St. Tammany farmer., 1922-09-23


opened it, and glanced over it anew. It
was an old letter, one written him
nearly two years previously by Lucie
Ledanois. 1t had been written mere
ly in the endeavor to distract the
thoughts Of wounded soldier, to
bring his mind to Louisiana, away
from the stricken fields of France. In
the letter Lucie had described some Of
the more interesting features of Bayou
Terrebonne-the oyster and shrimp
fleets, the Chinese and Filipino vii
lagos along the gulf, the spread
cypress swamps; the bubbling foun-
tains, natural curiosities, that broke
up through the streams and bayous OF
the whole wide parish-fOuntains that
were caused by gas seeWng up from
the earth's Interior and breaking
through.
Gramont knew that plans were al
ready afoot to- tap this field Of natural
gas and pipe 1t to New Orleans. Oil
was now oil-mad. Fortunes were be-
ing made daily, and other fortunes
were being lost daily by those who
dealt with OIL stocks instead of with
oil.
"Those gas fountains did the work I"
reflected Gram0nt. "And according to
this letter there's one Of those fOun-
tains here in the bayou, close to her
property. Just opposite the dock she
says. The first thing is to find the
dock. then the fountain. After that,
we'll decide if it's true mineral gas
II 1t is, then the works done-for I'll
sure take chance on finding Oil near
it"
Gramont came to the bayou and be
gan searching his way along the thick
and high fringe of bushes and saplings
that girded the waters edge. Present
ly he came upon the ruined evidences
of what had once been small boat
shed. Not far from this he found the
dock referred to In the letter; nothing
was left of it except few spiles pro-
truding from the surface of the water
But he had no need to look farther.
Directly before him, he saw that
which he was seeking.
A dozen feet out from shore the wa
ter was rising and falling in a continu-
GUS dome or fountain Of highly
charged bubbles that rose a foot above
the surface. Gramont stared at 1t,
motionless He watched 1t for space
then, abruptly, he started It was
violent start, a start Of sheer amaze
ment and incredulity.
He leaned forward, staring no longer
at the gas dome, but at the water
closer inshore For moment he
thought that. his senses had deceived
him, then he saw that the thing was
there indeed, there beyond any doubt
"a very faint trace Of iridescent light
that played over the surface Of the
( water.
It can't be nossihie!" he muttered,
bending farther over. "Such a thing
happens too rarely"
Els heart pounded violently; ex-
citement sent the blood rushing to his
brain in binding swirls. He was
gripped by the gold fever that comes
upon man when he makes the as
founding discovery Of untold wealth
lying at his feet, passed over and dis
regarded by other and less-dlscerning
men for days and years!
It was Oil, no question about 1t. An
extremely slight quantity, true; so
slight quantity that there was no
film on the water, no discernible taste
to the water. Gramont brought 1t to
his mouth and rose, shaking his head.
Where did it come from? 1t had no
connection with the gas bubbles-at
least, it did not come from the dome
of water and gas. How long he: stood
there staring Gramont did not know.
His brain was afire with the possibili-
ties. At length he stirred into action
and started up the bayou bank, from
time to time hnlting to search the wa
ter below him, to make sure that he
could still discern the faint rides
cence.
He followed 1t rod by rod, and
found that it rapidly increased In
strength. It must come from some very
tiny surface seepage close at hand.
that was lost in the bayou almost as
rapidly as 1t came from the earth-
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