CHAPTER IVRECKLESS DRIVING
The threevisitors exchanged glances. It was evident that they did not especially welcome the suggestion. Like many business men, they had the idea that inventors were a sort of dreamy impractical race, not keen at bargaining and easy to beguile in a business deal.
Still they could not decently object to a thing so obviously correct, and after a mere instant of hesitation, Thompson made a virtue of necessity.
“We should be delighted,” he said suavely.
Tom took up the telephone that rested on a table near his hand and called up the plant.
“Mr. Newton,” he announced to the operator. “Hello. That you, Ned? Come right over, will you? I’m telephoning from the house. Some gentlemen are here with a business proposition and I want you here to confer with us. All right.”
“And while we’re about it,” remarked Tom, as he put down the telephone, “I’ll have my father in, if you don’t mind. He’s something of an invalid, but he’ll be of great help in discussing the proposition.”
Thompson assented with the slightest touch of vexation, immediately repressed, and Tom called through the window to Rad to summon his father.
They talked on indifferent matters for a few minutes until Mr. Swift and Ned arrived.
“Now, Mr. Thompson,” said Tom, after introductions had taken place and they had settled back in their chairs.
“As I stated,” resumed Thompson, “my partners and I are interested in having some special oil-well machinery manufactured. We have recently returned from a trip to Texas, where we have been investigating the oil situation. I can’t be more specific just now as to the exact location we have fixed upon for our venture for reasons that you can easily understand. We do not care to have any one know where it is, for although we have secured a large number of leases on property in the vicinity there are still more that we are negotiating for, and we do not care for competition. We think we have struck a rich field. At any rate, we are confident enough to make a try for it, although it involves a large outlay of capital. We want to get the material manufactured beforehand and shipped all at the same time so that it will be only a matter of setting up the machinery and starting the work. If you can do the work within a stipulated time and if your prices are right, we may be able to come to an agreement. But we would want you to cut your figures to the bone.”
“You can depend upon us treating you fairly in the matter of price,” put in Tom, and Ned nodded assent.
“Here,” said Thompson, taking up several sheets covered with figures and diagrams, “are the specifications of what we think we shall need; tubing, casings, drills, bits and the rest. They differ in some respects from those commonly in use, but we think they represent the most up-to-date inventions and improvements.”
“Of course,” put in Bragden, “if in the course of their manufacture you can improve on them we shall be glad to have you do so. Any new idea that comes to you we shall welcome. But, of course, that will not affect the conditions of the contract we may make with you.”
“Oh, yes it will,” said Tom drily. “Our contract will cover only the manufacture in exact conformity to the stipulations. If I invent anything better, the invention will belong to me.”
“I don’t see why,” growled Hankinshaw. “It seems to me that all your brains and time belong to us while you are working on the contract.”
His tone and manner were offensive, but Tom restrained his resentment and answered quietly.
“You’re mistaken there,” he replied. “You will see that if you look up the law on patents.”
“That’s all right,” said Thompson soothingly. “What we are especially interested in now is the time in which you can do this and the figure at which you can do it.”
“I think we can satisfy you in both particulars,” replied Tom, as he looked over the plans. “We have the plant and the machinery for turning out all the implements you have down here. But, of course, in a thing of this kind we can’t answer offhand. We’ll have to figure out labor and material costs, overhead and other items before we can name a definite figure. Suppose you leave these papers with us, and by to-morrow night we’ll be prepared to give you our terms. How will that do?”
“That’s satisfactory,” replied Mr. Thompson, after a moment’s conference with his colleagues. “Shall we see you here or at our hotel?”
“Perhaps we’d better meet in the office of the plant,” suggested Tom. “Then we can show you over the factory and let you get an idea of our facilities.”
“Good idea,” assented Thompson, and, rising, he and his companions took their departure.
“Bless my bank account!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, after the visitors had gone. “I think I’ve let you in for a good thing, Tom, my boy.”
“It may be so,” replied Tom reflectively, “and I’m very much obliged to you. By the way, Mr. Damon, what do you know about these men? Are they straight? Are they financially reliable?”
“Bless my responsibility!” was the reply. “As far as I know they’re all right. Thompson is the only one I know, and that but slightly; but my impression is that he has slathers of money. They’ve got to have some money or they wouldn’t be able to lease those oil lands they were telling us about.”
“Of course, that doesn’t mean such an outlay as it may seem on the surface,” said Ned thoughtfully. “They can lease all the farmland they want at a dollar an acre. The farmer is perfectly willing to let it go for that, for he wins any way. If oil isn’t found on his land he still has his property, and the dollar an acre is pure velvet. If it is found, he is allowed by law a royalty of one-eighth of the profit from the well or wells.”
“How do you come to know so much about it?” asked Tom, in some surprise. “I thought that your head was so full of figures that you didn’t have much time for anything else. Haven’t been investing in oil stocks, have you?” he added laughingly.
