e boys alone! I
don't know much about 'em, but they seem to be perfectly
straightforward, and their father is as nice a man as I ever met."

More words followed, Davenport, as well as Tate and Jackson, doing a lot
of grumbling. Once or twice Slugger and Nappy tried to take part, but
some of the workmen cut them short, and in the end one crowd moved
toward the automobile while the other headed in the opposite direction.

"Well, that's the time matters got pretty hot," was Andy's comment.

"Gee! one time I thought we'd all be at it tooth and nail," declared
Fred.

"In my opinion that fellow Davenport is nothing but a skunk," declared
George Rogers. "I've known him for years. He has been in half a dozen
oil-well propositions, selling stocks and leases. One time he caught
three young fellows from Chicago and sold them a lease for several
thousand dollars that wasn't worth a pinch of snuff. Then he started
what he called the Yellow Pansy Extension. The regular Yellow Pansy was
doing very well--hitting it up for about eight hundred barrels a
day--and of course lots of people, including myself, thought that the
Extension belonged to the same crowd. But it didn't, and the lease was
absolutely worthless; so that all of the buyers of stock got stung. I
myself was hung up for fifteen hundred dollars, almost all the cash I
had at that time."

"Why didn't they put Davenport and his partners in prison?" asked Fred.

"Because he is one of those slick fellows who can worm out of almost
anything. One or two fellows did make some sort of charges against him,
but they all fell through. There are hundreds of swindlers in the oil
business, and not one out of a dozen is ever caught."

"If Uncle Dick makes up his mind to go ahead on the Franklin farm I
think I know a way of helping him," said Andy, with a grin.

"What are you going to do, Andy? Take off your coat, roll up your
sleeves, and grab a pick and shovel?" questioned his twin.

"Not exactly, although I might want to do that later on. But I was
thinking that a good many of those workmen didn't seem to be satisfied
with their job. Maybe they would be only too glad to shift."

Although they hated to do so, the boys felt it was their duty to tell
the particulars of what had occurred to Jack's father as soon as they
saw him.

"It's too bad you got into another mix-up with that rascal, as well as
with Martell and Brown," said Dick Rover. "After this I think you had
better stay