y, outcropped at the foot of a high
bank. In the undergrowth, quite a way back from the stream, tardy
investigation disclosed that a hole had been dug down to that layer of
sand and into the hole had been poured several barrels of "crude." The
earth from the digging had been removed and the hole had been cunningly
covered up. Naturally, the oil from this reservoir had followed the
sand stratum and--the resultant phenomenon at the water's edge had been
well calculated to excite even the coldest-blooded observer. It had
excited Henry Nelson to such an extent that he had bought not only this
farm, but a lot of other farms. And Nelson was shrewd. Oh, it was a
great joke! The whole mid-continent field rocked with laughter at it.

Nelson, senior, returned from Tulsa bull-mad, and he came without the
money he had expected to get. What went on in his office that morning
after he sent for his son none of the bank's employees ever knew, but
they could guess, for the rumblings of the old man's rage penetrated
even the mahogany-paneled walls.

CHAPTER XXIV

Gray had once told Barbara Parker that there was no one quite like
him--a remark more egotistical in the sound than in the meaning.
Unusual in many ways he probably was, but, like most men, the discovery
that his proudest virtues were linked with vices of which he was
ashamed struck him as extraordinary. As if nature were not forever
aiming at a balance.

In spite of the fact that he was impulsive, headstrong, swift in most
things, this girl possessed the unique faculty of rendering him acutely
self-conscious, and it annoyed him the more, therefore, to find how
timorous he could be in putting her feelings to the test. That was the
one thing he could never quite summon courage to do. She was so young,
so cool, so disconcertingly straightforward that, in contrast, his own
age appeared the greater, and his many counterfeit qualities were
thrown into uglier relief.

Then, too, her answer meant so much that fear of refusal became an
actual torture, and the mere thought of it left his arrogant spirit
strangely humble. To a man in his vengeful mood, to a man whipped by
one savage purpose, love had come as a blessed relief; and, in
consequence, anger at his indecision was the greater. Sometimes he told
himself that he deserved to lose her.

One such occasion was after he had taken her out to the Avenger lease.

There was more than one well by this time; Avenger Number Two an