"
"Has Yancy any legal claim on the boy?" inquired Murrell.
"No, certainly not; the boy was merely left with Yancy because
Crenshaw didn't know what else to do with him."
"Get possession of him, and if I don't buy land here I'll take
him West with me," said Murrell quietly. Bladen gave him a
swift, shrewd glance, but Murrell, smiling and easy, met it
frankly. "Come," he said, "it's a pity he should grow up wild in
the pine woods--get him away from Yancy--I am' willing to spend
five hundred dollars on this if necessary."
"As a matter of sentiment?"
"As a matter of sentiment."
Bladen considered. He was not averse to making five hundred
dollars, but he was decidedly averse to letting slip any chance
to secure a larger sum. It flashed in upon him that Murrell had
uncovered the real purpose of his visit to North Carolina; his
interest in land had been merely a subterfuge.
"Well?" said Murrell.
"I'll have to think your proposition over," said Bladen.
The immediate result of this conversation was that within
twenty-four hours a man driving two horses hitched to a light
buggy arrived at Scratch Hill in quest of Bob Yancy, whom he
found at dinner and to whom he delivered a letter. Mr. Yancy was
profoundly impressed by the attention, for holding the letter at
arm's length, he said
"Well, sir, I've lived nigh on to forty years, but I never got a
piece of writing befo'--never, sir. People, if they was close
by, spoke to me, if at a distance they hollered, but none of 'em
ever wrote.
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