Full download ebook at ebookmeta.

com

Internet of Things and Access Control Sensing

Monitoring and Controlling Access in IoT
Enabled Healthcare Systems 1st Edition
Shantanu Pal
https://ebookmeta.com/product/internet-of-things-
and-access-control-sensing-monitoring-and-
controlling-access-in-iot-enabled-healthcare-
systems-1st-edition-shantanu-pal/

Download more ebook from https://ebookmeta.com

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

IoT enabled Smart Healthcare Systems Services and

Applications 1st Edition Various Autors

https://ebookmeta.com/product/iot-enabled-smart-healthcare-
systems-services-and-applications-1st-edition-various-autors/

Artificial Intelligence based Internet of Things

Systems Souvik Pal (Editor)

https://ebookmeta.com/product/artificial-intelligence-based-
internet-of-things-systems-souvik-pal-editor/

Artificial Intelligence-based Internet of Things

Systems First Edition Souvik Pal (Editor)

https://ebookmeta.com/product/artificial-intelligence-based-
internet-of-things-systems-first-edition-souvik-pal-editor/

Advanced Healthcare Systems : Empowering Physicians

with IoT-Enabled Technologies 1st Edition Rohit Tanwar

https://ebookmeta.com/product/advanced-healthcare-systems-
empowering-physicians-with-iot-enabled-technologies-1st-edition-
rohit-tanwar/
Internet Access in Vehicular Networks Wenchao Xu

https://ebookmeta.com/product/internet-access-in-vehicular-
networks-wenchao-xu/

Intelligent Internet of Things for Smart Healthcare

Systems Durgesh Srivastava

https://ebookmeta.com/product/intelligent-internet-of-things-for-
smart-healthcare-systems-durgesh-srivastava/

Internet of Medical Things Remote Healthcare Systems

and Applications 1st Edition D. Jude Hemanth

https://ebookmeta.com/product/internet-of-medical-things-remote-
healthcare-systems-and-applications-1st-edition-d-jude-hemanth/

Healthcare Systems and Health Informatics: Using

Internet of Things (Innovations in Health Informatics
and Healthcare) 1st Edition Pawan Singh Mehra (Editor)

https://ebookmeta.com/product/healthcare-systems-and-health-
informatics-using-internet-of-things-innovations-in-health-
informatics-and-healthcare-1st-edition-pawan-singh-mehra-editor/

Access Control and Identity Management Information

Systems Security Assurance 3rd Edition Mike Chapple

https://ebookmeta.com/product/access-control-and-identity-
management-information-systems-security-assurance-3rd-edition-
mike-chapple/
Smart Sensors, Measurement and Instrumentation 37

Shantanu Pal

Internet
of Things and
Access Control
Sensing, Monitoring and Controlling
Access in IoT-Enabled Healthcare
Systems
Smart Sensors, Measurement
and Instrumentation

Volume 37

Series Editor
Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay, School of Engineering, Macquarie University,
Sydney, NSW, Australia
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10617
Shantanu Pal

Internet of Things and Access

Control
Sensing, Monitoring and Controlling Access
in IoT-Enabled Healthcare Systems

123
Shantanu Pal
Department of Computing
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW, Australia

ISSN 2194-8402 ISSN 2194-8410 (electronic)

Smart Sensors, Measurement and Instrumentation
ISBN 978-3-030-64997-5 ISBN 978-3-030-64998-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64998-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has already produced significant
changes in our everyday lives, where everything and anything can be connected and
communicated in the cyber-physical world. With the proliferation of smart mobile
devices, intelligent sensors, wearable devices and ubiquitous Internet and cloud
computing, the use of the IoT is growing at an increasing rate. However, this
growth poses numerous challenges for the designers and users of these systems.
One significant challenge is the provision of security within the IoT. The high
mobility of things, the potential scale of the systems in the number of things and
users combined with dynamic network topology and wireless communication
mediums create a challenging environment. This is only exacerbated by the limi-
tations in device memory, battery-life and processing capacity, arguing against the
use of ‘heavy-weight’ security architectures.
The motivation behind this book is driven by the need to examine security
mechanisms for large-scale IoT systems, in particular, the need for access control,
identity management, the delegation of access rights and trust management within
such systems. We focus on sensing, monitoring and controlling access in
IoT-enabled healthcare systems. We intend to show how a policy-based approach
provides fine-grained access for authorized users to services while protecting
valuable resources from unauthorized access. We explain a hybrid approach by
employing attributes, roles and capabilities for our authorization design. We show
the use of attributes for role membership assignment and in permission evaluation.
Membership of roles grants capabilities. The capabilities which are issued may be
parameterized based on further attributes of the user and are then used to access
specific services provided by IoT devices. This significantly reduces the number of
policies required for specifying access control settings. We also explore the pro-
vision of an identity-less, asynchronous and decentralized delegation model for the
IoT leveraging the advantages of blockchain technology. We consider the uncer-
tainty that exists in IoT systems and introduce a trust model based on
attribute-based identity. Notably, the significant contribution of this work is the use
of attributes for identifying an entity rather than depending upon the unique

v
vi Preface

concrete identity of that entity. That said, we use attributes to validate an entity
rather than depending upon unique identities.
The work presented in this book is obtained from a doctoral research conducted
at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. The motivation of this research was to
design and development of an access control architecture for the large-scale IoT
systems, in particular, keeping a view to the sensing, monitoring and controlling
access in IoT-enabled healthcare systems. The author is obliged to acknowledge
Associate Professor Michael Hitchens, Professor Vijay Varadharajan, Dr. Tahiry
Rabehaja and Ambrose Hill for their help and support in this research work. The
research was supported by the financial, academic and technical assistance of
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Sydney, Australia Shantanu Pal

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The Internet of Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Need for Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Motivation and Use Case Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 The Aim of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Research Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Background and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 The IoT Paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1.2 Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 Basics of Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.2 Working Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.3 Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.4 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.5 Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Access Control in the IoT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.2 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.3 Existing Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Representing Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4.1 Identity Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.4.2 Identity Management Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.5 Approaches to Delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.5.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.5.2 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

vii
viii Contents

2.6 The Notion of Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.6.1 Trust Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.6.2 Trust Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.6.3 Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.6.4 Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 Developing an IoT Access Control Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.1 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2.1 IoT-Enabled Smart Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2.2 Current Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.3 An Example Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.4 Proposed Access Control Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.1 Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.2 System Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.3 Granting Different Level of Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.4.4 Overview of the Architectural Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.4.5 Core Modules of the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.4.6 A Formal Specification of the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.4.7 Capability Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.4.8 Capability Instantiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.5 Different Access Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.6 System Operation: Symmetric Key Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.6.1 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.6.2 Generating a Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.6.3 Processing an Access Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.7 System Operation: Asymmetric Key Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.7.1 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.7.2 Generating a Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
3.7.3 Processing an Access Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.8 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4 System Implementation and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.1.1 Testbed Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.1.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Contents ix

4.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

4.2.1 Performance Analysis: Symmetric Key Approach . . . . . . . 106
4.2.2 Performance Analysis: Asymmetric Key Approach . . . . . . 110
4.3 Comparison with Existing Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.4 Comparison of Number of Policy Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.5 Adversary Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5 Modeling and Management of Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.1.1 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.1.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2 Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2.1 Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2.2 Representation of Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.3 An Approach to IoT Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.3.1 IoT Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.3.2 Requirements and Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.3.3 Our Approach: Things-Centric Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.3.4 Use of Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.3.5 A Formal Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.4 Use-Case Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6 Delegation of Access Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.1.1 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.1.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.2.1 Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.2.2 Blockchain Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.2.3 Delegation in IoT Using Blockchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.3 A Motivating Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.4 Proposed Delegation Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.4.1 Delegation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.4.2 Secure Right Delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.4.3 Overview of the Architectural Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.4.4 Communication Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.5 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.6 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
x Contents

6.7 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

6.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7 Integrating Trust to IoT Access Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.1.1 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.1.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.3 Context of the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.3.1 Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.3.2 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.4 Proposed Trust Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.4.1 Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.4.2 Trust Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7.4.3 System Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
7.4.4 Summary of Trust Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5 Trust Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
7.6 Trust Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
7.7 Use Case Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
7.7.1 Scenario 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
7.7.2 Scenario 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
7.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8 Conclusion and Future Work . . . ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.2 Research Findings . . . . . . . . ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.3 Open Research Questions and Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Chapter 1
Introduction

Abstract This chapter introduces the fundamental of the Internet of Things (IoT)
and the need for access control in such systems. This, in turn, will help to explain
the need for a scalable, dynamic, and flexible access control architecture for the IoT.

