entrained for Malapi once more to look after the loose ends that had been
accumulating locally in his absence. A road had to be built across the
desert. Contracts must be let for hauling away the crude oil. A hundred
details waited his attention.

He worked day and night. Often he slept only a few hours. He grew lean in
body and curt of speech. Lines came into his face that had not been there
before. But at his work apparently he was tireless as steel springs.

Meanwhile Brad Steelman moled to undermine the company. Dave's men
finished building a bridge across a gulch late one day. It was blown
up into kindling wood by dynamite that night. Wagons broke down
unexpectedly. Shipments of supplies failed to arrive. Engines were
mysteriously smashed.

The sabotage was skillful. Steelman's agents left no evidence that could
be used against them. More than one of them, Hart and Sanders agreed,
were spies who had found employment with the Jackpot. One or two men were
discharged on suspicion, even though complete evidence against them was
lacking.

The responsibility that had been thrust on Dave brought out in him
unsuspected business capacity. During his prison days there had developed
in him a quality of leadership. He had been more than once in charge of a
road-building gang of convicts and had found that men naturally turned to
him for guidance. But not until Crawford shifted to his shoulders the
burdens of the Jackpot did he know that he had it in him to grapple with
organization on a fairly large scale.

He worked without nerves, day in, day out, concentrating in a way that
brought results. He never let himself get impatient with details.
Thoroughness had long since become the habit of his life. To this he
added a sane common sense.

Jackpot Number Four came in a good well, though not a phenomenal one
like its predecessor. Number Five was already halfway down to the sands.
Meanwhile the railroad crept nearer. Malapi was already talking of its
big celebration when the first engine should come to town. Its council
had voted to change the name of the place to Bonanza.

The tide was turning against Steelman. He was still a very rich man, but
he seemed no longer to be a lucky one. He brought in a dry well. On
another location the cable had pulled out of the socket and a forty-foot
auger stem and bit lay at the bottom of a hole fifteen hundred feet deep.
His best producer was beginning to cough a weak and intermittent fl