“Not exactly,” answered Ned. “But you can’t take up the papers nowadays without finding a lot about oil in them. There was a time when cotton was king. A little later steel was king. But to-day oil is king. Who’s the richest man in the world to-day? An oil man. What’s at the bottom of half the squabbles between nations nowadays? The fight for the possession of oil fields. England wants control of the oil fields in Persia and Mesopotamia. The Dutch are shutting out all foreigners from the Djambi fields. Soviet Russia expects to get enough money from her oil-well concessions to run the Government. So it goes all over the world. Oil is king. Look at the demand for it. See how automobiles are being manufactured by the millions. See how it has taken the place of coal for fuel in our own battleships and the great ocean liners. See how the great office buildings in various cities are using it in place of coal.”
“There’s millions in it, eh?” laughed Tom.
“Billions, trillions,” corrected Ned. “But now let’s get down to brass tacks and look over these specifications. Something tells me that we’ve got to watch our step in dealing with these men. Of course, they may be all right at that, but——” and he left his sentence unfinished.
“I don’t care much for that fellow Hankinshaw for a fact,” remarked Tom. “Once or twice I’d have liked to throw him out of the room.”
“He a little bit more than annoyed me, too,” assented Ned. “I wish he’d get another brand of tobacco.”
“Bless my appetite!” remarked Mr. Damon, as he looked at his watch. “I’ll be late for dinner and let myself in for a scolding. So long, folks,” and with a hurried handshake he was off.
Left to themselves, Tom, his father, and Ned put their heads together in close study of the specifications for the oil-well machinery. Although Mr. Swift had not been physically strong for years, his mind was as keen as ever and he was of invaluable service to the others, both of whom valued his opinion highly.
They sat long in conference, which was interrupted by dinner, to which Ned stayed. After the meal another hour of discussion ensued, at the end of which they had a pretty clear idea of the terms they would offer to the oil prospectors. There were some details left for Ned to look up on the following day, including an investigation as to the financial standing of the oil men, but the main features of their offer were practically settled.
“Well, that’s that,” remarked Tom, as Ned rose to go. “Wait a minute, Ned, and I’ll get out the car and drop you at your house. I’m going up your way, anyhow.”
“Yes,” said Ned drily, as he looked out of the window. “I notice that it’s a beautiful moonlight night. And I remember that Mary Nestor lives on the same street just a little way beyond our house.”
“What an acute mind you have,” laughed Tom. “I’d hate to have you on my trail if I’d committed a crime. Come along now and don’t be envious.”
It is possible that Mary Nestor had noticed too that it was a beautiful moonlight night and barely possible that the thought had occurred to her that a certain young inventor might happen along that way. What is certain is that she was dressed most becomingly, that her cheeks had a pink flush in them, and that her eyes were uncommonly bright as she opened the door in response to his ring.
“Why, Tom, what a pleasant surprise,” she said.
“It’s too fine a night to be indoors, Mary,” said Tom, as he held her hand a little longer than was absolutely necessary. “What do you say to a spin along the lake road? Just for an hour or so.”
“I’ll be glad to,” answered Mary. “Come into the living room and see father and mother for a moment while I get my hat on.”
She ushered him into the room and then ran upstairs while Tom greeted her parents. He was a great favorite with them, and they welcomed him warmly. They chatted together for a few minutes until Mary came down. Then, with a promise not to be gone too long, the young people went out to the car.
The moonlight flooded the roads, making them almost as bright as in the day. There was just a light breeze that blew little wisps of hair about Mary’s face in a way that made her seem more bewitching than ever. It was a night when it was good to be young and to be alive.
“On such a night——” murmured Tom, as the car purred smoothly along.
“Going to quote Shakespeare?” inquired Mary mischievously.
“Not exactly,” laughed Tom. “Mary,” he said, “listen. I——”
But what he wanted Mary to listen to could not be told at the moment, for just then a big touring car came plunging around a bend in the road and came tearing down toward them.
CHAPTER VA CLOSE SHAVE
The bigmachine came thundering along at a reckless pace, not attempting to keep to the right, but holding to the middle of the road. At the same time Tom and Mary could hear the sound of boisterous singing from the people in the car. It was evidently a party out for a “joy ride” and totally careless of the rights of others.
There was a cry of fright from Mary as the car kept on its course as if determined to ride them down. Tom turned the wheel sharply, so sharply in fact that his car went into a little ditch at the side of the road. At the same instant the bigger machine whizzed past, the driver grinning at the way he had crowded the other car off.
Tom was boiling over with indignation. If he had not had Mary with him, he would have turned and pursued the other car and never stopped until he had thrashed the driver or landed him in jail.
“The scoundrel!” he cried. “That fellow was little better than a murderer. If I could lay my hands on him I’d make him sorry that he’d ever been born.”
“There, there, Tom,” said Mary soothingly, though she was still trembling. “Let’s be thankful we’re alive. If you hadn’t been as quick as you were we would both have been killed.”
