Robert Leckie

“ Sandy tried to smooth down his cement-whitened cowlick, as he always did when he was thinking hard. “I mean—we have struck oil.”
“We’ll have struck it for somebody else’s benefit if we don’t play our cards close to our chests and keep a close guard over our well and our tongues.” Ralph looked at him shrewdly. “You’ll see what I mean in a day or two. And here’s some good advice: Watch your step, Sandy. There are some mighty curly wolves in this oil game. Don’t try playing Red Riding Hood with them.” ”

“ Within minutes, three scrawny mutts were scratching at the screen door of the cottage.
“You must remember that dogs are always hungry,” Mrs. Gonzales said as she let the animals in and went to the kitchen to find scraps for them, “so you must think of food at all times. You must remember that they are loyal, even though their master beats them, so you must not let your hatred or distrust of Cavanaugh into your mind when you approach his camp. You must be sleepy ... oh so sleepy ... so that you do not wake them from their dreams of chasing rabbits, or bigger game. ”

“ Ralph shrugged—“that neither the Navajos nor the palefaces have ever given his people anything. They have always taken things away—cattle, wheat, the spirits of young warriors. They are his enemies until the end of the world. He is weak and old now, but you can only take this land by killing him.” ”

“ Sandy stared at him, openmouthed. “We built it to represent the geological structure of the country where the boundaries of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. This map and card explain—”
“I know the Four Corners,” grunted the little man as he sized up the tall, sandy-haired youngster. “Is your gadget accurate?”
“As accurate as we could make it with the survey maps we could find.”
“Hmmm.” Their visitor’s sharp eyes studied the gray mound. “What happens if I should drill an oil well here, in the northwest corner of the Navajo Indian reservation?” He pointed with a lean finger. ”

“ Don’t lie! Your boss is a stinking, no-good, lowdown louse.”
“Oh, no!” Pepper tried to pull free, then leaned against the side of the car and clung there like a half-drowned monkey. “Red’s best boss a man ever had. He’s ... he’s wonderful.... Likes good music ... dogs ... Indians. I’d die for Red.”
“That’s the point.” Ralph rummaged in the back of the jeep, found Maisie’s mangy hide, and wrapped it around the shivering boy. “You almost did die. Cavanaugh’s next door to a murderer.”
Pepper stared at them as if he were waking from a dream.
“You really believe that, Sandy?” ”

“ So keep your eyes open while you’re prowling.”
“Prowling” was exactly the word for what the crew did, Sandy decided after a few days in the broiling sun. He had to admit that the territory was beautiful, in its wild way, but he decided that it was more fit for mountain goats than human beings. More and more, as he slowly worked his way from one rod location to another, measured the slope of exposed strata with his Brunton compass, or chipped rock samples for analysis back at camp, he began to dream of the soft green hills and winding streams near Valley View. ”

“ When we want to start producing, we just drill through the plug and away we go. Say, why don’t you go to bed instead of asking foolish questions? You look as if you had been dragged through a dustbin.”
“I was just thinking, Ralph. Since we’ll be having some time off, why don’t we visit Miss Gonzales’ school?”
“You go,” yawned the driller. “I’ve got to get this well capped good and tight tomorrow and then drive to Farmington and try to rent a portable test rig—on the cuff. I’m going to act so poor-boyish that it will break your heart. ”

“ Hall was just driving into camp as they arrived.
“We’ve found a rich uranium lode or lens, I think, John,” Ralph shouted to him. For once he had lost his Indian calm and was almost dancing with excitement.
“You don’t say,” yawned the producer as he dragged himself out of the car.
“Well!” Ralph stared, openmouthed, at this cool reception. “What’s the matter, boss? Don’t you care?”
“Where are we going to sell the ore?” Hall asked gently.
“Oh!” Ralph wilted. “I hadn’t thought of that. The government only buys from people who have mills.” ”

“ Sandy sighed as he and Quiz said good night to the others and headed for their room.
“What a mess,” his friend said. “Navajos squabbling with Utes, Hopis and the state of Utah. Crooks waiting to take advantage of them all. Pains like fingernails! Cavalry heroes who turn into villains. I suppose that’s why the biggest oil field in the Four Corners is called the Paradox Basin!” ”