1.1 The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) [1] is a paradigm shift where anything and everything
in the physical and virtual worlds can be the part of the network. The term ‘IoT’ was
popularized by the innovative work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) Auto-ID Centre. The first documented evidence of the use of the term ‘The
Internet of Things’ was by Kevin Ashton, the co-founder of the MIT Auto-ID Centre,
in the year 1999 [2]. The IoT connects all the devices in a physical domain with
the Internet to communicate with each other for faster and easier service. The IoT
represents a view in which the traditional Internet extends into real-world objects
(e.g. food, clothing, furniture, paper, landmarks, monuments, etc.) and enables each
the ability to gather, process and act on information in a smarter way. These objects,
acting as sensors or actuators, are able to interact with each other in order to reach a
common goal (e.g. quality and service) by connecting all smart things to the current
Internet. Therefore, the perspective for the IoT is to deploy a ubiquitous society where
the users (i.e. people) and the various objects (i.e. everything that is addressable and
communicable) will be connected over a network platform to leverage the benefits for
both society and technology on a large scale, so that human users are unobtrusively
assisted by technology in performing everyday activities [3].
IoT systems may deal with high volumes of data. This data can be particularly
sensitive, as it may include health, location and other highly personal information.
IoT systems are very large and dynamic in nature, and offer services that are related
to human users or other things that constitute such systems. We envisage a growth
of the IoT where it encompasses a significant range of human and social activities,
e.g. commerce, leisure, healthcare and transport. Activities that are currently not
digitally enabled will be supported and others expanded by the edge intelligence
and ubiquity of the devices that constitute the IoT. For example, shopping may be

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

S. Pal, Internet of Things and Access Control, Smart Sensors, Measurement
and Instrumentation 37, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64998-2_1
2 1 Introduction

enhanced by services offered by things deployed by the retailers, contacting user

devices and offering information and discounts. Current services, e.g. e-tickets, may
be enhanced by sensors detecting e-ticket holders and controlling physical access on
that basis. Healthcare may be expanded by a range of sensors attached to a person [4].
Situations e.g. those just described, and others left to the reader’s imagination,
will require an even greater number of things than are currently deployed, and users
devices that are likewise a part of the IoT. Devices and things may, over their life-
time, interact with a vast range of other things. Such interactions may be fleeting
and may only occur once between a particular pair of things or be much more fre-
quent and long term. Things will likely be highly mobile, especially devices, moving
from administrative domain to another administrative domain. These domains will
have to establish policies and mechanisms to enable them to deal with devices and
things about which they have very limited, if any, previous information. This poses
significant challenges in securing IoT systems [5].
This vision of the IoT implies that knowing the identities of individual entities
before an interaction is, in many cases, impractical. In a system like the IoT, where
there may be a large number of devices, being able to easily identify them, both
uniquely and as groups, is challenging. In an environment consisting of a multitude
of users, each possessing a large range of smart devices, questions of identity and
access are paramount. Smart devices will come in many forms and provide a vast
range of services to both their users and other entities within the IoT. Users will wish
to maintain their privacy, efficiently manage their devices and quickly and precisely
obtain the services they require. The devices will, for the foreseeable future, present
relatively low-power capacities and solutions must be tailored to this.
IoT implementations are commonly based on sensing and wireless communica-
tion technologies e.g. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Wireless Sensor Net-
works (WSNs), WiFi, AdHoc Peer-to-Peer (P2P), 3G, 4G, IEEE 802.15.x communi-
cation standards e.g. ZigBee, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Wireless
Body Area Network (WBAN), etc. [6]. The basic communication protocols for the
IoT are predicated on the low power consumption of the devices. For example, Pow-
erLine Communication protocol (PLC), IPV6 Low Power Wireless Personal Area
Network protocol (6LowPAN), Routing Protocol for Low power lossy networks
(RPL), ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0, EIST M2M Architecture and Message Queue
Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol [7, 8]. These technologies help the things
in automatic identification of other things they are communicating with. Further,
with the development of IPV6, it is convenient to assign unique digital identities and
access to various digital information and services by the things.
The IoT has already made significant changes in our daily lives, with the enter-
prise, social, technological and individual benefits only expected to increase with the
proliferation of IoT applications and services. At the same time the IoT poses new
security and privacy challenges for users, devices, systems and things [9]. Protecting
IoT systems is difficult due to the particular characteristics of IoT systems. These
include extremely large numbers of users and devices, many of the latter possess-
ing low computing power and limited storage capacity, the heterogeneous nature of
these systems, the potentially transient nature of relationships and other factors [10].
1.1 The Internet of Things 3

In addition, the scale of the number of individual devices, applications, services,

etc., and the lack of common standards and architectures increases the difficulty in
employing traditional security approaches. Importantly, with the vast range of users
and entities, the issues of controlling access to resources and even identifying the
communicating entities, access control and identity management are crucial issues
in providing secure and trustworthy IoT implementations. This is only heightened by
the likelihood of interacting entities originating from multiple distinct jurisdictions.

1.2 Need for Access Control

Access control is one of the crucial aspects of security when considering the char-
acteristics e.g. scale and heterogeneity in devices, users, applications and services,
of an IoT system. It is used to control and regulate who (e.g. an entity) can view or
use what (e.g. a resource). Access control helps to satisfy the security properties of
confidentiality, integrity and availability [11]. In a large-scale and highly dynamic
system like the IoT, how to protect sensitive information from unauthorized users
and services is a significant issue. In other words, allowing a legitimate entity for
accessing a resource in the IoT, is highly demanding.
With the emergence of the IoT, there has been a tremendous growth in the use of
intelligent sensors and wearable devices. It is estimated that the number of devices
connected to the Internet will be 28.5 billion in 2022, up from 18 billion in 2017.
On an individual basis this will mean 3.6 networked connected devices per capita by
2022, compared to 2.3 in 2016. The average number of devices and connections per
household and per Internet user is predicted to increase by 51% by 2022. This trend
will also increase the annual global Internet traffic, which is predicted to reach 4.8 ZB
(zetta-bit) per year by 2022 [12]. These devices will generate a high amount of data,
including a user’s personally identifiable information (PII) and confidential health
information as well as the contextual information, e.g. location, date and time [13,
14].
Commonly, there is a tradeoff between placing the access control at the edge of
the network, making use of the intelligence of the devices, and relying on central-
ized, but more easily managed, mechanisms [15]. On the one hand, low-powered
devices, with limited memory capacity and restricted processing power are often
unable to support implementation of traditional security mechanisms. On the other
hand, centralization may have difficulty coping with the scale of the systems. From
the communication point of view, heterogeneous network environments, wireless
communication mediums, high mobility of things, dynamic network topology and
availability of infrastructure for communication also pose significant challenges [16].
These limitations restrict where ‘heavy-weight’ security mechanisms can be applied
directly into edge IoT devices. This situation is exacerbated by the use of resource-
heavy protocols e.g. HTTP/HTTPS and TCP for communicating between devices.
Different solutions are needed for the protocol stack for use with such constrained
resources, further inhibiting the use of traditional security approaches. For exam-
4 1 Introduction

ple, the use of CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) [17] or DTLS (Datagram
Transport Layer Security) [18] security protocol over the 6LoWPAN based on IEEE
804.15.4 standard, could be an alternative.
As of today, there is no complete, coherent and fine-grained access control
approach that can be deployed for an IoT system [19]. This presents significant
challenges in developing a secure, robust and scalable IoT system with secure appli-
cations and services. Importantly, the present access control architectures are not
prepared to fully integrate with the different layers of an IoT system and do not
adequately cover its dynamic and autonomous communications characteristics. Tra-
ditional security and privacy challenges are mostly related to information leakage
and potential data loss and control over services. However, they have now become
more significant due to the range of threats and attacks [20]. Moreover, as noted
above, the high level of heterogeneity in the IoT, combined with the variety of tech-
nologies, systems and applications, mobility, dynamic network topology and limited
physical security of low power devices further introduces advanced security risks
that are growing concerns and need to be addressed for this kind of systems in the
future [21]. Hence, there is a significant need to revisit and rethink access control
approaches for developing an IoT system in a structured and comprehensive way.