It took a few minutes and considerable maneuvering to get the car out of the ditch, but at last they were on the road again, and under the influence of Mary’s presence, Tom’s wrath finally simmered down. After all, they were, safe and together and nothing else mattered.
“You don’t know what a change has taken place in our home since father came back from that foreign trip,” remarked Mary. “It’s like a different place. He is so much improved and more cheerful that it seems as if a ton’s weight had been removed from our hearts. Mother goes about her work singing, and as for myself I’m happy beyond words.”
“That cranky old doctor knew his business, though it was like drawing teeth to get him to examine your father,” replied Tom. “It was an inspiration to send him abroad.”
“It might have been inspiration that sent him, but it took a young inventor named Tom Swift to bring him back,” said Mary. “I shudder yet to think of what might have happened if it hadn’t been for your courage and daring.”
“Oh, that was nothing,” answered Tom. “Any one else could have done the same if they’d had my facilities. I just happened to own an airplane that could do anything one asked of it. And the old bus certainly did herself proud.”
“The old bus, as you call it, wouldn’t have done anything if it hadn’t been for its pilot,” asserted Mary. “Everybody knows that. But you’re so painfully modest that I suppose you’d never own up to it, any more than you’d own up to what you did to-day.”
“What did I do to-day?” parried Tom.
“Oh, nothing,” laughed Mary. “Only saved a man from dying. Only set a broken leg as skillfully as a surgeon could do it. Apart from little trifles like that you didn’t do anything. I’d like to know what you would call a really good day’s work.”
“Ned Newton and Garret Jackson had as much to do with that as I did, Mary. But how did you come to hear about it, anyway?”
“Dr. Sherwood dropped in to see father early this evening,” was the answer. “You know they’re old friends. He thinks you ought to be a doctor.”
“I guess I’ll stick to invention and manufacturing for a while yet,” answered Tom, grinning. “Especially as I’m up to my neck in business. Everything’s humming down at the works. New contract came in to-day. At least I think it will be a contract if we can come to terms on prices. Going to give my answer to-morrow.”
“Tell me about it,” urged Mary.
“Oh, it’s for the making of some oil-well machinery,” answered Tom. “It’s something new for us, but we’ve got the facilities and can manage it all right. Mr. Damon brought the men to us, and I think it may result in a pretty big deal.”
“I wonder if they were the men I saw in Mr. Damon’s car when they passed our house to-day,” said Mary, with heightened interest.
“Likely enough,” answered Tom carelessly. “There were three of them.”
“Two tall ones and one fat stodgy one?” asked Mary.
“That’s right,” replied Tom. “But why the sudden interest? Do you happen to know any of them?”
Mary did not answer.
Tom looked at her in some surprise.
“Did you hear my question?” he asked.
“I don’t know any of them,” answered Mary.
There was something in her tone that piqued Tom’s curiosity.
“Come, Mary, out with it,” he urged. “You’re concealing something. Let me know what it is.”
“I’m sorry I spoke,” said Mary reluctantly, “I was right when I said that I didn’t know any of them. But one of them spoke to me in town to-day and tried to strike up an acquaintance. Of course, I froze him and got away from him as fast as I could.”
“The hound!” cried Tom furiously. “Which one of them was it? I’ll have his hide!”
“It was the fat, coarse one,” replied Mary. “I don’t know his name.”
“Hankinshaw!” cried Tom. “The low brute! Just wait till I can lay my hands on him!”
“Now, Tom, you must promise me not to do anything rash,” pleaded Mary, laying her hand on his arm. “There’s been no real harm done, and I squelched him so hard that I guess he’ll never annoy me again. It would only give me unpleasant publicity if you attempted to punish him. And then, too, I don’t want anything to be done that may interfere with your business deal.”
“What do you suppose I care for the business deal?” exclaimed Tom. “If that were the only thing concerned, I’d go to him and thrash him within an inch of his life. I disliked the fellow from the minute I saw him, anyway, and if I’d known what I know now I’d have bundled him out of the house neck and heels.”
“I wish I’d held my tongue,” sighed the girl. “But don’t you see, Tom, that if you did anything now it would hurt me more than any one else?”
Tom did see, and reluctantly relinquished his desire to inflict summary punishment on the fellow, though he fumed inwardly and vowed to himself that he would keep a close watch on the cad during the rest of his stay in Shopton.
Suddenly a thought struck him.
“Do you know,” he said, “that speaking of that rascal has reminded me of something? When that road hog nearly crashed into us just now, I thought there was something familiar in his face, but I couldn’t just place him. Now I think I know. I’ll bet it was Hankinshaw.”
“I shouldn’t wonder,” replied Mary. “I was so frightened that I couldn’t be sure, but in the glimpse I got of that repulsive face there seemed to be something I had seen before. I believe you’re right. He’s just the type of man to do that sort of thing.”
“Another thing added to his account,” said Tom grimly. “Something tells me that some day Mr. Hankinshaw and I will have a reckoning. And it won’t be exactly a pleasant day for him either.”
