Part 45 (1/2)

”Thatto Davenport ”He caught hold of ht to put his hands on me”

After this there was a war of words in which Tate and Jackson, who had come up, joined The oil well pro to the Rover boys, and in this they were seconded by Nappy and Slugger

But, strange as it may seem, hardly any of the workmen took kindly to this

”Oh, they're only a bunch of kids,” said one of thewith them?”

”That man is mad at me because my father knocked hi to the worknificantly

”Was it your dad who did that?” questioned one of the men in the rear of the crowd

”It was This farm was left to my father by Lorimer Spell because my father saved Spell's life on a battlefield in France My father had a lot of papers to prove his claim, but the papers were stolen fro about that,” said another of the work to believe such a story as these kids are giving you, you can't work for me!” roared Carson Davenport, with a scowl

”I don't have to work for you if I don't want to,” answered one of the workmen quickly and with a scowl

”See here, Carson Davenport, you let ers ”I know you just about as well as anybody here

You are the felloho sold stock in the Yellow Pansy Extension, soot bit on badly Maybe you'd like me to rake up that little deal in the courts for you”

”Rats! You don't have to dig up ancient history, Rogers!” growled Davenport; but it was easy to see that the other's words disturbed hiood and plenty if you don't leave these boys alone! I don't know htforward, 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 gruer 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 tiot pretty hot,” was Andy's coht we'd all be at it tooth and nail,” declared Fred

”Inbut 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 tio 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 ed to the same crowd But it didn't, and the lease was absolutely worthless; so that all of the buyers of stock got stung Iup 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 felloho can wor One or two fellows did ainst hih There are hundreds of swindlers in the oil business, and not one out of a dozen is ever caught”

”If Uncle dick o ahead on the Franklin farrin

”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 ood many of those workmen didn't seem to be satisfied with their job Maybe they would be only too glad to shi+ft”

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 hiot 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 away froo ahead and sink all thesome inquiries, and he learned that it was true that the Martells, the Browns, and Mr Werner had contributed thirty thousand dollars towards driving tells on the Spell claim To this amount of money Davenport, Tate and Jackson had contributed another twenty thousand dollars