The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck: or, Stirring Adventures in the Oil Fields

CHAPTER XIX
IN THE LAND OF LUCK

"Well, here we are in Texas at last."

"And what immense stretches of country there seem to be, Jack. Miles and miles without a house or any other building."

"You must remember, boys, that Texas is the largest State in the Union," came from Dick Rover. "Some of the farms, or ranches, down here cover thousands of acres."

"How much farther have we to ride?" questioned Randy.

"Ten miles, that's all," replied his uncle.

They had made two changes since leaving New York City, but each stop had been less than an hour in duration; so to these boys so used to outdoor activities it felt as if the whole journey had been continuous. They were bound for a small town which in years gone by had been known as Steerville, but the name of which since the oil boom had been changed to Columbina. This, so far as Dick Rover could ascertain, was the nearest point to where the Lorimer Spell tract was located.

"We'll take a look around Columbina first," Jack's father had said. "I want to see how that claim looks. Then I'll take a run over to Wichita Falls and get those documents belonging to Spell from the safe deposit box in the bank."

"I see an oil well!" shouted Fred presently, and he pointed out of the car window to where the huge derrick could be seen over a distant rise of ground.

"There is another! And another!" added Andy, a few minutes later.

"Now we must be coming into the oil fields," announced Dick Rover, and his face showed that he was just as eager as the boys. "Just think of how some of these wells have made a great many comparatively poor people almost millionaires over night!"

"It sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it, Dad?" exclaimed Jack. "No wonder they call this the land of luck."

"But don't forget the disappointments, Son. Many a man has put his all into sinking a well only to find it absolutely dry."

"And wells cost so much to sink, too!" put in Fred. "Ten to forty thousand dollars each! It's an awful amount to gamble away."

"Not all of the wells cost that much, Fred. In some places they strike oil at a distance of a few hundred feet. But here they have to go down much deeper. Many good wells are down three thousand feet or more."

The train had stopped at one or two towns, and now the porter announced that the next stop would be Columbina, and he took their suitcases to the platform for them. Presently they rolled up to a small wooden station, and the travelers alighted. Then the heavy train rolled westward.

"Welcome to Columbina!" cried Andy jestingly. "Some big city, I must declare. I wonder where the Waldorf-Vanderbilt Hotel is located?"

"What's the matter with going to the Ritz-Copley Square?" added his twin, with a grin.

"Perhaps we'll be thankful to get any kind of a shake-down, boys," announced Dick Rover. "This certainly is worse than I anticipated, although I knew that we couldn't expect much in one of these boom towns."

To a newcomer Columbina certainly offered no special attractions. Only a few years before it had been nothing but a point where the ranchmen had shipped their steers on the railroad, with a tiny stockyard and a small ranchmen's hotel and saloon combined. Now the boom city, if such it might be called, consisted of a long straggling main street with a much dilapidated boardwalk on one side only. In the middle of the street the mud was all of a foot deep, and through this wagons and automobiles plowed along as best they could. All of the buildings were of wood, and none of them more than three stories in height. There were half a dozen general stores, the same number of eating and drinking places, and two buildings which were designated as hotels, O'Brian's being one and Smedley's the other. There was also a long, shed-like moving picture theater advertised to be open twice a week, in the evening.

"I was advised by a man on the train to try the Smedley Hotel first," said Dick Rover. "He thought I'd find a better class of people there than at the O'Brian place. Wait till I ask the station master where the hotel is located."

"You can't miss it," said the station man, when applied to. "It's down at the end of that boardwalk. If you go any further you'll sink into mud up to your knees," and he smiled feebly.

"Any chance of our getting in there?"

"Just as good a chance as getting in anywhere. They tell me O'Brian's place is so full they're falling out of the windows," and the station master chuckled over his little joke.

"Anything in the way of a taxicab around here to take us and our baggage up there?"

