Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/194

 be really mine—if I can hold it until then.”

"But surely there is nothing that he can do now,” Hugh protested.

“He and his comrades will perhaps do the worst they have ever done, between now and that  day,” returned Oscar quietly. “They will not come openly to shoot or rob or burn, they will lie  in wait and play some trick on you, for the  crooked way is always their way. What they will do I cannot guess, I can only tell you to  watch and never cease watching and in the end  I know we will win.”

“Still,” insisted Hugh, “I do not see how they can ruin your plan so near its end as this.”

“Suppose,” said Oscar, “he should drive you out, burn down the buildings and destroy the  fields and, before I can file my final papers, prove  to the Land Office that none of the required improvements are really here. We could take the matter into court and establish in time that it was  he who laid things waste, but that would take  months, the season would pass and the lands  would not be open in time for a harvest next year.