“ The geologist fired up his pipe and sent clouds of smoke billowing through the crowded lab. “Eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves, they say. Nevertheless, I think we should fight fire with fire by listening in on him and learning the worst.”
“But how can we listen in?” Sandy objected. “Even if we got high enough to intercept his beam—in a helicopter, let’s say—he would know something had gone wrong when his receiving station didn’t reply. He’d stop talking.”
“There’s another way to go about it,” Donovan replied. “I’m a pretty good geophysicist as well as a geologist, Sandy. ”

“ He threaded the car through the narrow crevice between two tall buttes of red sandstone that stuck up out of the desert like gnarled fingers. “I was just about down to that fried caterpillar diet that Chief Quail keeps kidding me about when a certain man whose name I won’t mention gave me my first job.”
“And you turned out to be the best all-round oilman I ever hired,” said Hall as he slapped the other on his bronzed, smoothly muscled back. “I figured that if Iroquois Indians make the finest steelworkers in the construction business, a Ute should know how to run a drill rig. ”

“ They reached the rapids with only seconds to spare. The Indian fastened one end of the cable to the power takeoff at the rear of the jeep and coiled the rest of it with great care at the edge of the gorge. Then he stood, braced against the howling wind, swinging the heavy log in his right hand.
“Here he comes,” Ralph said. “What a shame that damned fools often look like heroes. Your friend is probably thinking he’s Lewis, Clark and Paul Revere rolled into one. Stand by to start the takeoff and reel him in if I hook him, Sandy.... There he goes. There he goes! Stand by!” ”

“ Think Like a Dog
“But how do I go about feeling like a dog?” Sandy groaned after he had explained his plan of action.
“You shouldn’t have any trouble about that.” Kitty smiled tenderly as she patted the last strip of bandage in place on his cheek. “You must feel awful.”
“That’s not what I mean. When Ralph went into Cavanaugh’s camp at Elbow Rock he wore a dog skin and made himself smell like a dog. But he said that wasn’t enough. He also had to feel and think like one. There’s a skin in the jeep. And you must know a kennel where I can roll around and get the smell. ”

“ People are awful touchy about property rights out here. Remember what they used to do to cattle rustlers—still do, for that matter, on occasion.
“And now about this message that Sandy heard: Cavanaugh’s lawyers would say ‘Prove it!’ And what real proof have we got? We’d be putting up the word of a minor who did prowl—I’m not blaming you, Sandy. You did the only thing possible and your idea of using the light beam to call for help was a stroke of pure genius—but, as I say, the word of a minor against the word of an established businessman who has a lot of friends in these parts.” ”

“ Well, you fly a magnetometer back and forth in a checkerboard pattern over any area where photographs have shown rock formations favorable for oil deposits. Heavy basement strata are more magnetic than the sedimentary rocks that cover them. So, when those igneous basement rocks bulge toward the surface of the earth, your magnetometer reading goes up. That gives you a double check because, if the basement bulges, the sedimentary rocks that may contain oil have to bulge too. And such a bulge, or anticline, may trap that oil in big enough quantities to make it worth your while to drill for it. ”

“ A uranium strike these days is just like money in a safe for which you have lost the combination.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Hall,” Stack interrupted, “but doesn’t Midray own an interest in a uranium mill?”
“Oh, yes.” Hall smiled grimly at the surveyor. “Midray owns an interest in most everything. It will be delighted to help me develop the lode—in exchange for three-fourths of the profits.
“That’s better than nothing, though.” He straightened his shoulders. “A uranium strike will shorten the odds enough so I can take a chance on drilling a well here. ”

“ There will not be so much man smell to overcome. Now play with these dogs for a time to get their scent on you. Then Kitty will drive you as near the camp as she dares. And may the blessings of the good Jesus and Mary, and the water and wind people, ride with you.”
Kitty was at the wheel as the jeep skirted the town and headed up a steep trail that had been chopped through the mesquite for the benefit of tourists who liked to snap their everlasting cameras from the top of the Rock. ”

“ In the cool of the afternoon—85 degrees in the sun instead of the 110 degrees the thermometer had shown at noon—they rode the jeep back to Farmington by way of a wide detour that took them within sight of the San Juan River gorge.
“I wanted to show you those two oil-well derricks over yonder,” Pepper explained. “They’re a mile and a half apart, as the crow flies. But, because they’re on opposite sides of the river, they were 125 long miles apart by car until we got that new bridge finished a few months ago. Shows you the problems we explorers face.” ”

