"Of course," continued Jack, "we don't know just how this Dangerfield ever got wind of the fact that the big tract of land owned by his aunt showed traces of being an oil district, because there are no such places within fifty miles of here; but he must have scented it out in some way, and then laid all his pipes so as to tie the property up under an option." "Why, it would be well worth a million, if a cent," said Toby, "in case the wells panned out half-way decent. I've read a heap about this oil business, and how many a poor farmer who had never been able to scratch a decent living from his hundred-acre farm, woke up some fine morning to have speculators pounding on his door, and offering him all kinds of money up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars to sell out to them." "So that's really all there is to the story," Jack went on to say. "You know as much as I do now. Dangerfield is here on the ground. He's conducting some sort of work over where we heard those explosions, and I think he must be trying to put down an experiment well, so as to convince the men he means to take into the deal with him that it means a fortune for each one of them." "Yes," Toby went on to say, breathlessly, "and mebbe those dull shocks we heard came from their shooting the well. I understand they have to start things with a blast of dynamite, when the gusher begins to flow." "That may be the case," Jack admitted, "though I hardly think a shrewd man like Dangerfield would go quite so far until he had actually secured the option from his aunt. It may be he feels certain she will give it to him, and is going ahead on that foundation. No matter, he certainly showed signs of being mighty well pleased at what he saw today, didn't he, Toby?" "Just what he did, Jack, as happy as a clam at high tide," came the answer. "Why, there was one time I actually thought the gent was getting daffy, for he began to dance about like a darky boy, and slap his thigh again and again. After that he hurried away. I guess if he had any doubts lingering over, what he discovered today did for them." "As likely as not," mused Jack, "he'll go back to Chester again, and try harder than ever to coax Aunt Priscilla to give him the option, making out that he's doomed to go to prison, and drag the family name in the dust if she refuses. But she told me she was resolved not to take a single step until she had my report." "Then it's goodbye to all those castles in Spain that Maurice has been building on the strength of deceiving his rich aunt," chuckled Steve, as though highly amused at the way things were turning out, and proud of the part he and his chums had taken in the game. "Are you satisfied with what you've learned so far, Jack?" Toby wanted to know with an anxious look on his face. "I certainly do hope you won't be wanting to skip out of this the very first thing, and breaking up our vacation camp before we've gotten settled down and hardly more than started enjoying it."