Mr. Hampton interrupted.
“Wait a minute, Bob. No need to perjure yourself. I know all you boys are eager to know the answer to the mystery of the ‘Lost Expedition.’ Well, I can tell it to you in one word. It is——”
He paused. Then added:
“Oil.”
“Oil?”
All three listeners asked the question as if in one breath. Big Bob was no less inquisitive than the others, despite his twigging of Frank for his curiosity.
“Yes,” he said. “Oil.”
For a moment he was silent, collecting his thoughts. Then he leaned forward, cleared his throat and continued:
“Perhaps my words are a disappointment to you. The Northland for you, probably, is invested in a mysterious glamor. It means either men struggling through incalculable hardships to win their way to the North Pole, to the top of the world, or else fighting against all the mighty forces of Nature in a grim, ice-locked land to wrest a stream of golden wealth from the bosom of the Earth.