As he traveled along westward, he found that the company was made up of men whose tickets took them to his own destination.  Most of them were quiet, with ears open to the few talkers who had already been there, and were returning.  Mr. Belcher listened to them, laughed at them, scoffed at their schemes, and laid up carefully all that they said.  Before he arrived at Corry he had acquired a tolerable knowledge of the oil-fields, and determined upon his scheme of operations.

As he drew nearer the great center of excitement, he came more into contact with the masses who had gathered there, crazed with the spirit of speculation.  Men were around him whose clothes were shining with bitumen.  The air was loaded with the smell of petroleum.  Derricks were thrown up on every side; drills were at work piercing the earth; villages were starting among stumps still fresh at the top, as if their trees were cut but yesterday; rough men in high boots were ranging the country; the depots were glutted with portable Steam-engines and all sorts of mining machinery, and there was but one subject of conversation.  Some new well had begun to flow with hundreds of barrels of petroleum per diem.  Some new man had made a fortune.  Farmers, who had barely been able to get a living from their sterile acres, had become millionaires.  The whole region was alive with fortune-hunters, from every quarter of the country.  Millions of dollars were in the pockets of men who were ready to purchase.  Seedy, crazy, visionary fellows were working as middle-men, to talk up schemes, and win their bread, with as much more as they could lay their hands on.  The very air was charged with the contagion of speculation, and men seemed ready to believe anything and do anything.  It appeared, indeed, as if a man had only to buy, to double his money in a day; and half the insane multitude believed it.

Mr. Belcher kept himself quiet, and defended himself from the influences around him by adopting and holding his scoffing mood.  He believed nothing.  He was there simply to see what asses men could make of themselves; but he kept his ears open.  The wretched hotel at which he at last found accommodations was thronged with fortune-seekers, among whom he moved self-possessed and quite at home.  On the second day his mood began to tell on those around him.  There were men there who knew about him and his great wealth—­men who had been impressed with his sagacity.  He studied them carefully, gave no one his confidence, and quietly laid his plans.  On the evening of the third day he returned to the hotel, and announced that he had had the good fortune to purchase a piece of property that he proposed to operate and improve on his own account.