An explanation to the housekeeper and an inspection on the part
of the nurse, brought forth permission for Tom to see the
patient. Though he had never known Mr. Keith he could see that
the man's health was indeed fast waning.

Wasting little time in preliminaries, the object of the visit
was told and Tom showed the passport photograph of Dixwell
Hardley.

"Is that the man who cheated you on the oil-well deal?" asked
the young inventor.

"I won't admit he has yet cheated me, but he is trying to!"
exclaimed Mr. Keith, with something of a return of his former
spirit. "If I ever get off my back I'm going to fight him tooth
and nail. But that's the same scoundrel! He got me to locate the
wells, and when they panned out big--bigger than either of us
dreamed--he turned me out cold. He denied he had ever offered to
share with me, and said I was only working for monthly wages!
Why, sometimes I didn't get even that!"

"How did he get the best of you?" asked Tom.

"By making away with or hiding the papers by which I could
prove our partnership and my right to half a share in all the
wells," answered Mary's uncle. "Yes, that's the same man all
right. I'd know his face anywhere, and he ha& the same name."

"He isn't going under a false name, that's sure," agreed Tom.
"He must be a bold chap."