1.3 Motivation and Use Case Examples

In this section, we present simple use case example scenarios to show the motivation
of our research.
In the current large-scale IoT systems it is difficult to manage and track who
(e.g. user and device) is using the system and what (e.g. data and resource) they are
connecting to and accessing. This limits a wider deployment of such systems and
indicates the demand for developing a robust, scalable and secure IoT systems [22].
Now let us consider an environment that is composed of a vast number of IoT devices,
users, applications and their associated services. For an example scenario, we select
an IoT-enabled smart healthcare system—one of the major application domains for
the IoT. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Observatory
for eHealth survey in 2015, there were 121 countries with national eHealth strate-
gies [23]. This illustrates the requirement for integrated, systematic and electronic
use of healthcare information by adopting enabling policies and mechanisms for
both the patients and healthcare providers. Moreover, with the rapid expansion of
the IoT, healthcare systems are expected to be easily accessible as well as remotely
available [24].
An important element of this is the increased use of a wide range of wearable
devices, including smart sensors, to enable automatic collection, storage and report-
ing of data and its use in diagnosis [25]. For instance, In 2013, 15% of the population
in the United States owned a mobile phone-connected wearable device (e.g. Fitbit or
smartwatch) [26, 27]. The number of applications compatible with wearable devices
will only grow, with nearly 165,000 healthcare apps. available at present [28]. In
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER XVI
ON THE TRAIL OF FORTUNE
Tom looked in the direction indicated, and among the men
standing at the bar saw Hankinshaw. The mottled face was even
redder than usual.
“Can’t seem to avoid that fellow,” remarked Tom disgustedly.
“He’s a regular jinx.”
Either Hankinshaw had not seen them or he had not recognized
them in their aviators’ suits, for he paid no attention to them. He
took one drink more and then lurched unsteadily out of the place.
Tom and Ned finished their meal and went to the shack that
served as post-office and telegraph station. Tom sent off messages
to his father and Mary, announcing their safe arrival, and then made
some inquiries of the telegraph operator, a bright young college boy
who was “fingering the key” to earn some extra money during his
vacation.
“Is the town of Goby near here?” asked Tom.
“No town of that name in this section,” was the answer. “But
there’s a Goby farm owned by a man of that name about four miles
from here.”
“I guess that’s the place I have in mind,” said Tom, “though from
what a friend of mine told me I thought it was the name of a town.
Is the owner of it a blind man?”
“Yes,” was the answer. “A nice old fellow he is, too, and he has a
daughter that’s a perfect peach.”
“Tell me about him, will you?”
“I understand that he’s a Northerner who came down to this part
of the country to regain his health. Since he came here he’s gone
blind. I imagine he’s had rather hard sledding to get along on his
half section of land. That is, before the oil craze began. As far as I
can learn, his property is right in the midst of the oil region, and he’ll
probably be able to sell it at a good price. That is, if he doesn’t get
cheated out of it. Some of these oil prospectors are a pretty slick lot.
They’d steal the penny off a dead man’s eyes, and they’d rob a blind
man as quickly as they’d take a drink.”
“I suppose so,” remarked Tom. “You say that this farm is about
four miles from here. Could you give us more exact directions?”
The obliging operator could and did, and Tom and Ned hurried
back to their plane, taking with them two quarts of coffee and a
double portion of ham and eggs and rolls that they had had put up
for the faithful Koku.
While the giant feasted, Tom took his bearings, and as soon as
Koku had finished they climbed into the Winged Arrow and turned it
in the direction of the Goby farm. To make a mile a minute was
nothing to the powerful plane, and in less than five minutes it was
hovering over a homestead which answered to the description that
the operator had given. It was in slightly rolling country with several
hills in the vicinity, differing from the unrelieved flat plain on which
Copperhead stood. It was a pleasant place and seemed like an oasis
amid the throng of derricks that reared themselves on every side.
The house itself was a substantial two-story structure with a
sloping roof. There were white curtains at the windows and a perfect
riot of flowers at the front and around two sides of the building. The
whiteness and the daintiness of the curtains seemed to show the
presence of a feminine hand.
Tom made a landing about three hundred feet from the house. A
movement among the curtains showed that the roar of the engine
had attracted attention from at least one of the inmates. Leaving
Koku with the plane, Tom and Ned made their way to the house.
Tom knocked and the door was promptly opened by one of the
most charming girls imaginable. She was slightly above medium
height, had a perfect figure, beautifully formed features, and wavy
chestnut hair and limpid brown eyes. It was evident that the
enthusiastic young telegraph operator had not erred when he had
described her.
To Tom, with his mind and heart full of Mary, she was simply a
very pretty girl. To Ned, she seemed a heavenly vision, the sweetest
thing he had ever seen.
“Does Mr. Goby live here?” asked Tom, removing his cap.
“Yes,” was the reply, in a soft, musical voice that completed Ned’s
undoing. “I am his daughter. Won’t you walk in?”
“My name is Swift,” said Tom, as they accepted her invitation,
“and this is my friend, Mr. Newton. We came to see your father on a
little business matter.”
“If you will sit down,” she said, as she ushered them into the
living room and indicated chairs, “I will call him.”
She vanished, followed by Ned’s eyes. Tom, looking at his friend,
saw him staring at the door through which she had disappeared.
“Hard hit, old boy?” he bantered. “Come out of your trance.”
Ned glared at him, but before he could frame a suitable retort
the young girl came back, accompanied by a man whom she
introduced as her father. Then she excused herself, flushing a trifle
as she caught the all too evident admiration in Ned’s eyes.
Mr. Goby was a medium-built man somewhat over fifty, with a
kindly and intelligent face. He wore a pair of colored spectacles,
evidently to cover his loss of sight. The young men took to him at
once.
After a few preliminary remarks, Tom launched into the object of
their visit. He told him that he and a few of his friends had decided
to go into an oil venture, and were looking about for a likely spot to
commence operations. They had selected the Copperhead district
and had noted that his farm was right in the center of the producing
field. Did Mr. Goby care to sell or lease all or part of his property? If
he did, Tom thought they might make a deal, as he and his
associates were prepared to offer perfectly fair terms.
The blind man listened attentively, though, for a time, the boys
could not tell whether interestedly or not.
“Well,” said he, “it seems highly probable that oil abounds on this
farm of mine. All my friends have told me so, and the fact that rich
strikes have been made all around it seems to confirm the
probability. Then, too, I’ve had a number of offers from speculators
and prospectors. One group in particular have been especially
pressing. A man named Thompson with two of his friends have
seemed very anxious to make some arrangement. But—” here Mr.
Goby hesitated for a moment—“perhaps it isn’t fair to say so, but
there’s something about them that doesn’t seem to ring quite true.
What they offer sounds fair enough, but, somehow, I don’t quite feel
as though I could trust them. My daughter, Carol, who is pretty
shrewd, feels the same way about it.”
“I see,” murmured Tom, nodding.
“You see,” continued Mr. Goby, after some further talk concerning
the offer Tom was prepared to make, “I’m at a disadvantage on
account of my blindness. So I have to leave most of my business
affairs in the hands of an old friend of mine, Judge Wilson, of the
district court. I’ve referred this Mr. Thompson and his partners to the
judge, but for some reason or other they seem reluctant to deal with
him. They say that I’m the owner of the property, and they’d rather
deal direct with me than through my attorney. But how can I sign
papers that I haven’t read? To be sure, my daughter could read
them to me, but even then I’m not versed in legal matters, and
there might be some clause in the contract that would seem
perfectly innocent and yet be used to rob me. This farm is all I have
