decidedly dejected appearance.

"I was wondering if you young gents couldn't aid me a little?" he
whined, coming up to Jack and Randy. "I've been playing in mighty hard
luck lately. I haven't had a square meal in two days."

"What's the matter--can't you get a job?" asked Jack.

"Job! What do you mean?" questioned the unkempt individual in wonder.

"If you're out of luck, why don't you go to work?"

"Say, maybe you don't know who I am!" exclaimed the man indignantly.

"You're right there. Who are you?"

"I am Wellington Jonkers, the man who opened the Little Kitty and the
Fat Herring. You must have heard about those properties. We sold eighty
thousand shares of one and sixty thousand shares of the other."

"What at?" questioned Randy. "Two cents a share?"

"No, sir! Those shares went for twenty and twenty-five cents," said the
man. And then, lowering his voice to a confidential tone, he continued:
"If you young gents can stake me to a hundred or two I can put you wise
to the biggest proposition in oil down here--a proposition that is bound
to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars three months after it's
started. I've got everything fixed to go right ahead. You just put up
the two hundred, and I'll show you some facts and figures that will open
your eyes. I've got the real dope, and----"

"You poor fish, you!" exclaimed Jack. "What do you take us for, anyhow?"

He and the others had seen this type of oil well community parasite
before. In the restaurant attached to the hotel and also at the railroad
station and at the shooting gallery they had met more than one slick
individual who had wanted to "put them wise to the biggest oil
proposition" imaginable, all for the small sum of from two cents to
fifty cents per share in oil wells with such fanciful names as Sure
Winner, Daylight Luck, and Sunshine Sally.

"Then you don't want to go into a real good thing?" said the man, his
face falling.

"Not with you."

The man turned away, but then turned back:

"Say, you couldn't lend me five dollars until to-night, could you? I'm a
little short. My pard will be back on the seven-fifteen train, and then
I'll be all fixed again."

"I haven't anything for you," answered Jack shortly.

"And neither have I," added Randy. And then, lighting a cigarette, the
man shuffled away to see if he could not find some victims elsewhere.

"There's your land of luck from anothe