shared in the profits.... He'd see that nobody froze him out again
if he had to spoil the hole. He wound up by denying everything,
and I pretended to swallow it, but when he had gone I went over my
maps and located the lease where he's drilling. Three of the
adjoining tracts are owned by the big companies, so that
eliminated them, but the twenty to the west belongs to Knute
Hoaglund. Henry was glad to see me when my turn came to go in,
and--"

"I bet he was glad," Tom declared.

Barbara's smooth cheeks flushed faintly. "He is too busy and too
rich to--think about girls."

"He wasn't too busy and too rich to inquire about you 'most every
day since he got back from the war."

"I didn't forget to call him 'Colonel,' and that pleased both him
and Bell. Then I told them that I proposed to become a rich and
successful oil operator and wanted their advice how to begin. Old
Bell was amused, but Henry--I beg pardon, _Colonel_--Nelson was
shocked. He couldn't bear to think of women, and of me especially,
in business. He might have become disagreeably personal if his
father hadn't been there."

"Dunno's I care much for Henry," Tom said, mildly.

"Oh, he's all right, but--I _hate_ Bell! It makes anybody mad to
be laughed at. Henry was more diplomatic. He tried to convince me
that the oil game is altogether a man's business and that no woman