Two more days passed, and during that time the boys visited a number of localities in that vicinity, trying to catch sight of Nappy and Slugger, and also Werner. But those three unworthies did not show themselves.
"They know we've got it in for them," declared Jack. "They'll keep in hiding until they think this affair has blown over."
On the third day Dick Rover felt quite like himself, and he hired an automobile to take him and the boys, as well as Nick Ogilvie, to the Lorimer Spell claim. Somewhat to his surprise, he found Carson Davenport on the land, along with Tate and Jackson and half a dozen other men. More oil-well machinery had been brought up and dumped in a spot near the brook.
"What's the meaning of this, Davenport?" questioned Jack's father shortly.
"It means that I'm going to work on my own hook, Rover," answered Davenport, and there was a sneer in his voice. "I've got tired of trying to make a deal with you, and I've come to the conclusion that your claim is no good."
"I think I understand you perfectly," answered Dick Rover, and looked at the man so sharply that Davenport had to drop his eyes. "You think you have everything your own way, eh?"
"Never mind what I think. If you've got any real claim on this property you show the evidences. That little paper that Lorimer Spell wrote out on the battlefield of France doesn't hold water with me. You've got to show me the deeds, and all that sort of thing."
"A man can't show papers when he has been robbed of them," went on Jack's father pointedly.
"Humph! So that's your latest story, is it, Rover? First when I asked you for the papers you said they were in a safe deposit vault in Wichita Falls."
"So they were. But now I have been robbed of them, and you know it."