"Taxicab? The last man to run a taxicab was Jim Lumpkins, and now Jim's struck oil and he's so rich he won't do nothing. If you want to get up to Smedley's I reckon you'll have to hoof it."

"Come on, Dad, let's walk up there," said Jack.

"But your suitcases are pretty heavy," answered his father, with a smile.

"Oh, we won't mind those," declared Fred. "We've hiked around with just as much to carry many times."

"I sha'n't mind it myself," declared his uncle. "Campaigning in France was a splendid thing to harden one's muscles."

They set off down the one business street of which Columbina boasted. They had to pick their way carefully along the dilapidated boardwalk. At one point they came opposite O'Brian's Hotel. Downstairs was a saloon, and in this a noisy bunch were talking and singing.

"I don't know as I would care to stop there," remarked Randy. "It looks like rather a tough hole to me."

"You are right," responded Jack. "I'd rather go to some private house, if I could find one, or else buy a tent and hire a place where we could pitch it."

"Gee, that's an idea!" cried Andy. "I'd much rather go camping out and do my own cooking than put up with just any old thing."

At length they came to Smedley's Hotel. It was a new building, three stories in height, with a restaurant occupying one-half of the lower floor. Half a dozen men were occupying chairs on the front piazza, and they eyed the newcomers curiously.

"Looks fairly clean, anyway," whispered Fred to his cousins. "I wouldn't want to get into some old ranch that was full of bugs."

The office of the hotel was about twelve feet square, with a sanded floor. On one side was a plain wooden settee, and on the other an equally plain counter on which rested a register and a bell. Behind the counter was a tall, freckle-faced man with a shock of red hair.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," he said hospitably. "What can I do for you?"

"We want to know if we can be accommodated here," answered Dick Rover. "There are five of us."

"How long do you want to stay?"

"I don't know exactly. Several days at least, and maybe a week or two."

"I see." The hotel proprietor scratched his head thoughtfully. "I've got one big room left and one small room directly opposite. The small room has only a single bed in it, but the other room has a double bed and I could easily put two cots in there besides that."

"Would you mind showing us the quarters?" questioned Jack's father. Experience had taught him when in out-of-the-way places not to accept hotel accommodations until he had inspected them.

"Sure thing, Brother. Just follow me."

The boys waited below while Dick Rover and the hotel man went upstairs. A minute later they came down, and then Jack's father registered for the entire crowd.

"You pay for your meals in the restaurant when you get 'em," announced the hotel man. "The rooms are separate. Three dollars each per day."

The rooms to which they had been assigned were on the third floor of the hotel. One was amply large for all of the boys, and the other, while much smaller, had good ventilation and Dick Rover said it would suit him very well.

"The whole outfit is better than I was afraid it might be," he announced. "Some of these boom towns have wretched quarters for newcomers. In fact, I've read in the newspapers that in many places the newcomers had to roll themselves in blankets and sleep out in the fields."

"I was reading about one place where they set up cots on the floor of a general store at night and sold the right to sleep on a cot until seven o'clock in the morning for one dollar," said Randy.

There was no running water, but each room was supplied with a bowl and pitcher, and after the extra cots were placed in the larger apartment an extra bucket of water was also brought up by a maid.

Although they did not know it, the Rovers had no sooner disappeared upstairs than two of the men sitting on the veranda of the hotel came into the office and looked over the register.

"Five Rovers, and all from New York City," muttered one of the men, and gazed knowingly at his companion.

"Four of them were nothing but kids," returned the other. "It's only the man who counts, and his name seems to be Richard Rover."

"Do you think he is the same Rover?"

"I shouldn't wonder, Tate. That name isn't a common one. However, we had better make sure before we make another move."

Andy and Fred were the first to get through washing up, and then they came downstairs to take a look around before going into the dining-room with the others for supper. They came out on the hotel porch, and were surveying the scene before them when the two men who had inspected the hotel register lounged up to them.

