those documents."

"If he really took them, what do you think he did with them?" came from
Fred.

"More than likely he destroyed them," answered Jack. "He wouldn't want
evidence like that lying around loose, you know."

When Carson Davenport learned that six of his men had deserted and gone
over to the Rovers he was more angry than ever.

"They're going to do their best to undermine us," he said to Tate. "I
wish I knew just how to get square with them."

"We'll get square enough if we strike oil here," said Tate. "Those
Rovers will feel sick enough if they learn we are making a barrel of
money."

"It's easy enough to talk about making a barrel of money," came from
Jackson, who was present. "But I don't see the money flowing in very
fast." He had been talking to a number of his friends, and many of them
had said they thought the chances of getting oil from the Spell claim
were very slim.

"Oh, you just hold your horses, Jackson," said Carson Davenport
smoothly. "Take my word for it, this well we are putting down is going
to be one of the biggest in this territory."

But though he spoke thus, Davenport did not believe what he said. He,
too, was becoming suspicious that they might be drilling a well which
would prove dry. However, he had the traits of a gambler, and was
willing to go ahead so long as there was the least possibility of
success.

As the days slipped by the work on both claims progressed rapidly. Nick
Ogilvie managed to hire a few men in and around Wichita Falls, and
Davenport also picked up some workers to take the places of those who
had deserted him.

In those days the Rover boys became almost as enthusiastic as Jack's
father, and their enthusiasm increased when Tom Rover and Sam Rover took
a run down from New York to see how matters were progressing.

"It certainly is a gamble--this boring for oil," remarked Sam Rover.

"But it looks like a good gamble to me," answered his brother Tom. "And
I like the way that man Fitch talks." He had had an interview with the
oil expert which had pleased him greatly.

On one occasion the Rover boys rode over from Pottown to Columbina.
There, at the shooting-gallery they had visited before, they ran most
unexpectedly, not only into Nappy and Slugger, but also Gabe Werner. At
the sight of them Werner tried to get out of the gallery by the back
way, but was stopped by the proprietor.

"You haven't settled with me yet," said the shooting-gallery man.

"O