“Oh, well, let’s talk of something more pleasant,” said Mary, trying to get the young inventor out of his angry mood. “Do you know, Tom, I was greatly interested when you spoke about oil? It seems to me to be about the most important thing in the world.”
“Funny,” replied Tom. “That’s just what Ned Newton was saying to-day. I’ve been so busy with my inventions that I haven’t paid much attention to it myself.”
“I shouldn’t wonder if you would find that one of the most profitable things to devote your inventive genius to,” was the answer. “Father was saying the other day that there wasn’t a thing hardly with which oil wasn’t connected in some way or other. This car in which we are riding couldn’t run without oil and couldn’t be driven without gasoline. The same is true of the airplane in which you were flying this afternoon. Even on the farm the tractors are being driven by it. We women wouldn’t know what to do without naphtha and gasoline to remove spots. It’s in everything from the smallest to the biggest.”
“Almost thou persuadest me,” laughed Tom. “At any rate, I’m going to make a thorough study of the subject, and perhaps I may hit on something that will be worth while in the way of invention.”
“I’m sure you will,” replied Mary warmly. “You never yet have gone at a thing with all your heart but what you have succeeded in it.”
They had a delightful ride, despite the unpleasant feature that had intruded upon it at the start, and Tom had to let out his car to the fullest speed to get Mary back home at the time he had promised.
The next day was a busy one at the Swift Construction works. Tom was buried deep in the technical details of the machinery, and his father helped greatly with his assistance and advice. Already ideas of improvements were thronging in Tom’s active mind and he grew more and more interested as his study progressed.
Ned, too, was active in preparing his figures and estimates. He had been busy with the telegraph inquiring into the financial standing and responsibility of the oil men, and while these were not absolutely satisfactory, they were sufficiently good to warrant taking a reasonable chance, though they indicated the need of caution.
Late in the afternoon Tom and Ned came together for a preliminary conference.
“Well, how goes the battle, Ned?” asked Tom, as he settled into his office chair.
“I’ve got everything ready,” replied Ned, as he pointed to a mass of papers on his desk.
“Good!” was the reply. “As regards the time limit,” went on Tom, “I’ve consulted with Jackson and we figure that we can complete the job in six weeks. Of course, we could do it sooner, if we put the whole force on it, but we’ve got to take care of the contracts we have on hand.”
“As regards the price, we can do it at a fair profit for twenty-six thousand dollars,” said the financial man.
“Do you think they’re good for it?” asked Tom thoughtfully.
“I think we can take a chance,” answered Ned. “The references weren’t exactly what you could tall gilt-edged, but as regards Thompson and Bragden, they were fairly good. As to Hankinshaw——”
“The skunk!” muttered Tom.
“What’s that?” asked Ned, looking up.
“Nothing,” answered Tom. “I was just thinking out loud. Go ahead.”
“As to Hankinshaw,” Ned went on, “replies weren’t so good. He seems to have been mixed up in some shady deals. Went bankrupt once under suspicious circumstances. But he seems to be a minor figure in the deal. Thompson seems to be the king pin. To make things safer, however, we’ll demand a substantial cash payment on the signing of the contract and other payments while the work is in progress. That will cover us as we go along, and we can’t be stung to any extent. Take it altogether, my advice is that we conclude the deal, if they agree to our stipulations. And I think they will, for they’ve doubtless figured the matter out and they’ll know that our figures are right. Of course, they’ll try to reduce them, but we’ll stand pat. That is, of course, if you agree.”
“I’ll leave that all to you, Ned,” replied Tom. “Anything that you say goes. They can take it or leave it at our figures.”
CHAPTER VISUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
“Gemmun tosee you, sah.”
With his very best bow, Rad ushered the three men into the office of the Swift works that evening, where Tom, his father, and Ned were waiting to receive them.
“You see, Koku,” Rad had said patronizingly, when he had been directed by Tom to be at the office in case he were needed for any errands, “Marse Tom knows who to count on when he wants anything what takes ’telligence. Yo’s all right when it comes to muscle, but when brains is needed yo’s certainly not dar.”
“Could break your back like that,” glowered Koku, snapping his fingers.
“Sho, sho,” agreed Rad hurriedly, retreating a little. “So cud a g’rilla. But what brains has a g’rilla got? Huh. Nuffin at all. Et’s brains, Koku, brains whut counts, I’m tellin’ you.”
Tom, who had overheard the controversy, mollified the giant by directing him to watch over the visitors’ car and see that no one got away with it, and peace was reëstablished for the time.
The visitors offered to shake hands. Tom thus greeted Thompson and Bragden, but when Hankinshaw also held out his hand Tom was very busy with some papers and did not seem to see it.
“Well,” said Thompson, when cigars had been lighted, though Hankinshaw clung to his malodorous pipe, “how about those figures? Let’s know the worst. You’ll remember what I said about cutting them to the bone.”