"Well, what do you think of our town?" questioned one of them pleasantly.

"I haven't seen enough of it to form an opinion," answered Fred.

"It will take us a week or two, I suppose, to take in all the sights," came from Andy, with a grin.

"It might take you a week or two if you went on foot through the mud," answered the second man. And then he continued: "I suppose you came from a distance, eh?"

"We came from New York."

"Going to invest in some oil wells, I suppose?" remarked the first man who had spoken, and he smiled broadly.

"That depends on how we find things here," answered Fred. "You see, my uncle is interested in a tract of land they say has oil on it. Of course he'll want to make an investigation before he goes ahead."

"Is that man who is with you your uncle?"

"Yes."

"Is the tract of land he is interested in near here?" questioned the second man.

"I don't know how close it is to this town."

"What's the tract called? If you don't know exactly where it is, perhaps we can help you locate it."

"It's the Lorimer Spell tract," answered Fred innocently. He thought the men were just asking out of idle curiosity.

"Oh, I see." The man frowned and looked at his companion.

"Do you know anything about that tract?"

"Oh, I've heard of it. It's up on the north side of the town. I understand Spell was shot during the war," the man continued, looking at the boys.

"He was," answered Andy. "And he left all his property to my Uncle Dick, who once saved his life."

"Oh, that's it, is it!" cried one of the men. "Seems to me I heard something about that. Your uncle played the regular hero act."

"As I said before, he saved Lorimer Spell's life, and did it at the risk of his own. It was in the midst of one of the fiercest fights."

At this moment Jack and Randy came rushing down the stairs and out on the porch of the hotel in great excitement.

"We just saw somebody up the street!" exclaimed Jack. "And who do you think it was? Gabe Werner!"

CHAPTER XX
PLOTTING AGAINST DICK ROVER

"Gabe Werner!"

"Where is he?"

"Up the street," answered Randy. "Come on after him."

"Who's the man you are after?" questioned one of the men who had been interviewing Andy and Fred.

"He's a young fellow who once went to a military academy with us. He's a regular bully and did something for which he ought to be locked up," was Fred's reply, and then he rushed down into the street, following his three cousins.

"How can Gabe Werner be down here?" questioned Andy. "Why, we left him in New York City!"

"I can't help that, Andy. It was Werner just as sure as I am standing here. I just happened to glance out of the window and saw him crossing the roadway. He turned his face straight toward me, and I couldn't help but recognize him."

"Where did he go?"

"I'll point out the place when we get there."

By this time the four Rovers had left the boardwalk and were plowing along on the side of the road through mud that varied from an inch to six inches in depth. They had started to run, but were soon compelled to slow up.

"Gee, this is something fierce!" panted Andy.

"Oh, you cinder path!" chanted his twin. "Wouldn't you like to do a hundred-yard dash on this road?"

"It's not much farther," announced Jack. "I saw him heading for that shack yonder."

The place he mentioned was a small building erected of rough boards, with a galvanized roof. They neared the shack to find two men sitting before it on a log smoking their pipes. They appeared somewhat startled.

"Did a young fellow just pass this way?" questioned Jack quickly.

The two men looked at the Rovers curiously, and then one shook his head.

"Don't think he did, Stranger. I didn't see anybody, did you, Tom?"

"No," was the positive answer.

By the look on their faces Jack felt that the men were not telling the truth. Yet what he was to do he did not know.

"Maybe he went back to that garage," he suggested, pointing to a smaller building in the rear.

"Look around if you think anybody is there," said the first man who had spoken, and the boys hurried down to the garage, which stood open. As they did this one of the men sauntered into the shack.

"Say, what's the meaning of this?" he demanded of Gabe Werner, who stood hiding behind a door.

"I'll tell you as soon as they go away," was the answer of the former bully of Colby Hall. "Don't let them come in here and see me."

"All right, they sha'n't come in," was the man's laconic reply; and then he went outside again, to resume his smoking.

