e dirt from the
excavation was dumped at the edge of the working to build a dam for the
fluid. Sacks filled with wet sand reinforced this dirt.

Meanwhile the oil boiled up in the lake and flowed over its edges in
streams. As soon as the second reservoir was ready the tarry stuff was
siphoned into it from the original sump hole. By the time this was full a
third pool was finished, and into it the overflow was diverted. But in
spite of the great effort made to save the product of the gusher, the
sands absorbed many thousands of dollars' worth of petroleum.

This end of the work was under the direction of Bob Hart. For ten days he
did not take off his clothes. When he slept it was in cat naps, an hour
snatched now and again from the fight with the rising tide of wealth
that threatened to engulf its owners. He was unshaven, unbathed, his
clothes slimy with tar and grease. He ate on the job--coffee, beans,
bacon, cornbread, whatever the cooks' flunkies brought him--and did not
know what he was eating. Gaunt and dominating, with crisp decision and
yet unfailing good-humor, he bossed the gangs under him and led them
into the fight, holding them at it till flesh and blood revolted with
weariness. Of such stuff is the true outdoor Westerner made. He may drop
in his tracks from exhaustion after the emergency has been met, but so
long as the call for action lasts he will stick to the finish.

At the other end Jed Burns commanded. One after another he tried all the
devices he had known to succeed in capping or checking other gushers. The
flow was so continuous and powerful that none of these were effective.
Some wells flow in jets. They hurl out oil, die down like a geyser, and
presently have another hemorrhage. Jackpot Number Three did not pulse as
a cut artery does. Its output was steady as the flow of water in a pipe.
The heavy timbers with which he tried to stop up the outlet were hurled
aside like straws. He could not check the flow long enough to get
control.

On the evening of the tenth day Burns put in the cork. He made elaborate
preparations in advance and assigned his force to the posts where they
were to work. A string of eight-inch pipe sixty feet long was slid
forward and derricked over the stream. Above this a large number of steel
rails, borrowed from the incoming road, were lashed to the pipe to
prevent it from snapping. The pipe had been fitted with valves of various
sizes. After it had been fastened to the wel