eighty acres of the best growth in the State in that triangle.”
“How’d ye happen to go there?” asked Abner, much surprised.
“Mr. Hatton directed me to. Don’t you remember I said I was employed by your company? When I am making my regular trips I do a little cruising for Hatton. Not as you do it, but to see if everything is going all right.”
“Ain’t that just like Hatton,” grumbled Abner. “He never said a word to me about ye’re being up there. He gives me my orders as if I was the first one to tackle it, and here I be undertaking a forlorn hope. Of course ye could locate none of the old boundaries?”
“Not a sign,” firmly replied the professor. “Honestly, Mr. Whitten, I fear your errand is a hopeless one. I examined the east line very carefully and the cedar posts and other markings are there, showing every sign of age. But along the line claimed by the company I could find nothing to sustain Mr. Hatton’s contention.”
“That may be,” said Abner doggedly; “but any time I find Nace mixed up in a game I know it’s crooked. Why, he’d rather make fifty cents in a swindle than to make a dollar honestly.”
