"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 ought to be shot." "Why, Governor! We wouldn't hurt that kid. She's aces." "I told you my fight with Nelson was to be fair and square." There followed a moment of silence. Mallow and Stoner exchanged glances. "What percentage of that goes?" the former finally inquired. "One hundred." "So? Then it's lucky Nelson didn't fall. But there's no harm done--nobody's hurt." "It is lucky, indeed-for me. I'd have felt bound to make good his loss, if you had hooked him. I presume I ought to expose this swindle." "Expose Jackson?" Stoner inquired, quickly. When Gray nodded, there was another brief silence before the speaker ventured to say: "I know this bird Nelson, and, take it from me, you're giving him the best of it. If I hadn't known him as well as I do, I wouldn't of put in with you to break him. It's all right to trim a sucker once; it's like letting the blood of a sick man--he's better for it. But to ride a square guy to death, to keep his veins open--well, I ain't in that kind of business. Now about this Jackson; you can land him, I s'pose, if you try, but it would be lower than a frog's foot, after him playing square with you." "What do you mean by that?" "He could have stung you, easy, couldn't he? You surged out here on purpose to buy the lease, but he hid out all afternoon to avoid you." "He is a thief. He is stealing hundreds of dollars a day."