RALPH GURNEY'S OIL SPECULATION
By JAMES OTIS
Author of "The Cruise of the Sprite," "The Clown's Protege," "Roy Barton's Adventures on the Mexican Border," Etc.
[Illustration]
A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Copyright 1883 BY JAMES ELVERSON
RALPH GURNEY'S OIL SPECULATION
Renewal Granted to JAMES OTIS KALER, 1911
RALPH GURNEY'S OIL SPECULATION.
CHAPTER I.
THE "CHUMS."
The puffing, panting engine that dragged the long train of heavy cars into the busy little city of Bradford, in the State of Pennsylvania, one day last summer, witnessed through its one white, staring eye, sometimes called the head-light, many happy meetings between waiting and coming friends; but none was more hearty than that between two college mates--one who had graduated the year previous, and the other who hoped to carry off the honors at the close of the next term.
"Here at last!" exclaimed George Harnett, as he met his old chum with a hearty clasp of the hand. "In this case, if the hope had been much longer deferred, the heart would indeed have been sick."
"It was thoughtless in me, old fellow, not to have sent you word when I concluded to remain at home two days longer, but the fact of the matter is that I did not think you would be at the depot to meet me, but would let me hunt you up, for I suppose you do have some kind of an office."
"Yes," laughed the young man, "I have an office; but since my work just now is several miles from here, I am seldom at home, and was obliged to come for you, or run the chance of having you spend a good portion of your vacation hunting for me."
"And are you sorry yet that you chose civil engineering for a profession?"
"Sorry! Not a bit of it! Up here there is more excitement to it than you are aware of, and before you have finished your vacation, you will say that the life of a civil engineer in the oil fields of Pennsylvania is not by any means monotonous. But come this way. My team is here, and while we are talking we may as well be riding, for we have quite a little journey yet before us, over roads so bad, that you can form no idea of them by even the most vivid description."
"But I thought you lived here in Bradford."
"I live where my work is, my boy, and since it happens just now to be out of town, my home, for the time being, is in as old and comfortable a farm-house as city-weary mortals could ask for."
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation by James Otis
- 2: Use every effort to discover infringements of their patent
- 3: From nitro glycerine blasts to the perils of trout fishing
- 4: Drew off from private tanks the oil
- 5: That Ralph leaped two or three feet in his fright
- 6: Whom Harnett has been expecting
- 7: I haven't seen any moonlighters yet
- 8: George hurried away toward the stables
- 9: The stable was in keeping with the hut
- 10: Working savagely with the soldering iron
- 11: Newcombe and five men have just turned into the path
- 12: Ralph had plenty of time to review his own position
- 13: Newcombe will stay right where he is until we go out
- 14: Even Ralph could understand that
- 15: Was betraying them to Newcombe
- 16: After having received some instructions from Newcombe
- 17: And unless Newcombe should station one of his men there
- 18: Bob insisted that Ralph remain at the well
- 19: Rose the framework of the derrick
- 20: And the reel removed from the derrick
- 21: Hoxie would have been at finding a dry well
- 22: But being a guest of the moonlighters
- 23: That Harnett was foolishly particular
- 24: And every few seconds Newcombe points this way
- 25: Hurrah for Bob Hubbard's scheme
- 26: After having participated in the shooting of the Hoxie well
- 27: Newcombe had asked who were in the hut
- 28: Stumps and brushwood Bob drove
- 29: Ralph feeling decidedly uncomfortable
- 30: In each of these compartments was a can of nitro glycerine
- 31: Jim and Ralph clambered into George's team
- 32: Behind could be heard the clatter of hoofs
- 33: Ralph was certain he was wrong
- 34: Injured Jim We will harness them now
- 35: Ralph had thought the matter serious enough before
- 36: Neither you nor Gurney shall lose a cent
- 37: Liable to be arrested at any moment
- 38: The lightning flashed almost incessantly
- 39: Regardless of the furious rain
- 40: Igniting the various deposits of oil in its course