Having walked around the garage and peered inside, the four Rovers walked again to the shack. The man who had just come out of the building leered at them.

"Didn't find the fellow you were after, did you?" he queried.

"No," answered Jack shortly. He did not like the appearance of the man in the least.

"Want to see him particularly?"

"I want to give him a good thrashing – that's what I want to do!" exclaimed Jack. "And after that I might turn him over to the police, if there is any such thing in this town."

"We haven't any police here. We run things to suit ourselves."

"What do you want to lick him for?" questioned the other man.

"He threw pepper in my eyes once, and he's done a lot of other things he oughtn't to have done," returned Jack, and then turned back to the hotel, and his cousins followed.

"Those two men were on the hotel veranda when we first went there," said Randy. "I noticed them, and I did not like their looks at all."

"Do you know what I think?" returned Jack. "I believe Gabe Werner was in that shack all the time. I think he must have seen us coming and given those fellows the tip. They both tried to appear cool, but they were both flustered."

"But what can Gabe Werner be doing in this out-of-the-way place?" demanded Fred.

"He probably came here, Fred, just for the excitement. Hundreds of young fellows have drifted to the oil fields just as years ago they drifted to the gold fields. They gamble in oil stocks and do what they can, trying to strike it rich. It's a great temptation to any fellow who hasn't a well-paying job at home."

"But Gabe Werner ought to be going to school," put in Andy.

"True, Andy. But Gabe himself thinks he is old enough to do as he pleases. Evidently from the way he acts his folks can no longer control him."

When the boys got back to the hotel they found Dick Rover looking for them. He listened in surprise to what they had to say.

"It certainly is odd if that Gabe Werner is here," he said. "And more than likely you are right – otherwise that fellow wouldn't have taken such pains to hide himself. Well, if he is here, you must watch that he doesn't play any more tricks on you."

A fair supper was had at the hotel. During the meal both Fred and Andy noticed that the two men who had questioned them in the hotel office concerning the Lorimer Spell claim were watching their Uncle Dick closely.

"They seem to want to know all about our business," said Fred, when mentioning this to his uncle.

"Oh, that's the case in every oil town or mining camp," answered Dick Rover. "Men are always anxious to get a lead, as they call it, on what is going to happen next. If they think a fellow may strike it rich in some particular location they rush after him like a flock of sheep and try to get claims as close to him as possible."

After the meal was finished the boys took a walk around the town to see how the place looked at night and thinking they might possibly run across Gabe Werner.

The narrow street with the single boardwalk was crowded with people, some well dressed and others in the roughest of costumes. There was loud talking and jesting, and most of the pedestrians seemed to be in good humor, although occasionally they would pass a group evidently out of luck and willing to let everybody know it.

"No more oil fields for me!" they heard one man exclaim, as he lunged past, evidently partly under the influence of liquor. "I've sunk forty-five thousand dollars in wells already, and not a sniff of gas to show for it. I'm through!"

"That's the other side of the picture," remarked Randy. "Evidently he's got rid of every cent he had, and now he's so downhearted he is taking to drink."

"I don't see where he can get it in these days," said Fred.

"Oh, they manage to get it somehow."

The moving picture theater was open, and a crowd was swarming inside. The pictures were old and of a wild Western nature, and none of the lads had any desire to see them. They passed on and looked into the windows of a couple of the general stores, where everything from matches to bedding seemed to be for sale. Then they came to a corner where there was a side street which was little more than an alleyway. Along this were a dozen or more shanties set in anything but a regular row.

On the corner was a flaring banner announcing that here was located the Famous California Chop Suey Restaurant. Behind the small dirty windows ten or fifteen men were eating at half a dozen tables covered with oilcloth.

"Look!" exclaimed Fred, pointing in through the open door of the restaurant. "There are those same men who were at our hotel. Evidently they can't be stopping there – or at least they don't eat there."

