They had just returned from an excursion into the country and were seated in the lawyer's office.
"You say your father was a friend of the old general's ?" said Bladen.
"Years ago, in the north--yes," answered Murrell.
"Odd, isn't it, the way he chose to spend the last years of his life, shut off like that and seeing no one ?" Murrell regarded the lawyer in silence for a moment out of his deeply sunk eyes.
"Too bad about the boy," he said at length slowly.
"How do you mean, Captain ?" asked Bladen.
"I mean it's a pity he has no one except Yancy to look after him," said Murrell, but Bladen showed no interest and Murrell went on.

"Don't you reckon he must have touched General Quintard's life mighty close at some point ?" "Well, if so, it eluded me," said Bladen.

"I went through General Quintard's papers and they contained no clue to the boy's identity that I could discover.

Fact is, the general didn't leave much beyond an old account-book or two; I imagine that before his death he destroyed the bulk of his private papers; it looked as if he'd wished to break with the past.

His mind must have been affected." "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.