One of them was William Claymore.
After a few days of tramping about, Claymore offered to buy the most useless part of Hank Low’s farm.
He mentioned the name of Reverend Elijah Judson as a man who was interested with him in some kind of a plan.
Nothing very definite was said about it, but Low understood that the clergyman meant to put up a private school for young ladies, and wanted the land for that purpose.
A deal was made by which Low was able to pay off his mortgage, but nothing more.
He would have been content with that if he had not discovered, when it was too late, that the parties who bought his land had no idea of putting up a school, or anything of that sort.
It was at the time when the fact was just becoming known that oil could be found in great quantities in the far western lands.
Claymore and his companion, by making secret tests of the soil, had come to the conclusion that this worthless end of Hank Low’s farm was the best place in the State for oil wells. So they bought several acres for next to nothing.
It might be supposed that their next step would be to sink wells and build a refinery, or a pipe line. But such things cost money, and neither Claymore nor his partner had any left to speak of.
They had to raise it, and in this task they had the assistance of the Reverend Elijah Judson.