.

TROUBLE AT SCRATCH HILL.
Captain Murrell had established himself at Balaam's Cross Roads.

He was supposed to be interested in the purchase of a plantation, and in company with Crenshaw visited the numerous tracts of land which the merchant owned; but though he professed delight with the country, he was plainly in no haste to become committed to any one of the several propositions Crenshaw was eager to submit.

Later, and still in the guise of a prospective purchaser, he met Bladen, who also dealt extensively in land, and apparently if anything could have pleased him more than the region about the Cross Roads it was the country adjacent to Fayetteville.
From the first he had assiduously cultivated his acquaintance with the new owners of the Barony.

He was now on the best of terms with Nat Ferris, and it was at the Barony that he lounged away his evenings, gossiping and smoking with the planter on the wide veranda.
"The Barony would have suited me," he told Bladen one day.