Tom was building an oil derrick and getting together a full paraphernalia of cables, drills and other tools necessary in oil-well digging. Everything was on a miniature scale to save expense, for the structure was only designed to be temporary and would be demolished when the need for it had passed.
“Aren’t you going to a good deal of trouble and expense for this one job?” asked Ned, a little anxiously. “It won’t take much to eat up all the profit there is on this contract.”
“Don’t worry, old boy,” replied Tom. “If this one contract were the only thing concerned, this wouldn’t be necessary, for all we have to do is to follow the specifications of their plan. But I’m doing this for a different reason. This isn’t for the benefit of Thompson, Bragden and Hankinshaw, but for trying out something new for the Swift Construction Company. Do you get me?”
“Do you mean that you’ve hit on a new invention?” asked Ned eagerly.
“Something like that,” answered Tom with a smile. “Not that I’d call it an invention—yet. I’ve got a whole lot of things to work out in connection with it. But the idea I’ve struck seems feasible enough as far as I’ve gone. I’m getting rid of the technical difficulties one after the other, and the farther I go, the more convinced I am that I’m on the right track. But nobody knows better than you that there’s a long step between theory and practice. The thing that seems perfect in the study may prove to be a flivver in the field. That’s the reason why I’m rigging up this miniature oil-well outfit. I want to put my idea to a practical test. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it won’t. If it doesn’t, I’ll discard it and hunt up something better.”
“Go to it, Tom, and good luck to you,” cried Ned enthusiastically. “I’d have bet my life you’d hit on something new.”
“Hold your horses,” cautioned Tom. “The best laid plans sometimes ‘gang agley.’ I’m a long way off yet from certainty. But I’m far enough along to justify this expense to find out whether I’m right or wrong.”
So the work went on until the structure was complete, and any one who entered the gates of the carefully guarded enclosure would have rubbed his eyes and wondered how long it was since Shopton became an oil field.
The most prominent object was the derrick, or rig, a framework tower wide at the bottom and tapering off at the top. This was for the purpose of carrying two pulleys, the crown pulley in the center and the block through which the sand line ran. Over the crown pulley ran the cable by which the drilling tools were suspended or lowered or raised. At one side of the rig was the bull wheel, or windlass, upon which the cable was wound, and at the other was the walking beam, a heavy timber hung in the center so that it could undulate up and down.
Then there was a choice collection of drilling tools, consisting of a bit, an auger-stem, a sinker bar, a rope socket and jars, all of which were strung together and suspended from the crown pulley by the cable. In addition there were the wrought-iron casings for the lining of the projected experimental well. Nothing essential had been overlooked, and before long Tom found himself in a position to begin the tests on which he was counting so much.