ame forward.

"I'll fix you, you young whelp!" roared Davenport, as he came again
toward Jack.

"You leave me alone," returned Jack. "Don't you dare put your hands on
me again!"

"Here, what's the rumpus?" demanded the driver of the automobile, a
fellow named George Rogers.

The boys started to explain, not only for the benefit of Rogers, but
also for the benefit of the workmen who were coming up.

"That whole bunch ought to be arrested!" blustered Slugger.

"That's what I say!" added Nappy, with his handkerchief to his bleeding
nose.

"That man started it," declared Jack, pointing to Davenport. "He caught
hold of me, and I told him to let me go. He had no right to put his
hands on me."

After this there was a war of words in which Tate and Jackson, who had
come up, joined. The oil well promoters were all anxious to do something
to the Rover boys, and in this they were seconded by Nappy and Slugger.
But, strange as it may seem, hardly any of the workmen took kindly to
this.

"Oh, they're only a bunch of kids," said one of the men. "What's the use
of bothering with them?"

"That man is mad at me because my father knocked him down twice the
other day," declared Jack, turning to the workmen. "And he knows why he
was knocked down," he added significantly.

"Was it your dad who did that?" questioned one of the men in the rear of
the crowd.

"It was. This farm was left to my father by Lorimer Spell because my
father saved Spell's life on a battlefield in France. My father had a
lot of papers to prove his claim, but the papers were stolen from him."

"I heard something about that," said another of the workmen.

"See here! if you fellows are going to believe such a story as these
kids are giving you, you can't work for me!" roared Carson Davenport,
with a scowl.

"I don't have to work for you if I don't want to," answered one of the
workmen quickly and with a scowl.

"See here, Carson Davenport, you let me have a word or two to say!"
broke in George Rogers. "I know you just about as well as anybody here.
You are the fellow who sold stock in the Yellow Pansy Extension,
something that I and a whole lot of others got bit on badly. Maybe you'd
like me to rake up that little deal in the courts for you."

"Rats! You don't have to dig up ancient history, Rogers!" growled
Davenport; but it was easy to see that the other's words disturbed him
not a little.

"I'll dig it up good and plenty if you don't leave thes