Part 39 (2/2)
”I think I see a light!” aler were in this plot They o away out of town just so ouldn't be here with uess you're right,” answered Randy
”What's this you are saying?” questioned dick Rover, rather feebly
In a feords the boys explained the trick Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown had played on theht It a and everything that was in it are gone?”
”Yes, there isn't a single paper in this room,” answered Jack ”And e came up we found the door to your room locked, so it isn't likely they are there”
”They ot the papers,” answered dick Rover ”Probably they were afraid you or soht come up and catch them at their dastardly work As it is, it is queer somebody didn't see them”
”There happens to be no one down in the office but the young clerk, and he's half asleep,” answered Randy ”Besides that, those fellows ht of them at all?”
”I can't say that I did, Randy The first blow dazedof two or three for I rather think, however, that there were at least three men”
”And if there were, I'll bet a new hat those men were Davenport, Tate, and Jackson,” returned Jack firht, Son But you knohat they say in court: It is one thing to know the truth, and quite another to be able to prove it”
”But ould want to steal those papers if not Davenport and his crowd?” questioned Randy And then he added hurriedly: ”Did they rob you of anything else, Uncle dick?”
”I don't think so” dick Rover felt in his pockets ”No,are all safe If they had been ordinary thieves they would certainly have taken everything of value”
”Our baggage doesn't seeuess you are right--they were after those docu else”
There was a pause, and suddenly the boys saw a queer smile pass over dick Rover's face, and then he uttered a peculiar whistle
”What is it, Dad?” said Jack wonderingly He knew that his father had a habit of whistling in that fashi+on when so that perhaps those felloho robbed me had taken a white elephant off my hands,” returned dick Rover
”Why, what do you mean by white elephant?” questioned Andy
”I et possession of soive the about the Lorimer Spell claim?” questioned Jack
”Yes”
”But I don't understand”
”Of course you don't But maybe you will after I've told et the documents which Lorimer Spell had stored away in the safe deposit vault of a bank there
Well, I got the docu them over found that while Lorimer Spell's claim to the land see of a cloud to the title--the cloud of which Carson Davenport and his crowd are taking advantage But more than that, I found that a firone over the property both for Spell and for an oil proht to put some money into operations there So then I called on the fir talk with Mr Fitch”
”And what did Mr Fitch have to say about the land?” asked Jack quickly
”He was very frank to say that in his opinion there was no oil of any kind on the claim He told me that he knew Loriht in the main, he had been daffy on the subject of oil, so much so that it had just about turned the poor fellow's brain until he iined that there was fabulous wealth in oil on every acre he possessed Mr Fitch got down to facts and figures, and showed me all of his deductions, and he said that it was his honest opinion that any money spent on the Lorimer Spell claim would be utterly wasted”