But all else was speedily forgotten in the interest of the coming ceremony, which Mr.Merrick had carefully planned and prepared.
The company was invited to assemble in the room comprising the spacious right wing, and when all were seated the little gentleman coughed to clear his throat and straightway began his preamble.
He recited the manner in which Captain Wegg and Will Thompson, having money to invest, were led into an enterprise which Bob West had proposed, but finally preferred another venture and so withdrew their money altogether from the Almaquo tract.
This statement caused both Joe and Ethel to stare hard, but they said nothing.
"Your grandfather, Ethel," continued the narrator, "was much impressed by the value of another timber tract, although where he got his information concerning it I have been unable to discover.

This piece of property, called the Bogue tract, was purchased by Wegg and Thompson with the money they withdrew from Almaquo, and still stands in their name." Then he recounted, quite frankly, his unjust suspicions of the hardware dealer, and told of the interview in which the full details of this transaction were disclosed by West, as well as the truth relating to the death of Captain Wegg and the sudden insanity and paralysis of old Will Thompson.
Joe could corroborate this last, and now understood why Thompson had cried out that West's "good news" had killed his father.

He meant, of course, their narrow escape from being involved in West's supposed ruin, for at that time no one knew the report of the fire was false.
Finally, these matters being cleared up, Uncle John declared that the Pierce-Lane Lumber Company was willing to contract to cut the timber on the Bogue property, or would pay a lump sum of two hundred thousand dollars for such title to the tract as could be given.

He did not add that he had personally offered to guarantee the title.

That was an unnecessary bit of information.
You may perhaps imagine the happiness this announcement gave Joe and Ethel.