Page:Betty Gordon in Washington.djvu/72

 CHAPTER VIII

GOOD-BY TO BRAMBLE FARM

was still mystified.

"What has Bob to do with it?" she urged. "I don't see how the deed would be of any use to him; he couldn't claim the lots."

"No, he couldn't claim the lots," admitted Joseph Peabody's wife. "But he could hold the deed and threaten to notify George Warren, if Joseph didn't pay him a good round sum of money. Mind you, I'm not saying he would do that, Betty, but he could. That's what Joseph thinks he means to do."

"Well, I call that very silly," said Betty briskly. "Bob Henderson isn't a thief or a blackmailer, whatever Mr. Peabody chooses to think. That deed is probably in another coat pocket this minute, or else he's lost it over in Glenside."

"I expect that worries him some, too," confided Mrs. Peabody. "He would hate to have it known that he's bought the Warren lots. But I guess it would have been better to have had the deed recorded than to run the risk of losing Rh