- 41: I shall fire only one at each tank
- 42: Since the other cannon was aimed at the smaller tank
- 43: Caused by the lightning striking an oil tank
- 44: Through which the flames glowed and flashed luridly
- 45: She had seen two men drive toward Sawyer in it
- 46: Quite a number of people had seen the team
- 47: Which was evidently through Bradford
- 48: I will drive out some day and bring Ralph with me
- 49: Pay the mortgage this afternoon
- 50: Driven into Bradford the afternoon before
- 51: Said the owner of the stolen horses
- 52: Farmer Kenniston had backed Bob's horses out of the shed
- 53: Simpson was probably paying ten per cent to old Massie
- 54: George had twenty three dollars
- 55: For their driver was anxious to reach Babcock early
- 56: After having gone to bed supperless
- 57: As if some heavy body was moving through the underbrush
- 58: We have been camping within five rods of the thieves
- 59: I thought it had been made by the thieves
- 60: You haven't got any oil after the axle is cool
- 61: Leaving Bob and Ralph to continue the cold water application
- 62: You've got your hoss thieves in a trap
- 63: If the thieves should get past them
- 64: The thieves were trying hard to remove the barricade
- 65: The thieves ceased their efforts to move the hay rack
- 66: They have left us a valuable souvenir
- 67: How these men could be oil prospectors
- 68: Simpson still had a claim upon the land
- 69: Simpson should be equally benefited
- 70: Then Bob drove on toward the Simpson place
- 71: Bob and Ralph started in search of him
- 72: Ralph and Bob carrying the litter
- 73: Ralph beckoned to Bob to leave the room
- 74: While the second he had found in Sawyer
- 75: But if his presence was necessary to Harnett
- 76: That he will be proven not guilty
- 77: Growing enthusiastic over his scheme
- 78: To be followed immediately by a fever
- 79: If there is any oil around here
- 80: Was whether it would yield the pint
- 81: And Bob began harnessing his horses
- 82: Simpson and the two moonlighters
- 83: Simpson laughed heartily at it
- 84: Gurney of the value of his scheme
- 85: Gurney drove out to look at the property
- 86: And Ralph and Bob entered the invalid's room
- 87: Simpson never spoke of it save as The Harnett
- 88: Simpson and him an equal share with us
- 89: Thinking it very singular that Ralph
- 90: The probabilities of finding oil
- 91: He was planning a visit to The Harnett
- 92: Simpson were hurrying from one to the other
- 93: But would necessitate the use of glycerine
- 94: It was evident to all from that moment that Bob Hubbard
- 95: George told of the theft of his team
- 96: When the boys arrived at the Simpson farm house
- 97: And the former sewed remarkably fast
- 98: The party most interested in The Harnett were left alone
- 99: Somewhat louder than had been heard at the Hoxie well
- 100: By shouting Hurrah for 'The Harnett
- 101: Good for eight hundred barrels per day
- 102: The Harnett would be connected with an empty one
- 103: As both advanced toward the lucky owners of The Harnett
- 104: Brought against you by Marcus Massie
- 105: Simpson followed Ralph and George as they went to the stable
- 106: He stands very high as a lawyer
- 107: Hillman relative to the interview that had been held in town
- 108: Hillman had arrived at the scene of the threatened trouble
- 109: Hillman would have prevented Bob from speaking
- 110: Massie saw a chance to steal the property
- 111: And that without him Massie may get the best of us
- 112: Hillman and Ralph drove down the lane
- 113: Which he stated was the amount of the mortgage
- 114: Gurney was shown the wonderful well
- 115: Alger never writes a poor book
- 116: Enterprising lad was Tom the Bootblack
- 117: Ned is marooned on Spider Island
- 118: The Treasure Finders A Boy's Adventures in Nicaragua
- 119: Colonel Putnam also figures to considerable extent
- 120: A Story of South Carolina in 1780
- 121: A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga
- 122: Or of Fort Griswold on the Groton side of the Thames
- 123: Rathborne knows just how to interest the boys
- 124: A runaway horse changes his prospects
- 125: Henty is careful to mingle instruction with entertainment
- 126: Henty keeps up his reputation as a writer of boys' stories