It had been easy to sell stock in the latter enterprise, and now the deeper went the hole, the higher rose the hopes of the promoters.

Stoner himself was directing operations, and he had named the well "Avenger Number One." To-day he and his partner had been listening to Mallow, who concluded an earnest discourse with these words: "Nelson and her are pardners in one deal and he's stuck on her.

If anybody can put it over, she's the one." "If he buys that well it'll be the biggest laugh this town ever had," McWade declared.
"Buy it?
A hundred and fifty barrels in the heart of settled production for seventy-five thousand?
I bet he'll buy it." "Think the boss will stand for that kind of a deal ?" "Why not?
They can't hang it on him, and Heaven knows I'm honest." "He said 'nothing crooked'-- " Mallow snorted.

"Say, I bet you believe in Santa Claus! Gray's a great man, and what makes him great is that he does his own crooked work." Stoner was inclined to agree with Mallow's measure of their associate.
"That's how I got him figgered.

His honesty talk didn't go far with me, and I don't believe he'll kick at anything.