“You must be making a lot of money, Dad,” remarked Jack, as his parent was leaving.
“Well, we’re holding our own, Jack,” was the reply.
“How are the oil wells making out?”
“Very fine.” Dick Rover stepped closer to his son. “Did you hear anything from Carson Davenport?” he asked in a low tone so that the others might not hear.
“Nothing since the girls met him. They said they sent word about that.”
“You want to be very careful, Jack. We’ll talk the whole thing over to-night. That rascal is certainly going to put one over on us if he possibly can.”
“Why did they let him out of prison?”
“I don’t know. He may have got a number of important friends to appear for him before a board of pardons, or something like that. Then again, you must remember that what he was tried for was his trouble with his partners. I did not want to appear against him because it would have taken too much of my time, which, just then, was very valuable to our concern. It’s possible that he got the very people he swindled—or tried to swindle—to sign a petition in his favor and in favor of his other partners, Tate and Jackson. But I must hurry now. We can talk the whole thing over later.”
During the afternoon the twins went out to renew their acquaintance with some of their former boy chums while Jack and Fred accompanied the girls on a sightseeing and shopping expedition.
“I’ll be awfully sorry to leave you, Ruth,” said Jack, when he got a chance to speak to the visitor alone.