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.