"It's so, all right enough," he said, on returning. "They didn't get more than a barrel or so to-day. It has certainly gone back on them. Of course, they can bore the well deeper. But I guess Mr. Fitch was right. He said that there was more or less surface oil--that they hadn't tapped any real vein or pocket." The day before the first of the wells on the Franklin farm was to be shot off the Rover boys went to Columbina on an errand to one of the stores. Just as they were coming out of this establishment they saw an automobile dash through the mud on the way to the railroad station. Behind it came another automobile filled with a number of men, all yelling wildly for those in the first automobile to stop. "Hello, something is going on!" exclaimed Jack. "Let's go after them and see what's doing," suggested Fred. The others were willing, and all set off on a run down the main thoroughfare of the town. As they ran they heard the distant whistle of a locomotive. "I guess the crowd in the first auto want to catch that three-o'clock express," remarked Fred. "Yes, and evidently the second crowd want to stop them," returned Andy. The excitement had attracted the attention of a number of people, and a crowd of a dozen or more followed the boys to the railroad station, all wondering what was the matter. As soon as the first automobile reached the railroad platform a man sprang from the car, holding a Gladstone bag in one hand and a suitcase in the other. He looked back, and then made a wild dash for the train, which was just rolling into the station. "Look! It's Carson Davenport!" exclaimed Jack. "And see who are after him--Tate, Jackson and three or four other men!" "Stop, Davenport!" yelled one of the men. "Stop or I'll shoot!" and he flourished a revolver, and another man in the crowd did the same. Then the bunch jumped from the second automobile and dashed pell-mell toward the train. CHAPTER XXX THE NEW WELL--CONCLUSION Carson Davenport was halfway up the steps of the car when Jake Tate and another man hauled him backward to the station platform. "They've got him!" exclaimed Jack, as he and his cousins, along with the rest of the gathering crowd, came closer. "Hi! Hi! Let me alone!" yelled Davenport. "Don't shoot! What is the meaning of this, anyway?" "You know well enough what it means!" bellowed Tate, still clutching him by the arm. "You come back here. You are not going to take that train or any other just yet." "And you're not going to carry off that bag, either," put in Jackson, as he wrenched the Gladstone away. By this time the crowd completely surrounded Carson Davenport, and the pistols which had been drawn were speedily thrust out of sight. The oil well promoter was pushed in the direction of the little railroad station, and in the midst of this excitement the train pulled out. "What's the rumpus about, anyway?" exclaimed one man in the crowd.