Page:Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil.djvu/214



" thousand dollars!" repeated Bob incredulously. "Why, that is a thousand dollars an acre!"

"He is sure they will drill many paying wells," said Miss Charity. "To think that this fortune should come in our old age! You can go to school and college, Bob, and Sister and I will never be a burden on you. Isn't it just wonderful!"

She went off into a happy little day-dream, and presently the conference broke up, and Miss Hope and the two men came out on the porch. Mr. Vernet proved to be a jolly kind of person, intensely interested in oil and oil prospects, and evidently completely satisfied with his purchase.

"Here's the young man I have to thank," he commented, shaking hands with Bob. "If those sharpers had got hold of the place, they would have forced me to buy at more than a fair risk, or else sold the land in small holdings and we should have had that abomination, close drilling. Rh