“There wouldn’t be much nourishment for us if we didn’t leave some meat on them,” remarked Tom, with a smile; “but we’ve cut as close as we can and yet leave ourselves a reasonable profit. Mr. Newton has the figures. Go ahead, Ned.”
Ned handed to each of the three men a duplicate sheet of the proposed contract.
“Those are our figures,” he said. “As you see, we make the total sum twenty-six thousand dollars.”
“Twenty-six thousand dollars!” exclaimed Thompson, with a well simulated start of surprise, while Bragden held up his hands as though calling on heaven to witness the outrageous price.
“That’s the figure,” said Ned firmly, “and if you’ve done any calculating at all you must know, that they are reasonable.”
“Looks as though you were trying to bleed us white,” growled Hankinshaw.
“We don’t bleed anybody,” put in Tom coldly. “Our reputation in the trade is too valuable for us to indulge in any such tactics.”
“I should think that twenty thousand dollars would have been the extreme outside price,” objected Thompson.
“We can’t go below our figures,” said Ned. “Our first price is our best and our only price. That’s the fixed policy of the Company.”
“What do you say to splitting the difference and making it twenty-three thousand?” suggested Bragden.
Ned shook his head.
“Twenty-six thousand stands,” he said. “Of course, you’re under no obligation to accept these terms if you think they’re too high. But that’s the best we can do.”
“You gentlemen may wish to talk the matter over among yourselves,” suggested Tom. “If so, you can step into the adjoining office where you’ll have privacy.”
The visitors filed off into the other room where an animated conversation ensued. Thompson and Bragden kept their voices lowered, but every now and then Hankinshaw could be heard growling and objurgating, while his partners tried to quiet him.
In a little while they returned and resumed their seats.
“We still think the figures are too high,” Thompson announced; “but in view of your unyielding attitude and the fact that we are in a hurry to get to work, we have decided reluctantly to accept them. As to the time limit, six weeks perhaps will be all right, provided we can depend on the material being ready at that time.”
“It’ll be ready on the dot,” Tom assured him.
“Of course, your figures include delivery at the station in Texas that we shall designate,” Thompson went on.
“Not at all,” replied Ned. “If you will look at your contract again, you will see that it is clearly stated that those prices are f. o. b. Shopton.”
“Scalping us like regular Indians,” snarled Hankinshaw.
Thompson silenced him with a look. A long debate ensued, which ended with Ned’s carrying his point.
“Now there’s one other point,” said Thompson. “How about this proviso that five thousand of the amount shall be paid down on the signing of the contract? It doesn’t seem to me that that is necessary or usual.”
“It’s usual enough in an affair of this size,” replied Ned. “It’s only a matter of prudence or self-protection. You must realize, Mr. Thompson, that our acquaintance has been of very short duration and that we have never done business with you before. We have no doubt, of course, that everything is all right. There is nothing personal in this. It is just a matter of ordinary business precaution and procedure. This is a new line of work for us, and we shall have to incur a large initial expense for new tools that we have not hitherto required. Under the circumstances, therefore, we shall have to require that five thousand be paid down on the signing of the contract, five thousand more two weeks from now, five thousand four weeks from now and the balance on completion of the work. If you were building a house you would have to make some arrangement of the kind. We are asking nothing more of you than we do of others who are doing business with us for the first time.”
“I should think that Mr. Damon’s recommendation would have been sufficient,” grumbled Hankinshaw.
“Mr. Damon’s acquaintance was limited to Mr. Thompson, and I gathered was not very intimate,” replied Ned. “I guess we’ll have to leave him out of this.”
Hankinshaw was for continuing the argument, but the more astute Thompson, who saw that extended controversy on this point was liable to convey the impression that their financial responsibility was not what it should be, yielded the point.
“You certainly are a hard-boiled lot,” he said, with an attempt at jocularity. “But I guess you have us where you want us and that we’ll have to sign on the dotted line. That is,” he added, looking at his companions, “if my partners agree.”
They nodded, Bragden reluctantly and Hankinshaw scowlingly.
Tom and his father affixed their signatures, which were followed by those of the three visitors.
“Well, now that that’s settled,” remarked Thompson, as he rose from his chair, “I guess we’ll have to be getting along. Mr. Bragden and I have to get the night train. Mr. Hankinshaw will stay here for a while to take care of our interests and keep an eye on the work.”
“Just a moment,” put in Ned. “That matter of the initial check for five thousand.”
“Oh, yes,” said Thompson. “How careless of me to overlook that. If you’ll hand me that pen, I’ll fix it up.”
He took out a checkbook and wrote a check for five thousand dollars.
“There you are,” he said, handing it to Ned with a flourish.
Ned scanned it closely.
“The amount is all right,” he said, after an instant, “but the date is wrong. You’ve got it the 27th of May, while this is only the 21st.”
“Sure enough,” replied Thompson, with an air of vexation, as he looked at it. “I made it the 21st, but there must have been a hair on the pen and that made it a seven. Tear that one up and I’ll make you out another. And this time I’ll see that the pen is clean.”
