"One of the men who worked there. Carson Davenport was so mad that when the man said something to him about it he fired him. The man said he was coming over here to look for a job—that he was sure the whole thing was petering out."
The news soon circulated, and Dick Rover was so interested that he went off the next day to Columbina to ascertain the truth.
"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.