in the world, and I have to look out for the future of my daughter.”
 CHAPTER XVII
CLOSING THE DEAL
“You are perfectly right, Mr. Goby,” declared Tom. “Men who
refuse to submit a contract to a lawyer are to be distrusted on
general principles. No honest man would object. As far as myself
and my associates are concerned, we are ready, with your approval,
to submit our proposition to Judge Wilson and have him draw up the
papers.”
“That sounds fair,” replied the blind man. “If you like, I’ll have my
daughter telephone to the judge and ask him to come over to-
morrow. By the way, where are you stopping in town?” Mr. Goby had
taken a liking to the boys, both so frank and friendly.
“Why, the fact is,” answered Tom, “we haven’t made any
arrangements yet. We just reached here to-day and came right over.
We’ll have to fix that up when we go back.”
“You don’t need to do anything in a rush,” said Mr. Goby heartily.
“We have plenty of room here, and maybe we could let you stay
with us, especially if we come to a deal to work the farm for oil. You
might stay to-night, if you care to.” And so, a little later, with Carol’s
consent, it was arranged.
“Seem to be mighty nice people, Ned,” remarked Tom, after the
young inventor and his chum had been shown to a room where they
might wash and make themselves otherwise presentable.
“You are right, Tom; and I hope we come to a satisfactory
arrangement with them.”
“So do I.”
“It would be great to strike something big down here, wouldn’t
it?”
“Well, we mustn’t let our imagination run away with us. We’ll
have to take what comes.”
 They had an excellent supper, prepared by Carol with the
assistance of an old colored mammy, and a very delightful evening,
spent chiefly by Tom in conversation with Mr. Goby, whom he found
to be well informed and an entertaining talker.
Ned had developed a sudden interest in flowers, and was very
anxious to have Carol show him her garden. She was not unwilling,
for this handsome young man who seemed to have dropped down
on them from the skies was not an unwelcome visitor.
“Carol’s a beautiful name,” murmured Ned later that night, as he
and Tom were getting ready for bed in the comfortable room to
which they had been shown.
Tom stopped in his work of unlacing a shoe and stared at him.
“Sounds like the singing of birds,” mused Ned dreamily.
“For the love of Pete!” cried Tom, “what’s the matter with you?”
“Oh,” said Ned in some confusion, “did I say anything? Guess I
must have been thinking out loud.”
The next day Judge Wilson came over to the farm. He was a
keen, cultivated man of high standing in the legal profession.
“Swift,” he repeated, when he was introduced to Tom. “That’s a
famous name. Any relation to the inventor, Tom Swift?”
Tom flushed with embarrassment.
“A slight relation,” put in Ned, with a laugh. “In fact, he’s the man
himself.”
“But you’re only a boy, lad!” exclaimed the judge, in
wonderment.
“Old enough to have a number of good inventions to his credit,”
affirmed Ned.
“I’m amazed!” cried the judge, when finally convinced that the
boy before him was the noted inventor, Tom Swift. “Well, well, this is
indeed an honor! I’ve heard a lot about your wonderful inventions—
who hasn’t?—but I never expected to have the pleasure of shaking
you by the hand.”
As a matter of fact, the recognition stood Tom in good stead. It
simplified matters immensely. His standing was established at once,
and the tedious delay otherwise necessary in looking up his
references was obviated.
 They were deep in the discussion of terms, when Ned, who
happened to be facing the window, saw an automobile coming up
the road. It stopped at the gate and three men got out.
Ned gave a low whistle of surprise as he recognized them, and
Tom and the judge looked up inquiringly.
“Hankinshaw and his partners,” explained Ned.
“Friends of yours?” asked the judge.
“No,” replied Ned. “We’ve known them chiefly in a business way.
We——”
Further explanations were prevented by a knock on the door.
Carol opened it and ushered the three men into the room.
Blank surprise showed in the faces of all of them when they
caught sight of Tom and Ned, who had risen on their entrance. The
blank looks were quickly succeeded by looks of intense vexation.
Thompson and Bragden, as the more diplomatic of the trio, banished
these promptly, but Hankinshaw’s brows remained drawn together in
a forbidding scowl.
“This is an unexpected pleasure,” said Thompson suavely, as the
visitors seated themselves. “Who would have thought that you were
down in this part of the country? On a little pleasure trip, I
suppose?”
“More business than pleasure,” answered Tom coolly.
“Looking for contracts to make some more oil-well machinery?”
asked Bragden.
“No,” returned Tom. “Though if any came our way we might
consider them. We’re going to do a little digging on our own
account.”
“In this neighborhood?” asked Thompson, looking with alarm at
the papers that lay on the table near Judge Wilson’s elbow.
“Yes,” replied Tom, who was getting a little impatient at this
cross-examination. “Right on this farm, if Mr. Goby and I can come
to terms.”
“Cutting in under us, eh?” snarled Hankinshaw. “Poaching on our
preserves.”
“That remark is quite uncalled for,” remarked Judge Wilson,
entering the conversation for the first time since the introduction.
“Why do you use the phrase ‘our preserves’? These gentlemen have
no option or claim of any kind on the property, have they, Mr. Goby?”
he continued, turning to the blind man.
“Not at all,” replied the owner of the farm. “They have discussed
the matter with me several times, but no agreement has been
reached.”
“No written agreement perhaps,” broke in Thompson. “But I
certainly thought that we had reached a verbal agreement, or at
least a practical understanding the last time we were over here.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Bragden, backing up his partner.
“Sure we did,” growled Hankinshaw.
“Nothing of the kind,” returned Mr. Goby indignantly. “That is
wholly your own assumption. I distinctly told you then, as I had told
you before, that you would have to take the matter up with Judge
Wilson and that I would do nothing without his approval.”
The judge looked at the three men keenly.
“I have always been within easy reach,” he remarked. “May I ask
why you have not brought the matter to my attention?”
“Our plan has always been to save expense and delay by dealing
directly with the owners of property,” replied Thompson.
“Even when that owner happens to be a blind man?” asked the
judge, with a tinge of sarcasm in his tone.
“His daughter could read the papers to him,” replied Thompson
defensively.
“A blind man and an inexperienced young girl,” mused Judge
Wilson, and before the contempt expressed, Thompson and Bragden
winced, while Hankinshaw glared.
“Do you give me authority to deal with these gentlemen, Mr.
Goby?” asked the judge.
“Absolutely,” returned the blind man. “Whatever you say or do
will be wholly satisfactory to me.”
“That being the case, gentlemen,” said the judge, turning to the
three partners, “I think we will not detain you any longer. You are
doubtless busy men and have many things to attend to.”
It was a clear case of dismissal. Thompson fumed white with
anger, as he and Bragden rose from their chairs.
 “You may regret this,” said Thompson threateningly, moving
toward the door.
“Possibly,” replied Judge Wilson indifferently, turning toward his
papers.
“You bet you will,” bullied Hankinshaw, who remained obstinately
planted in his chair.
Tom sprang to his feet.
“Miss Goby,” he said, “would you mind stepping from the room
for a moment?”
The young girl vanished through a door at the back.
Tom went to the front door and threw it open.
“Just to save Mr. Hankinshaw the trouble,” he remarked.
“I’ll go when I get ready,” snarled Hankinshaw, who was fighting
mad at the collapse of his scheme. “I’ll——”
He stopped short as the gigantic form of Koku blocked the door.
“Come in, Koku,” said Tom. “By the way, Hankinshaw, you
remember Koku, don’t you? You met him the night that you couldn’t
sleep. He’s a genial sort of fellow, and——”
But Hankinshaw at the sight of Koku had risen from his chair with
alacrity and followed his partners from the room.
When they had gone, Tom and Ned and the judge got down to
business, and it was not long before they had settled on terms.
Tom had agreed previously with Ned and Mr. Damon that they
would go into the oil venture as partners with equal investments and
equal profits or losses. And the terms that were made with Mr. Goby
were not only fair, but generous. He was to receive a large lump sum
at once for the privilege accorded Tom and his partners of drilling on
his farm. If the venture failed, he would still have the farm and a
large sum of money. If oil were struck, he was to have a good share
of the profits. So that either way he would win.