He rubbed the pen carefully and made out another check that was correct. Ned examined it, folded it and put it in his pocket.
“The receipt of this is already acknowledged in the contract,” he reminded Thompson, and the latter nodded.
The visitors said good-night and took their leave, Rad opening the door for them with a profound bow that put such a crick in his back that he had hard work straightening up again.
“Well, Ned,” said Tom, “I have to hand it to you for the way you carried your points. You’re all wool and a yard wide as a business man.”
“You surely are, Ned,” agreed Tom’s father warmly. “You and Tom make a good team, he for the inventive and you for the financial end of the business. But now, as I’m pretty tired, I guess I’ll go over to the house and take Rad along.”
“All right, Dad,” said Tom. “I’ll be over before long. Hope you’ll get a good night’s sleep.”
“I shall if that tooth will let me,” and Mr. Swift smiled faintly. He had been having a great deal of trouble with his teeth.
“Better see a dentist in the morning and have it out if it doesn’t behave.”
“I guess that is what I’ll have to do, Tom.”
“Tom, the next thing for you to invent will be a painless tooth-pulling machine,” remarked Ned.
“Sounds fine,” returned Mr. Swift, with a smile, and then passed out.
Left alone, the young men looked at each other.
“On the level now, Ned, what do you think of those birds?” asked Tom.
“I should call them eels instead of birds,” replied Ned. “They strike me as being just about as slippery as they come. It was all right, of course, trying to get better terms. That was just what any business men would do. But that matter of the check looked fishy to me. In the first place, he didn’t forget about it as he pretended to do. Men don’t forget a thing like that.”
“What do you suppose his idea was?” asked Tom.
“Just to get out of reach before we thought, of it. Then perhaps he thought that we’d go on with the work anyway so as to lose no time, since we’ve got to get it through in six weeks. We’d have to correspond with him about it, and he could palter and delay until we’d got so far along with the work that we’d go on with it anyway. And then when I nailed him down to it, did you see how he post-dated the check? Hair on the pen! Tell that to the marines. The idea was to make the check no good until nearly a week had passed. That would keep their money in the bank a week longer, or if they haven’t got the money now to meet it, they’d have a week to get the funds together to meet it when presented. They may be operating on a shoestring, anyway.
“Then, too, the check is on a San Francisco bank. That may be all right, but in the natural course of exchange it will take nearly a week to collect it. There again we’d be supposed to be well on our way with the work, so far in fact that we couldn’t back out. But they’ll get slipped up if they’re trying any funny business there, for I’ll telegraph the first thing to-morrow morning to find out whether the check is good, and you’d better not do a stroke of work on the contract until we’re sure it is.”
“I’m almost sorry we’ve undertaken the work,” said Tom.
“I’m not,” replied Ned. “Of course, it’s much more comfortable to feel that we’re dealing with perfectly responsible people, but we’ve got the thing sewed up so that we can’t lose, anyway. They might like to cheat us, but they can’t. In the first place, we won’t spend a penny until we’re absolutely sure of five thousand dollars. That will cover everything until the next payment comes due two weeks from now. If they renege then, we’ll stop and be money in pocket. If they pay, we’ll have received ten thousand dollars. The payments after that they’ll have to make, anyway, for they will already have paid more than they can afford to lose. We’ve got them every way.
“Then, too, we’ve got a nice little profit in this proposition. It may also open up a new line that will be big in possibilities. You know already what I think of oil. The demand already for oil-well machinery is greater than the supply, and I know of some factories that are running three shifts and working the whole twenty-four hours to keep up with their orders. With the new oil fields that are being opened up, that demand is bound to increase, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t get our share of the business. This first order will perhaps set us on the road to doing this. Then, too, I’m banking on your inventing something new that will be so good that every oil field will have to have it. You’ve never tackled anything yet that you haven’t improved upon.”
“Thanks for the bouquet,” said Tom, grinning.
“No bouquet at all,” answered Ned. “It’s the simple truth, and you know it.”
“Well,” said Tom, “I’ll do my best. I feel the old urge coming on, and I’m hankering to get at it. There’s just one thing that’s bothering me now.”
“What’s that?” asked Ned.
“Hankinshaw,” replied Tom.
CHAPTER VIITROUBLE BREWING
Ned stoppedin his work of gathering up his papers and looked inquiringly at Tom.
“Hankinshaw!” he repeated. “What about him? What have you got against him outside of his smoking vile tobacco?”
“A good deal,” answered Tom emphatically. “He’s just about as popular with me as a rattlesnake at a picnic party.”
“Why the snake?” asked Ned quizzically. “I’m not much of an authority on natural history, but I’d call him an old crab and let it go at that. What has he done especially that peeves you?”
