We're here to trade, and supplying miners is no quite so chancy as dealing in furs; but to have a crowd from the settlements disturbing our preserves and going away after finding nothing o' value would not suit us.

Still, I'm thinking it's no likely: the distance and the winter will keep them out." "Did you ever see signs of oil ?" "No here; there's petroleum three hundred miles south, but no enough, in my opinion, to pay for driving wells.

Onyway, the two prospecting parties that once came up didna come back again." He left them presently, and when they heard him moving about an adjoining room, Harding made a suggestion.
"We'll stay here for a while and then look for that petroleum on our way to the settlements." Blake agreed readily; the determination, he thought, was characteristic of his comrade.

Harding's project had failed, but instead of being crushed by disappointment, he was already considering another..