With the contract signed, Tom and Ned set to work. Through the
aid of Judge Wilson, they were able to secure the services of
experienced and reliable drillers. Much of their material had already
arrived, and other necessaries were secured from the owners of
abandoned wells in the vicinity.
 In a surprisingly short time, a derrick was rigged, the machinery
installed, and all was ready for the venture.
“Now,” said Tom, on the morning they started work, as he patted
lovingly his new patent drill, “don’t fall down on me. Show me what
you can do.”
While he was busy with these preparations, Tom had not come
across any of the Hankinshaw crowd, but from various sources he
heard that they were furious at their failure to get hold of the Goby
farm and that they were making dire threats of getting even. But he
was too busy to pay any attention to these. He felt perfectly
confident of his ability to take care of himself no matter what they
might do. Not so Mr. Damon.
“They’ll be after us, Tom,” said the eccentric man, one day, and
his manner showed his nervousness.
“You bet they’ll be after us,” put in Ned. “Especially if we strike
oil.”
“We’ll keep our eyes trimmed for them,” answered the young
inventor. “For Hankinshaw especially,” he added soberly. He had seen
a look in that rascal’s eyes that proved the unscrupulous fellow was
becoming desperate.
 CHAPTER XVIII
A TEST OF COURAGE
At first the well went down rapidly. The earth was soft and sandy
near the surface, and with even an ordinary drilling outfit progress
would have been fairly rapid. But Tom’s newly perfected drill fairly
ate its way through the soil, “like a gimlet going through a nice soft
piece of cheese,” as Ned expressed it. They were all delighted with
the performance of the new invention, and promised themselves an
early and successful strike.
But this rapid progress did not keep up long. After the first
hundred feet or so, the ground became harder, and they often
encountered rocks that slowed up even Tom’s marvelous drill. It kept
hammering away, though, and gradually thrust through obstacles
that would have splintered and shattered any ordinary well-boring
outfit.
Deeper and deeper grew the hole, and heavier and heavier grew
the pipe as it was sunk through the earth’s crust. The big derrick
creaked and groaned, and they had to stop drilling for several days
while they added massive beams to the structure to reënforce it.
Then drilling was resumed, but as the shaft sank deeper and deeper,
and still with no sign of oil, one member after another of the party
began to get discouraged. At first they would hardly admit this, even
to themselves, but at last the facts had to be faced.
Mr. Damon had arrived a few days before the strengthening of
the derrick. At first he had been his usual bright and voluble self, but
as day followed day even his good spirits died away, and at length
he put in words what the others had been thinking for some time
past.
“Bless my oil cups, Tom, I’m the last man in the world to want to
discourage you, but it begins to look to me as though there wasn’t a
drop of oil on this whole farm—except what they burn in the lamps
at night.”
“I must admit that it begins to look that way, as you say,” Tom
replied. “But don’t forget that more than once oil has been struck at
greater depths than we’ve penetrated so far. Why, we’re not down a
thousand feet yet, and the famous ‘spouter’ well didn’t break until
they’d gone down to nearly fourteen hundred. Besides, we’ve struck
a softer stratum of earth now, and the old drill is beginning to bite
through in fine style once more.”
“That new drill of yours has done wonders, and if you let it go I
think it would reach China eventually, but even then it might not
strike an oil deposit. Why, bless my good, muscular right arm, if you
go down much farther, you’ll have to strengthen your derrick again.
A thousand feet of iron pipe weighs something, let me tell you.”
“Well, if the derrick breaks, we’ll build a new one,” returned Tom,
doggedly. “I’ve got a hunch that there’s oil under this farm, and I
want pretty good proof that there isn’t before I give up looking for it.
Besides, it isn’t only ourselves that we’ve got to think of. Can’t you
imagine how disappointed Mr. Goby and his daughter would be if we
had to admit failure?”
“Yes, and then there’s the Hankinshaw gang, too,” chimed in
Ned. “They’d have the laugh on us good and plenty if we went to all
this trouble and then didn’t get anything after all. We’d just be
saving them the expense of doing the work themselves.”
“Very true. But you’ve got to look at this from a business
viewpoint,” came from Mr. Damon. “Every ten feet you go deeper
now will cost you many times more than the same distance did at
first, and if the chances seem all against you, it’s better policy to
take your losses and get out while you’ve got something left. That
blessed hunch of yours, Tom, may prove to be a very expensive one
before you’re through.”
“That’s very true, Mr. Damon. But remember that it hasn’t cost us
nearly as much to drill this hole as it would if we had reached the
same depth with the ordinary drilling equipment. I think we’d better
add a little more bracing to the derrick and drill through another
hundred feet or so. If we don’t strike oil here, I want to feel that we
did our best, anyway. There may be oil within ten feet of the drill
point right now.”
Tom’s confidence and eagerness were infectious, and while Mr.
Damon still shook his head doubtfully and blessed everything he
could think of, it was finally decided to “carry on” a little while
longer. Ned, while still unconvinced, did not advance any further
arguments against a continuation of the drilling, as he knew how
bitterly disappointed Carol would be if they failed in the undertaking.
Day followed day at the scene of the drilling, and still there was
the same heartbreaking lack of success. Deeper and deeper went
the drill, faster now, but still with no result. Finally their supply of
pipe ran out, and it was almost a week before they could get more—
a week during which Tom paced restlessly about the confines of the
farm, counting the minutes until they could resume operations. The
time was not entirely wasted, however, as they added some heavy
shoring to the derrick, together with some new crossbeams to
support those that were bending and splitting under the tremendous
strain.
In drilling for oil, as the drill bores a hole through the earth’s
crust, lengths of wrought-iron pipe are lowered into the hole to keep
the earth from caving in and filling the shaft. When one length of
pipe, usually twelve to fifteen feet, is all the way in, another length
is coupled on to it, and this in turn is sunk as the drill goes deeper.
Now, the entire weight of this pipe is supported by a wooden—or, in
some cases, steel—framework, which is erected over the boring.
One length of four-inch pipe is not such a trifling weight, and when
dozens of these lengths are coupled together, their combined weight
becomes enormous. Quite often the pipe or its supports will break,
and then the whole length drops down into the hole and has to be
fished out again before operations can be resumed. This is often a
very difficult job, and may hold up progress for many days. In the
feverish rush to get the shaft sunk, derricks are often overloaded
until they fall under the strain, often badly injuring or killing the
workmen, and in any event causing delay and expense.
Tom and his friends had guarded as far as possible against these
accidents, and so far had had no trouble in that direction. But with
every length of pipe that was added to that already in the hole, the
chance of an accident grew greater.
However, Tom, with characteristic grit, had determined to see the
enterprise through to a finish, and the others of the party, seeing
that he was not to be dissuaded, concealed as far as possible their
own despondency as to the outcome.
“Bless my suspenders, Tom Swift, you look as though you had
lost your last friend!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, one day. “The world
won’t come to an end just because we’ve happened to run out of
pipe. We’ll have more in a few days, and in the meantime you ought
to be getting a rest instead of pacing up and down like a wild animal
in its cage. You’ll make yourself sick if you don’t look out—bless my
pill box, but you will!”
“I’ll get well fast enough when we strike oil,” Tom assured him.
“When we strike oil! Bless my timepiece! What about now? Now,
Tom Swift?”
Tom laughed, but merely reiterated that he would be well enough
when the oil began to flow.
“That’s all right. But in the meantime, why not be sociable?”
came from Ned, as he linked his arm with that of his friend “You
take hold of him on the other side, Mr. Damon, and we’ll trot him up
to the farmhouse and give him a good home-cooked meal. In other
words, we’ll feed the brute.”
 CHAPTER XIX