“Several things,” replied Tom, who did not care to mention Mary’s name and tell of the annoyance she had experienced. “For one thing, I’m pretty sure that he was driving a machine last night that nearly sent me to kingdom come. Hogged the road and made me go into a ditch. Then grinned like a gargoyle as he whizzed past. I tell you for a minute I saw red, and it’s a lucky thing for him that I didn’t get my hands on him.”
“I imagine that’s the type of fellow he is,” said Ned. “I don’t wonder that you felt like beating him up. Sorry that Thompson or Bragden didn’t stop over to look after the work instead of him. They may be no better than he is at heart, but at least they have the manners of gentlemen. But, after all, it will be for only a few weeks, and we’ll try to make the best of it.”
The next day Ned telegraphed to the California bank, and to his satisfaction learned that the check was good.
“It’s all right,” he told Tom.
“Then I’ll go ahead,” said the young inventor. “I’ll start in right away and order the material we need, and I’ll get busy gathering all the information on oil-well machinery and trying to improve on it. No more car rides or airplane spins, or anything else, for a while. Here’s where I shed my coat and work night and day. Watch my smoke.”
The next week was one of intense energy and application for the young inventor. He had the gift of losing himself in his work, especially when that work interested him. And the further he went into the subject the greater the grip it got upon him. His enthusiasm grew as he plunged into the fascinating study of the tremendous riches in oil that the earth held beneath its surface. Soon he was absorbed in it as in a thrilling romance. He traced the gradual steps by which men of all climes and in all ages had sought to possess themselves of this marvelous wealth stored in nature’s caverns and only yielded up reluctantly.
“Do you know,” he said one night to Ned, as they sat discussing the matter in the office, “that the Chinese were the pioneers in the matter of oil-well digging?”
“No, I didn’t,” replied Ned. “But I’m not surprised. Those old Chinamen seem to have started most of the things we’ve improved on later. There’s gunpowder and the compass and a raft of other things.”
“Well, digging for oil was one of them,” said Tom. “And the principles they applied underlie the methods we’re using to-day. Of course, they didn’t use steam power, and that’s where we’ve got the bulge on them. They worked by man power, and that apparatus was laughably crude when compared with ours, yet their methods were strikingly similar to those we’re using now or have been using very recently.”
“For instance?” said Ned, with a lifting of the eyebrows.
“Well, take their springboard arrangement,” replied Tom. “The cutting tool, or bit, was suspended in the hole by means of a rattan cable, and the required movement was given to it by a springboard. When a coolie jumped on the board, it raised the bit; when he relieved it of his weight the bit fell and cut its way downward. A drum with a vertical shaft, around which oxen traveled in a circle, coiled the cable and lifted the drill out of the hole when they wanted to bail out the hole or change tools. The bailer was made of a section of bamboo, and that material was also used for tubing and casing and pipe lines.
“Now, this springboard was very similar in action and function to the springpole which we’ve used here in America, chiefly at first for drilling brine wells. It was used, too, in drilling the first oil well of the California fields.”
“But they’ve given that up now, haven’t they?” asked Ned.
“Sure they have,” was the answer. “The walking beam, which is the biggest piece of timber in the present-day drilling rig, has taken its place. And, of course, that’s now operated by steam instead of manual labor. But my point is that the old springboard process of the Chinese and the springpole method that we’ve used till recently are fundamentally based on the same thing—the percussion process.”
“We’ve got a long way from that now, I imagine,” remarked Ned.
“We have and we haven’t,” replied Tom. “Percussion is still in common use in a great many wells, especially when they’re not supposed to go very deep and where the rocks are of comparatively soft stone. But where these conditions don’t exist, the rotary method is often employed. In that case two strings of pipe are used, one to wall up the hole, while the other with the drill attached is rotated inside of it. An important thing in connection with this method is that a circulation of thick mud pumped through the drill stem will support the walls of the hole until the well is completed, provided it isn’t too deep. It’s being used a lot now in the Texas fields, and I’m looking into it thoroughly. I tell you, old boy, it’s a fascinating study.”
“That’s the way I like to hear you talk,” said Ned, with a smile. “Once you get interested in a thing, you’ll never stop until you improve on it. I’ll bet a year’s salary that before a month’s over, you’ll have invented something that will set the country talking.”
“Don’t risk your money so recklessly,” laughed Tom.
“I’m not rash,” replied Ned. “As a matter of fact, such a wager wouldn’t be sportsmanlike, for I’d be betting on a sure thing.”
Although Tom’s time had been taken up so fully day and night with the contract he had on hand and the new invention he was evolving, he had not forgotten or neglected the unfortunate airman whom he and his friends had saved from death.
Several times each week he called up the hospital by telephone to learn how the patient was progressing. And he had requested Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper of the Swift home, to send fruit, jellies and other delicacies to the sufferer, a task which that warm-hearted woman undertook gladly.
“Come along, Ned,” said Tom one afternoon. “Let’s jump into the roadster and go up to the hospital. I want to see for myself how the poor fellow is getting along. Those ’phone calls are usually answered by the secretary, and she’s rather hazy in her reports. I want to have a talk with Doctor Sherwood himself. Nothing like going right to headquarters.”