"Isn't it queer that they should hang around our hotel and then come down here for a meal?" remarked Randy.

"They're talking to another man – somebody who wasn't at our hotel," said Fred. "Just see how excited they seem to be!" he added quickly, after one of the men drew a paper from his pocket and all of them bent over it with interest.

Then the stranger of the crowd began to talk to the others very earnestly.

"Let us walk down the alleyway, and perhaps we can find out something about those men," suggested Jack. "You say they asked about Lorimer Spell and his claim? They may know something that my dad would like to find out."

"All right," said Fred.

The four Rovers turned the corner of the restaurant and walked slowly down the alleyway along a narrow cinder path. This path ran close to the side of the building, and here were located several small windows, one of them close to where stood the table at which the men inside were seated.

"It's a mighty good thing that we ran across those Rovers the very day they came in," one of the men was saying. "If it hadn't been for that they might have gone up to the Lorimer Spell claim and done something that would queer the whole thing."

"Oh, I don't think they could do that, Tate," returned the man whom the lads had not seen before. "You know at the best Spell's claim on the land was not perfectly clear."

"Well, that's how you look at it, Davenport," said another of the men. "You must remember, Lorimer Spell had a good many friends in this neighborhood. Of course he was a queer Dick and all that sort of thing, but in spite of that folks here would want to have Spell's wishes in this matter upheld."

"Oh, I know we run some risk," returned the man called Davenport. "But I think the stake is worth it."

"To be sure it is!" came from one of the others.

"The question is," came from the man named Tate, "how are we going to get at it? Do you think you'll be able to see the documents this man Rover must carry?"

"Of course I'll see them. I'll get at them some way," returned Carson Davenport firmly. He was a large-built man, with coal-black eyes and black hair and his face had a rather cruel expression.

"Somebody said that Lorimer Spell placed his valuables in some safe deposit vault," went on one of the men. "In that case, this Richard Rover wouldn't have them."

"I don't see why not," said another. "If he became Spell's heir he would have a right to do anything, and the bank would have to give the documents up."

More talk of a like nature followed, and the Rover boys listened with keen interest to every word that was said. They recognized in Carson Davenport the man who had written to Jack's father hoping to get the latter interested in some fake oil companies, trusting that The Rover Company in New York City would be able to dispose of the worthless stocks to their customers – people who trusted them implicitly in all their financial transactions. While these negotiations were going on Jake Tate, Davenport's right-hand man, had learned that Lorimer Spell was dead and that he had made Dick Rover his sole heir. This was at a time when Tate and Davenport, as well as the other men, were trying to get possession of the Spell land, feeling sure that there was oil on it. They had been on the point of communicating with Dick Rover, thinking they might get the claim away from him, when he had surprised the whole crowd by his unexpected appearance in Columbina.

"We've got to have quick action in this," declared Jake Tate. "The longer we delay the worse off we'll be."

"Yes, but you've got to find out about those papers first," said one of the other men, lighting a cigar.

"You leave me to do that," said Carson Davenport. "I'm sure I know exactly how to handle this man Rover."

"He must be a pretty shrewd fellow, Davenport. Otherwise he wouldn't be holding such an important position in that Wall Street company," remarked Tate.

"I've handled men like that before. You leave it to me."

"But you don't want him to suspect anything is off color," said one of the other men.

"I'm not so green, Jackson. I wasn't born yesterday."

"Didn't you say you thought this Rover had a lot of money?"

"Yes, the whole family has money. But, at the same time, that has nothing to do with it. I'll tell you what I propose to do," continued Carson Davenport earnestly. "I'll wait until I am sure that he – "

This was as much as the Rover boys heard for the time being. Around the corner of the building from the main street had come three figures. They had been abreast, but now they approached on the cinder path in single file. As they came closer the lights from the restaurant fell on their faces, and to their intense surprise the four Rovers recognized Gabe Werner, Nappy Martell, and Slugger Brown.