Page:Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil.djvu/33

Rh cent. royalty, payable when your first well flows. My worst enemy couldn't call me mean."

"Got something to show you, Carson," said the man with eye-glasses. "Come on back into the sleeper and I'll unstrap the suit-case."

The three rose, tossed away their cigar butts, and went up the aisle. Bob waited till they had gone into the next car. Intending then to go back to Betty. His intentions were frustrated by a lanky individual who dropped into the seat beside him.

"Smoke?" he said in friendly fashion, offering Bob a cigarette. "No? Well, that's right. I didn't smoke at your age, either. Fact is, I was most twenty-three before I knew how tobacco tasted. Slick-looking posters went up the aisle just now, what?"

Bob admitted that there was something peculiar about them.

"Sharpers, if I ever saw any," said the lanky one. "We're overrun with 'em. They come out from the East, and because they can dress and know how to sling language— Say," he suddenly became serious, "you'd be surprised the way the girls fall for 'em. My girl thinks if a man's clothes are all right he must be a Wall Street magnate, and the rest of the girls are just like her. They're the men that give the oil fields a shady side."