Ned looked rather dubiously at a pile of papers on his desk.
“I’d like to,” he said, “but——”
Tom laughed, picked up Ned’s hat, jammed it on his friend’s head, and yanked him out of his office chair.
“You’ve got such winning ways, I can’t resist you,” observed Ned, surrendering with a grin.
In a few minutes they were at the hospital. In the hall they met Dr. Sherwood, who was just coming out of one of the wards. He greeted them heartily.
“I can guess what you’ve come for,” he remarked. “I wish I had more cheerful news for you about that poor fellow you brought here. But it’s proved to be a more serious case than I thought at first it would be. The fractured leg is mending all right, but his head’s in a bad way. It’s a case of brain concussion. He must have hit his head pretty hard when he dived into the tree. Most of the time he’s unconscious or semi-conscious, and his temperature stays high.”
“You don’t think he’ll die, do you?” asked Tom anxiously.
“No-o,” replied the doctor slowly, “I hardly think so. Still, you can’t tell. He’s a mighty sick man. But come along with me and you can see him.”
They followed him on tiptoe into one of the rooms. But they did not need to be so careful, for the young man with flushed face and disordered hair who lay on the cot was wholly oblivious to their presence. He was babbling in delirium, and there was no intelligence in the eyes whose restless glances passed over the visitors as though they were not there.
It was a saddening sight, and as the boys could be of no service they quickly took their leave.
“No clue to his identity yet?” asked Tom of the doctor, who had accompanied them out on the steps of the hospital.
“No,” was the reply. “Lots of people have looked at him without recognizing him. We’ve had many letters from all parts of the country from people who had read of the accident and thought the young fellow might be a missing son or some other relative. But he doesn’t answer to any of the descriptions given. And he himself hasn’t been in a condition to tell us who he is.”
“That young fellow certainly got a rough deal,” remarked Ned, as he and Tom walked away. “Think of his suffering like that and being all alone—I mean as far as his folks are concerned.”
“Yes, Ned, and think of his folks, if he has any. How they must be worrying about him.”
“Queer he didn’t have some sort of tag on his clothing. Most aviators wear them.”
“So they do. But fellows get careless. I suppose he forgot all about it.”
The next week was a busy one for Tom. During the evenings he was engrossed in the study of everything he could find that bore in the most remote degree on the subject of oil and oil wells. He had already a very extensive scientific and mechanical library, but in addition he wrote and wired to learned societies and Government bureaus for their latest bulletins and reports. These were soon coming in to him by every mail, and he devoured them with an insatiable appetite. Any one looking over from the house could see the light burning in his office till long after midnight.
And every night when Tom at last put out the light and stepped outside, he saw either a very slight or a very massive figure waiting to accompany him over the short distance that lay between the office and the house. One night it would be Rad and the next night Koku. Those two had had many wrangles on the subject of who should guard their idolized master, and had finally compromised on taking turns.
Tom at first had laughed and then scolded, but to no purpose.
“You nebber kin tell, Marse Tom,” Rad had said, shaking his woolly head, when Tom remonstrated with him, “w’en somebuddy might cum nosin’ an spifflicatin’ roun’ here w’en you’s busy wid yo’ wuk; an’ ef dey does, dey’s goin’ to fin’ ’Radicate Sampson right on de job. Nussah, nussah, Marse Tom, dey ain’t no use argifyin’. Ah stays heah while you stays heah.”
Koku was less voluble, but no less devoted.
“Me sleep when you sleep,” he said simply.
Faced with such loyalty, Tom could do nothing but surrender.
The days were no less busy than the nights, though in another way. Tom spent hours with Garret Jackson, the manager of the mechanical department of the works. He was a first-class mechanic, clear-headed and forward looking, and had been with the Swift Construction Company for years. Tom had not only the greatest respect for his ability, but also implicit confidence in his discretion. Again and again it had been necessary for Tom to entrust him with secrets of his inventions while he was having special machinery made, and he had never betrayed his trust. Repeatedly Tom thanked his stars that he had two such faithful coworkers as Ned Newton in the financial end and Garret Jackson in the mechanical part of his business.
As a result of his conferences with Jackson, it was not long before a high fence began to be constructed in a rather remote section of the plant. Many curious glances were cast at it as it went up, enclosing an area of about a hundred feet square. What it was intended for only a few knew, and the cold stare of Jackson when any one hinted at a question soon discouraged the inquisitive.
It was just verging on dusk one night, when Tom, coming back from the post-office, passed the one large confectionery store which the town of Shopton possessed. He glanced carelessly through the window and saw that the store contained two customers, a man and a girl. The latter, who was a trifle out of the direct line of Tom’s vision, was edging away from the man, who seemed to be annoying her. The man followed and laid his hand on her arm.
The girl threw it off and faced him indignantly. As she did so, Tom saw that it was Mary!
In a flash he was in the store.