"I don't think so," answered his brother. "I believe behind it all he is afraid we'll have him arrested for the theft of those documents."
"If he really took them, what do you think he did with them?" came from Fred.
"More than likely he destroyed them," answered Jack. "He wouldn't want evidence like that lying around loose, you know."
When Carson Davenport learned that six of his men had deserted and gone over to the Rovers he was more angry than ever.
"They're going to do their best to undermine us," he said to Tate. "I wish I knew just how to get square with them."
"We'll get square enough if we strike oil here," said Tate. "Those Rovers will feel sick enough if they learn we are making a barrel of money."
"It's easy enough to talk about making a barrel of money," came from Jackson, who was present. "But I don't see the money flowing in very fast." He had been talking to a number of his friends, and many of them had said they thought the chances of getting oil from the Spell claim were very slim.
"Oh, you just hold your horses, Jackson," said Carson Davenport smoothly. "Take my word for it, this well we are putting down is going to be one of the biggest in this territory."
But though he spoke thus, Davenport did not believe what he said. He, too, was becoming suspicious that they might be drilling a well which would prove dry. However, he had the traits of a gambler, and was willing to go ahead so long as there was the least possibility of success.
As the days slipped by the work on both claims progressed rapidly. Nick Ogilvie managed to hire a few men in and around Wichita Falls, and Davenport also picked up some workers to take the places of those who had deserted him.