Lizzie and looped it. Boy! I tramped on her some, until we hit bottom
the other side of Burk. Mallow went clean through the top. I guess I
smashed the whole rear end, but we couldn't wait to see. They'll have
her stripped naked, tires, cushions, and all, before we get back.
Motor, too, probably. We've been hitting it afoot, on wagons and pipe
trucks--managed to get a service car finally, but it fell open like a
book. Just one of those dam' unlucky trips."

"Jackson didn't get to you, did he?" Mallow inquired, anxiously.

"Get to me? No. Nor I to him." Gray spoke impatiently. "What is this
all about?"

"Simply this, Governor: Jackson's well is a 'set-up'! For Nelson! We
nearly dropped dead when we found out that Parker kid had laid _you_
against it. Why didn't you _tell us_--?"

"What are you saying? I don't--"

"The well's phony. Dry as a pretzel."

"In what way? I saw the oil--"

"Never mind. Lay off!"

"I think I'm entitled to an explanation."

"Well, then, it's salted!"

"Impossible! I saw it pumping."

"I'll say you did." Mallow chuckled. "Live oil, too; right out of old
Mamma Earth. Cheap lease at seventy-five thousand, eh? It's like this:
the pipe line of the Atlantic runs across Jackson's lease, and one dark
and stormy night he tapped it. It wasn't a hard thing to do; just took
a little care and some digging. Now he runs the oil in, pumps it out
and sells it back to them. He's a regular subsidiary of the great and
only Atlantic Petroleum Company. It can't last long, of course,
but--oh, what a well to hand Nelson! What a laugh it would have been!"

"Outrageous!" Gray exclaimed. "I can't believe you are in earnest."

"It _is_ shocking, isn't it? Such dishonesty is incredible. And what an
unhappy surprise for the company when they finally locate the leak!"

Gray clamped a heavy hand upon the speaker's shoulder; harshly he
inquired, "Do you mean to say that Miss Parker deliberately--"

"She don't know anything about it."

"You said she 'laid me' against it."

"No, no! I merely tipped her to it because she's one of Nelson's
brokers."

"She's his sweetie," Stoner added. "He's going to marry her, so Mallow
thought he'd surely fall for it, coming from her."

"You--you're not fit to mention that girl's name, either of you."
Gray's tone was one of quivering anger. "If you involve her in your
crooked dealings, even indirectly, I'll--God! What a dirty trick." He
flung Mallow aside in disgust. "You oug