Oil! by Upton Sinclair

Not all the oil money in the world could make the winter passage to England other than cold and stormy. Dad proved to be a poor sailor, and so he was a forlorn object when he got to Vernon Roscoe's hotel in London. But Verne cheered him up; yes, truly, Dad began to revive with the first thump upon the back and the first boom of Verne's voice in the hotel lobby. "By Jees, the old skeezicks! I believe the reds have got his nerve!"

Nobody had got Verne's nerve, you bet; he was sitting on the top of the world! That investigation -- shucks, that was a circus stunt to entertain the yokels. It would blow over and be forgotten in a few months -- Verne quoted a chieftain of Tammany Hall who had been up against the same kind of racket, and said, "Dis is a nine day town. If yez kin stand de gaff fer nine days, ye're all right. " No, by Jees -- and Verne gave his partner another thump -- they were getting the oil out of Sunnyside, and the money was going into their bank accounts, and not into anybody's else, and they were going to have one hell of a lark spending it. What was more, they were going to turn the tables on those blankety-blank red senators -- just let Dad wait a few days, and he'd see some stuff that would get on the front pages of the papers, even here in England!