“ Sandy grumbled as he and Quiz got off the eastbound Greyhound at Farmington, New Mexico, dropped their dusty bags and stood watching the early morning bustle on the little town’s wide streets.
“Yeah.” Quiz wagged his head. “The Wild West shore ain’t what she used to be, pardner. No twenty-mule-team wagons stuck in Main Street mudholes. No gambling dives in evidence. No false store fronts. No sheriff in a white hat walkin’ slowlike down a wooden sidewalk to shoot it out with the bad man in a black hat. ”

“ Learning that Jack Boyd was one of the men assigned to guard the well from all intruders, Sandy borrowed the engine man’s car the next day and headed in the direction of Kitty’s school. The going was rough, as usual, but the machine was equipped with a heavy-duty transmission and rear axle, double shock absorbers, an oversized gasoline tank and other features which defied the chuckholes. He made good time and found the school trailer during the noon recess.
Twenty Navajo children of all ages were playing what looked like a fast game of baseball as he drove up. ”

“ Ralph said at last.
“Well, gee. Eavesdropping seems sort of sneaking.”
“I know it does, but don’t forget that we’re dealing with a sneak. Tell you what: you stay in the car. I’ll take the ear in.”
“No,” Sandy said firmly. “I’ll do anything I can to help Mr. Hall. Besides, I helped build the ear and know just how it works. I’ll carry it.”
They parked as close to Cavanaugh’s brightly lighted trailer as they dared. Then Sandy strapped the detector on his chest and walked slowly up the mountain in darkness so intense and silent that it could almost be felt. ”

“ The husky electronics man clambered out of his machine and came forward at a lope. He was dressed only in shorts, and the thick red hair on his brawny chest glinted in the sunlight. Pepper trotted behind him like an adoring puppy.
“Howdy, Mr. Hall. Howdy, Donovan,” Cavanaugh boomed as he reached the rig. “Heard you’d been exploring down in the Hopi butte section. Thought I’d bounce over and sell you some equipment that has seismographs, magnetometers and gravimeters beat three ways from Sunday. ”

“ Plenty,” Ralph answered. “Mud is forced down into a well to cool the drill bit and to wash rock cuttings to the surface. You use mud if you have water, that is. In parts of this country, water’s so short, or so expensive to haul, that producers use compressed air for those purposes. We’re lucky. We can pipe plenty of water from the river.”
35
“Then you mix the water with all sorts of fancy chemicals to make something that’s called mud but really isn’t,” said Sandy, remembering tales of the oil country that his father had told him. ”

“ Quiz tried unsuccessfully to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
“Shhh!” whispered Sandy. “They’ve skidded the derrick to the new well site. This thing’s called a Christmas tree. It controls the flow of oil out of the ground.”
“Smart boy,” said Hall. “We’ve got our wildcat hogtied and hooked into this gathering line.” He pointed to a small pipe that snaked southward across the desert. “The gathering line connects with the big new pipeline to the West Coast that passes a few miles from here. Number One is flowing a sweet eight hundred and fifty barrels a day.” ”

“ Hall had a short talk with the Midray superintendent, a big man who reminded Sandy of Cavanaugh and who acted as if he owned the place. Then they were on their way again.
“The lease looks like Times Square,” Hall grunted as he headed the jeep toward Shiprock. “Makes me uncomfortable. I like to work where there’s plenty of room to swing a wildcat.”
“I bet you still prefer to use a burro when you go prospecting, you old sourdough,” Kitty teased him.
“Well, a burro never runs out of gas or breaks a spring, and it has a better horn than a jeep,” Hall said, grinning. ”

“ With mixed emotions of annoyance and relief, he returned to the jeep and reported.
“Dogs!” Ralph growled. “That means Cavanaugh really has something to hide. What did they look like?”
“They had long legs, sharp noses and big white teeth.”
“Doberman pinschers, I’ll bet. Say! Tim Robbins breeds Dobermans over in Bluff. They make better sheep tenders than shepherds, he claims. Let’s pay him a visit, even if it is late.” He started the jeep.
“What are you planning to do?” Sandy asked sharply.
“If Utes could behave like buffalo, there’s no reason why I can’t be a dog,” Ralph answered. ”