“There’s some silver lining to the cloud, anyway,” observed Tom more cheerfully. “If it hadn’t been for this contract I wouldn’t have been thinking about oil and wouldn’t have perfected this new idea of mine. We’ll forget all about this bother when the money comes rolling in from the patent rights. That is, if it does,” he added, with a return to his habitual caution.
“No modifications, you old gloom hound,” laughed Ned. “You gave yourself away that time. Own up, old boy, you know that you’ve got a good thing. Come now, don’t you?”
Tom grinned.
“On the level, Ned, I feel pretty sure of it,” he confessed. “Of course, ‘there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip,’ and I may be letting myself in for a disappointment. The next few days will tell. By day after to-morrow I’ll be all ready to put the new drill to a practical test. It won’t take long to know whether it’s going to work or not.”
The next two days were busy ones for Tom. He was, too, at high nervous tension, wondering whether his idea would “go over big” or fail. He had checked and re-checked on his figures, and could find no flaw in them. And figures did not lie. Still——
He saw nothing of Hankinshaw. Either the man had left town temporarily or he was keeping carefully under cover. Tom did not care which, as long as the rascal kept out of his way.
At last the momentous morning came when Tom was to try out his new drill. A few trusted workmen had been chosen to work the machinery. That was all they were concerned with, and they would be in no position to gauge the meaning of whatever results would be obtained. Jackson was there to help, and Ned and his father were also on hand.
The miniature well was started, and for a time nothing was heard but the creaking of the derrick and the chugging of the drill as it worked its way through the soil. Tom, of course, knew the ordinary rate of progress made in well digging with the usual type of drill. But by how much would he be able to beat it? Or would he beat it at all?
The morning passed with interest at fever heat. It seemed to Tom that he was making rapid progress. But the results of any one hour would not give him a sufficient basis to generalize from. Special circumstances might make the results small or great. The work would have to be spread over several hours before he could reach an average from which he could draw safe and sound conclusions.
At noon the men stopped for lunch, but Tom was too much excited to eat. He spent that time in studying the character of the soil through which the drill had been biting its way and the depth that it had reached.