ON THE VERGE
In the big comfortable kitchen of the farmhouse a delicious
supper was being prepared and Carol was busily engaged in setting
the good things on the table when Tom, Ned and Mr. Damon
entered. She had seen them coming, but had immediately retreated
from the window when she saw Ned looking in her direction, and
now tried to pretend that she had not been on the lookout at all.
But Mr. Damon was not inclined to let her off so easily. Although
he had known the Gobys but a few days, the jovial and eccentric
man already seemed like an old friend of the family, and was very
popular with them.
“I thought I saw you at the window, Carol, as we came along,”
he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Were you looking for
any one in particular?”
“No, not at all. I just happened to glance out, and there you were
coming along. You all looked hungry, too, so I thought I’d better
hurry and serve supper,” she answered demurely.
During the meal, Mr. Goby dropped something of his usual sad
manner and became talkative. He told them of many interesting
incidents in the surrounding country, for which he entertained a
deep affection, and predicted great things in the future.
“The country is rich any way you look at it,” he proclaimed, after
they had left the table and were in the living room. “If your land is
fertile, you can make money out of raising crops and cattle on the
surface, and if it’s barren you stand a good chance of finding riches
under the surface. My son always used to say that you were bound
to do well with it one way or the other, and I guess he was right.”
“Bless my posterity!” cried Mr. Damon. “Your son? Why, I didn’t
know you had a boy. Neither you nor Carol has ever mentioned him.
Tell us about him.”
 Mr. Damon was all interest, as were also the others.
“Oh, yes,” replied Mr. Goby. “I have a son, and a fine big fellow
he is. But he hasn’t been home for a long time now. He hasn’t even
written lately. I guess he must have forgotten his father and sister,”
and there was a note of sadness and longing in the blind man’s
voice.
“Sometimes the young people get so interested in the outside
world that they don’t realize how long the time seems to the folks at
home,” said Mr. Damon sympathetically. “What is your boy doing, Mr.
Goby?”
“That’s just what worries me more than anything else. He’s gone
fairly crazy over airplanes, and the last we heard of him he was
flying one for some inventor who was developing a new type. I’m
afraid that he may have met with some accident, and that’s why we
haven’t heard from him for so long.”
“Oh, flying in an airplane is safe enough,” remarked Tom. “I’ve
traveled a good many thousands of miles that way and never got
anything worse than a scratch to show for it. What is your son’s first
name, Mr. Goby? I may have heard of him somewhere. Or if I don’t
know him myself, I have a wide acquaintance among flying men and
can make some inquiries among them.”
“It’s an unusual name,” replied the blind man. “But it’s one that
his grandfather carried before him, and so we gave it to him. His full
name is Hitt Goby.”
“Hitt Goby,” Tom repeated, with a puzzled look on his face. “I
don’t think I ever heard the name before, and yet there is something
familiar about it.”
“Same here,” remarked Ned. “Hitt Goby. Hitt Goby. Say, Tom,” he
added, with sudden excitement, “do you suppose it could be the
aviator we rescued in the woods? You know we thought he said his
name was Hillobie, but he was half unconscious and it might have
been Hitt Goby.”
“By George, I believe you’re right!” replied Tom, jumping to his
feet in great excitement and beginning to pace the room. “We’ll have
to wire to Shopton right away and find out.”
 “Bless my shoe laces!” gasped Mr. Damon, and then sat staring
about him.
“What do you mean? What happened to my son?” demanded the
blind man, in great agitation.
He had risen to his feet and stood trembling, his face the color of
ashes. Tom sprang to his side and supported him as he swayed
dizzily.
“You said that he was half unconscious when you rescued him,”
cried Carol, sudden tears in her eyes. “How did he get hurt? How
badly was he hurt? Oh, tell us quickly.”
“Don’t be frightened,” said Ned quietly, taking her hand. “He
wasn’t fatally hurt. He was getting along all right the last time we
saw him. Perhaps, after all, it wasn’t your brother. Have you a
picture of him?”
“Yes,” replied Carol, her first apprehensions relieved by what Ned
said. “I have one up on my bureau. I’ll run up and get it.”
She flew upstairs, and a moment later returned with the
photograph. It had evidently been taken some years before, but the
likeness was undeniable.
“That’s the man,” declared Tom, after a moment’s inspection.
Ned, who was looking over his shoulder, nodded in agreement.
“No doubt about it. Same eyes, same nose, same shaped head.”
“Tell us all about it,” cried Mr. Goby and Carol in the same breath,
feverish with impatience.
In as few words as possible, Tom narrated the happenings of that
memorable afternoon when the young aviator had fallen into the
woods with his blazing plane.
“Broken leg! Broken ribs! My poor brother!” cried Carol, and, for
a moment, her tears flowed, while Mr. Goby only by the greatest
effort kept himself from following her example.
“But he’s gotten all over those troubles,” Tom assured them
consolingly. “The last time I saw the head physician of the hospital
he told me that both leg and ribs had healed perfectly.”
“I can’t thank you two young men enough for what you have
done for my poor boy,” said Mr. Goby, and Carol’s eyes were bright
with unspoken thanks through her tears. “But if he has got well
again, why hasn’t he left the hospital and come home? And why
hasn’t he written?”
This was a poser for Tom, who had carefully avoided saying
anything about Hitt Goby’s mental condition. That, he felt, would be
almost equivalent to a death blow. He almost began to regret that
the matter had been mentioned at all.
“Oh, there might be a dozen reasons for either of those things,”
he said evasively. “In the first place, they might keep him at the
hospital even after the breaks had mended until he had fully gotten
back his strength. But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll telegraph the first
thing to-morrow morning from Copperhead to the hospital and find
out just how matters stand.”
Nothing else was talked of that night, and the boys had to
answer questions bearing on every little detail of the young aviator’s
rescue. They glossed over their own part of the work as much as
possible, but Mr. Goby and Carol overwhelmed them with thanks for
the part they had played.
Tom and Ned had heavy hearts, however, when at last they
found themselves alone in their room. They looked at each other
gloomily.
“How can we ever tell them if it turns out that the boy has lost
his mind?” groaned Tom, in a whisper.
“In that case, it would be a thousand times better if he were
dead,” responded Ned gloomily. “But we’ve got to buck up and hope
for the best. It’s a good while since we saw him, and by this time
he’ll perhaps be all right in mind as well as body. At any rate, we’ll
know by to-morrow night.”
The first thing after breakfast the next morning, Tom, in the
Winged Arrow, flew over to Copperhead. There he dispatched a
telegram to Dr. Sherwood, asking him to tell him the whole truth,
whether the news was good or bad, about young Goby’s condition,
and to wire him, if possible, so that he could get the message by
noon.
He had a considerable amount of business to transact in
Copperhead, and he was glad that he had, as it occupied the time
and made the waiting more endurable. But by noon he was back in
the telegraph station, only to be told that no message had come for
him. He waited around for nearly an hour, fairly consumed with
impatience. But at last the operator looked up from his clicking key.
“Something for you coming in now, Mr. Swift,” he announced. “I’ll
have it all in a minute or two.”
Tom hastened over and watched him as he transcribed the
message and handed it to him. Tom glanced over it and let out a
whoop of exultation that made the operator smile. Then he rushed
out and jumped into the plane and sent it whizzing over to the Goby
farm.
Carol had been on the watch for him, and came running out of
the house to the open space where he made his landing. A glance at
his face told her that he was the bearer of good tidings.
Had it been anything of less importance, Tom might have teased
her a little before he told her. As it was, he thrust the yellow slip in
her hand as soon as he reached her side. She read it eagerly,
pressed it to her heart, and then, with a word of thanks, hurried to
the house.
“It’s all right, Father!” she cried, as she burst! into the living
room, where the blind man was eagerly awaiting her. “Listen to this!”
And with hands that trembled so that she could hardly hold the
paper she read:

