me to the conclusion that those wells he was putting down were no
good, and rather than sink any more money into them he was going to run
off with it."

"I wasn't running off with anything," declared Carson Davenport. "I was
going to put the money into the bank at Wichita Falls. I had a perfect
right to do that," and as he spoke he glared at Tate and Jackson.

"Say, if you're going to talk that way, I won't stand in with you any
longer!" cried Jackson, in a rage. "That money is going to stay right
here, where I and all the rest of us can keep our eyes on it!"

"That's right--don't let him get away with a dollar of it!" burst out
another man in the crowd.

"We'd better examine this bag first and make sure that we've got what we
came after," declared the man who wore the medals on his vest.

Davenport tried to demur, but none of the crowd would listen to him.
Although the Gladstone bag was locked, the oil well promoter was
compelled to give up the key, and then the others looked over the
contents of the bag.

"Twenty-six thousand dollars here," announced Tate, as he counted the
money in the presence of the others.

"What's this package?" demanded the man who wore the medals. "Hello!
Look here!" he exclaimed an instant later, after he had glanced at one
of several documents held together by a rubber band.

"What have you got?" questioned Tate curiously.

"You let those alone!" bellowed Davenport, his face turning pale. "Give
them to me! They are my private property!" and he endeavored to snatch
the documents from the other man's hand.

"Not much!" answered the man with the medals, Corporal John Dunning, who
had served over a year in France. "These papers belong to Mr. Richard
Rover, and he is the one who is going to get them."

"Richard Rover!" burst out Jack, who was close enough to catch the
words. "Why, that's my father!"

"I tell you I want those papers! They are mine!" screamed Carson
Davenport, and now he made another struggle to get them.

In the melee which followed Corporal Dunning was hit by the oil well
promoter, who in return received a blow full in the mouth which loosened
several of his teeth.

"If those are my father's papers they must be the same that were stolen
from him while we were stopping at a hotel here," said Jack. "Several
men entered one of our rooms and my father was knocked down from behind,
and while he was unconscious the men took the papers and ran away. They
were papers rela