“Young Goby entirely recovered. Body and mind in perfect

condition. Will leave the hospital in a day or two and go directly to
his father’s home.
“Sherwood.”

The blind man opened his arms and Carol sank into them, father
and daughter weeping happy tears together.
Tom had not followed Carol, for he knew that just then she
wanted no other company than her father. He hunted up Ned and
Mr. Damon and imparted the good news to them, and they had a
little jubilee of their own.
At the well, however, things were not going so happily. The new
supply of pipe and couplings had arrived, and Tom had started the
drill again, but still they seemed as far as ever from oil. For two days
more the drill aid steadily down, and length after length of pipe was
engulfed in the deepening hole. They had now penetrated the
earth’s crust to a distance of 1,300 feet without a sign of oil, and any
one with less than Tom’s indomitable courage would have quit the
seemingly hopeless struggle in weariness and disgust. But Tom was
not yet ready to acknowledge himself beaten.
“We’ll go down another hundred feet,” he said, while Mr. Damon
shook his head and even Ned looked gloomy and downcast. “I know
we can’t go on forever, and if we don’t strike oil in the next hundred
feet I’ll own up that we’re beaten and we’ll have to make the best of
it. Fourteen hundred feet will be our limit. And I guess that won’t be
so bad, even if we don’t reach oil. We can say we died game,
anyway.”
“Why, bless my eyes and ears, Tom Swift, I must say I have more
admiration for your grit than for your judgment,” cried Mr. Damon.
“If he had taken my advice and stopped two weeks ago, think of
all the money we’d have saved, not to mention the time and worry. I
think we’re foolish to go another hundred feet,” grumbled Ned.
“But I know that if his heart is set on it, nothing we can say will
change him, Ned,” resumed Mr. Damon. “I wish you luck, my boy,”
he went on, turning to Tom. “But it looks dark and dreary to me.”
“Well, I’ll stick it out, anyway,” replied Tom doggedly. “The drill is
going fast now, and it won’t take us more than a few days at most
to go that extra hundred. I’ll promise to quit then, but not an inch
sooner.”
This conversation took place just before the men knocked off
work at noontime. They were a disgruntled crew, for they had all set
their hearts on striking a “gusher,” and were almost as downcast
over the prospect of failure as Ned and Mr. Damon. After lunch they
gathered around to resume work in a mechanical manner, and Tom
could easily see that they had given up hope.
The drill was set in operation once more. It had been going only
a short time. Suddenly a far-off rumbling sound came up the shaft.
At the same time a pungent odor of raw petroleum came drifting out
of the boring.
 In a second all was wild excitement.
“We’re close to oil, sir!” exclaimed the foreman of the drilling
gang. “A few more strokes of the drill, and we’ll be through into it.
Better be ready to cap the well before we go any farther.”
Tom was about to issue the necessary orders, when suddenly,
deep under the earth’s surface, there was an explosion that rocked
the solid ground on which they stood! From the boring came a
whistling sound, resembling the escape of steam under high
pressure!
 CHAPTER XX
CAPPING THE GUSHER
For a moment the men about the well stared at one another in
silent consternation. Then,
“Watch yourselves!” yelled the foreman. “There’s oil coming, and
coming fast! Get the capping rigging ready, men, and move lively!”
The hissing sound grew louder. Suddenly the drill came hurtling
out of the well, impelled by the tremendous pressure behind it, and
shot through the heavy beams of the derrick as though they had
been cardboard. Following the drill came a shower of sand and small
stones. Those about the well were forced to race for shelter until the
last of the debris had been blown out by the force of the escaping
gas and the shower ceased.
Then the men came racing back, bringing with them the valve
and clamps that were to be used to cap the well after the oil started
to flow. As yet, nothing had come from the well but gas, but they
knew the oil could not be far off. Under the terrific pressure of the
outflowing gas, the heavy derrick began to crumble, and in a short
time the whole upper part of it came apart and the stout timbers
were whirled aloft and scattered far and wide like so many
matchsticks.
The hissing grew louder, and a heavy rumbling sound vibrated
along the pipe line, growing steadily louder and more menacing. In a
few minutes more this sound had reached a huge crescendo, and
then, with a shriek like that of an imprisoned demon liberated, the
oil reached the surface and shot a hundred feet into the air in a
huge, writhing black geyser that flared out at the top and deluged
everything within a radius of hundreds of feet with raw glistening
petroleum. As the oil fell, it rapidly collected into large pools, and
started running off in every direction where there was a slight slope.
 For a few seconds after the tremendous fountain started, Tom
stood almost petrified by the magnitude of the spectacle. But the
sight of the precious oil running to waste in such huge quantities
galvanized Ned and Mr. Damon into action. Mr. Damon danced
around, wild with excitement.
“Bless my oil drill!” he shouted. “We’ve struck it! We’ve struck it!”
“That wonderful drill of yours has done the trick!” cried Ned,
wringing his friend’s hand.
“We’ve got the oil,” said Tom, who, though pale with excitement,
still kept his head. “The thing to do now is to save it.”
The capping outfit with which they hoped to stem the
tremendous force of the gusher was of a special design that Tom
had worked out. It consisted of an extra heavy gate valve set in a
cast steel framework, with heavy steel clamps for holding the entire
assembly to the end of the well pipe. In addition to the actual valve
and holding mechanism, Tom had contrived an ingenious screw
mechanism with which to place the valve over the stream of oil.
“Get busy with that valve,” shouted Tom, his voice rising high
above the din.
This was no easy task. In many similar wells, attempts had been
made to imprison the oil with heavy timber boxes and framework,
but the force of the oil stream is so great that these devices were
usually shot up bodily into the air, and only came down in the form
of kindling wood. Tom knew this, and in designing his capping
mechanism had placed his reliance on steel as being the material
best suited to withstand the strain.
Now the time had come when his mechanism was to be put to
the test. The riggers soon had the valve and clamping framework as
close to the well as they could get, also the sliding carriage, with its
rails bolted to concrete foundations that had been prepared for it
previously. Everything was now ready for the test, and in feverish
excitement they prepared to move the valve over the well.
“Steady, men, steady!” shouted Tom.
The spray of oil and vapor was so dense near the well that it was
impossible to get closer than about twenty-five feet and breathe. As
it was, every man of the party was soaked and drenched with the
clinging oil. Their clothes hung limply about them, and were so
saturated and heavy that it was difficult for them even to move.
“Keep your heads, boys,” cautioned Tom, who was now as cool
and self-possessed as ever.
Tom had foreseen that his apparatus would have to be worked at
some distance from the well, and he had provided a long handle
made of piping, which was connected to the screw mechanism. Now
the foreman and several of his men began to turn the screw, and
the valve moved slowly toward the roaring, spouting stream of oil.
It seemed almost incredible that any mechanism devised by man
could withstand that tremendous force. Some of the men actually
expected to see the heavy steel castings bent and broken as easily
as a man would snap a stick across his knee. But Tom’s designing
had been thorough, and he had personally superintended the
construction of the mechanism from his plans. Everything was extra
heavy and of the best obtainable quality, as it had need to be for
such an undertaking as this. When the valve reached the casing, it
held true to its place, and the shaft of oil was diverted slightly to one
side. The men held their breath as with anxious eyes they followed
the progress of the valve across the casing.
Slowly but steadily the drilling crew turned at the screw, slowly
the valve moved onward over the casing. The stream of oil roared
and hissed as it writhed and twisted about this obstacle, and seemed
to be trying to tear it bodily from its anchors. A heavy spray filled the
air, and although the men at the screw were half-browned in oil,
they stuck gamely to their post.
Farther and farther the column of oil bent, smashing against the
steel that barred its path as though determined to destroy it by the
force of its mighty onrush. Inexorably the heavy steel carriage,
man’s challenge to nature’s might, moved onward, as steady,
unhurried, and invincible as fate itself.
Now the column of oil was deflected at an acute angle, farther
and farther, until suddenly it divided into two columns, one roaring
straight upward again through the valve, while the other was
deflected more and more toward the horizontal.
“It’s working all right!” cried Ned exultantly.
 “Seems to be,” agreed Tom, watching like a hawk.
Gradually the vertical stream, thin at first, became thicker and
heavier, and the other stream grew thinner, until finally the entire
shaft of oil was roaring and rushing through the open valve.
Tom and Ned shouted and cheered, while Mr. Damon blessed
everything he could think of.
“Bless my dividends!” he cried. “Tom, my boy, you’re a wonder-
worker, a magician!”
“I knew you’d do it, old boy!” exclaimed Ned, as he clapped his
chum on the shoulder.
“It does look as though we’d won out,” admitted Tom, less
exuberant but no less excited than his friends. “But now let’s see if
the valve will hold when we close it. The pressure is going to be
something fierce.”
The drillers were hardly less elated, and shouted and pounded
each other unmercifully. Then they fell to work again, and soon
everything was ready for closing the valve.
Tom had made another long handle to connect with the wheel of
the valve, but he was too impatient to wait for this to be used.
Drawing a long breath, he dashed through the spray of oil close to
the well and started turning the hand wheel that operated the gate
valve.
From a circular column, the shaft of oil assumed a crescent
shape, growing narrower as the gate closed. Thinner and thinner
grew the stream, until at length the valve was entirely closed. Then
there came a tense moment of waiting. With the tremendous
pressure of the imprisoned oil backing up against it, would the valve
mechanism stand the strain? Would the framework supporting the
valve hold?
 CHAPTER XXI

THE INQUISITIVE STRANGER

Every man stood tense, eyes riveted on the valve.
Attached to the lower part of the capping mechanism was a
pressure gauge. As the valve closed, the needle of the gauge began
creeping steadily around the dial. When the valve was completely
closed, the pressure mounted steadily. Five hundred—six—seven
hundred pounds to the square inch, and still the needle moved
around the dial. When it finally came to rest, it indicated a confined
or “rock” pressure in the well of nine hundred and fifty pounds per
square inch!
“Will she hold?” asked Ned anxiously.
“Five minutes will tell,” answered Tom.
Tom had designed his capping mechanism with a generous
allowance for overload, and he had no fear of failure, but to the
others it seemed incredible that anything could withstand such a
tremendous pressure. But as the first anxious moments of waiting
passed and nothing happened, their tense nerves relaxed and they
ventured to draw long breaths again.
Tom and Ned and Mr. Damon shook hands solemnly, and then in
turn shook hands with the drilling boss and each member of the
crew. Then, as every man was almost exhausted with his strenuous
efforts and the well was safely brought in and capped, all work was
discontinued for the time.
“Guess we’ll call it a day,” said Tom.
“And the best day’s work you’ve ever done!” exclaimed Ned.
“Bless my shower bath!” cried Mr. Damon. “We’re as black as coal
heavers. Better go and clean up. And these clothes of ours are done
for.”
“Guess we can afford to buy others now that we’re oil magnates,”
chuckled Tom happily.
 The roar of the gusher had been heard for miles around, and in a
few hours people were coming from every direction to view the new
“strike.” Automobiles, wagons, and buggies came in a constant
stream to the Goby farmhouse, and thence to the scene of the
drilling. Veteran oil men were amazed to find the new well already
capped, and had it not been for the pools of petroleum and the
dripping trees in the vicinity, they would have doubted that oil had
really been struck.
Usually when oil is struck a week or more 13 spent in designing
and making a capping device, while the oil runs to waste, or, at best,
is partially reclaimed by pumping it out of the hollows where it has
collected. Tom had steered clear of this folly, and when the
emergency came he was properly equipped to meet it.
The doubts of the visitors were soon dissipated, especially after
they viewed the pressure gauge, which now indicated nine hundred
and seventy-five pounds to the square inch.
“Can she stand it?” was the question on every lip.
Tom himself was somewhat worried over this mounting pressure,
as he knew that if it kept increasing indefinitely no mechanism could
withstand its force. But the pressure never went higher than nine
hundred and seventy-eight pounds, and when they later got the well
to delivering oil regularly, it dropped somewhat.
The news of the strike soon spread beyond the neighboring
towns, got into the papers, and became a subject of nation-wide
interest. Newspapers published front-page stories of the new gusher,
and in a few days there was a rush of speculators and “wildcatters”
from all over the country. There were also many representatives and
buyers from big oil companies, who were anxious to buy the Goby
farm at almost any figure, and also the adjoining land.
Tom, Mr. Damon and Ned, however, had not been idle in the days
following the strike, and they had quietly bought up large tracts of
land, on most of which they had had options before oil was
discovered. They sold out a few of the smaller of these holdings, and
received enough from them to pay all the cost of the drilling and
leave a handsome sum besides.
 One day a keen-eyed business man separated himself from the
group of people who were usually to be found about the well, drawn
there by the fascination that always attaches to an oil strike, and
introduced himself to Tom. The card he tendered showed that he
was the Texas representative of one of the biggest oil companies in
the country.
“Struck it rich, I see,” he remarked, with a smile. “From the way
that well came in it promises to be one of the biggest gushers in this
section. Let’s see, how long have you been digging?”
Tom mentioned the date on which he and his companions had
started work.
“Ah,” said the stranger, after a moment of mental figuring, “then
I gather that you must have dug down four or five hundred feet
before you struck oil.”
“More than that,” replied Tom. “Fourteen hundred feet is nearer
the figure.”
The newcomer looked bewildered.
“Then I must have misunderstood you as to the time you started
drilling,” he remarked.
“I guess not,” said Tom, repeating the same date as before.
“Oh,” said the man. “I suppose you must have worked in three
shifts day and night,” he added.
“No, Mr. Blythe,” replied Tom, with a glance at the card he held in
his hand. “We’ve had only the ordinary day crew.”
“Then,” returned Mr. Blythe, “you must have worked in softer soil
than I knew was to be found in this section of Texas. Perhaps you
didn’t come across rock of any account.”
“On the contrary,” replied Tom, with secret amusement, for he
had fathomed the cause of his interrogator’s perplexity, “my foreman
tells me that we had to bore through some of the most stubborn
rock that he has come across in his long experience. And the
specimens we brought up confirm this.”
Mr. Blythe threw up his hands in a gesture of amazement. Tom’s
sincerity was apparent, but what he said seemed incredible.
“I give it up!” he exclaimed. “According to all precedent in this oil
field, you couldn’t possibly have gone down more than five hundred
feet at the outside in the time and under the conditions you
mention. What’s the answer?”
“The answer is that in digging this well I’ve used a drill hitherto
unused—one of my own invention,” replied Tom.
In an instant Mr. Blythe was aflame with excitement.
 CHAPTER XXII
RAD TURNS UP
“You invented it yourself?” cried Mr. Blythe. “And you’ve dug this
well in a third of the time that the ordinary drill requires? Why, Mr.
Swift, do you know that you have made one of the most important
inventions of this century? Where is the drill? Can I look at it? Have
you patented it? Is it for sale? Are you open to a proposition?”
The questions came tumbling from him one after the other in a
way that showed plainly how this astute business man had been
shaken out of his customary calm.
His agitation helped to confirm Tom’s own conviction that he
possessed a fortune in his drill. And since he had it, he was in no
haste to let it go to the first bidder. Others would want it too, and he
had determined to let them bid against each other. He was not to be
rushed off his feet.
“I can’t go into that now, Mr. Blythe,” he said. “In the first place,
I have my hands full in arranging to get my oil to market. Then, in
such an important thing as the sale of my patent, if I should
determine to sell it, I must think things over carefully.”
Mr. Blythe urged and argued, but Tom was not to be shaken.
“Promise me this then,” said Mr. Blythe at last. “Promise that you
won’t make any disposition of it until I have had a chance to get in
touch with my company and they have had an opportunity to make
you an offer.”
“I can’t make promises,” replied Tom.
“Not if I pay you a handsome sum down for your promise to wait
three days before you commit yourself to any one else?” asked Mr.
Blythe, drawing out his checkbook from his pocket. “That doesn’t put
you under any obligation to accept our offer. You can refuse that
offer if you like. It simply gives us three days’ time to get in a bid.”