Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/261

 eighty acres of the best growth in the State in that triangle.”

“How’d ye happen to go there?” asked Abner, much surprised.

“Mr. Hatton directed me to. Don’t you remember I said I was employed by your company? When I am making my regular trips I do a little cruising for Hatton. Not as you do it, but to see if everything is going all right.”

“Ain’t that just like Hatton,” grumbled Abner. “He never said a word to me about ye’re being up there. He gives me my orders as if I was the first one to tackle it, and here I be undertaking a forlorn hope. Of course ye could locate none of the old boundaries?”

“Not a sign,” firmly replied the professor. “Honestly, Mr. Whitten, I fear your errand is a hopeless one. I examined the east line very carefully and the cedar posts and other markings are there, showing every sign of age. But along the line claimed by the company I could find nothing to sustain Mr. Hatton’s contention.”

“That may be,” said Abner doggedly; “but any time I find Nace mixed up in a game I know it’s crooked. Why, he’d rather make fifty cents in a swindle than to make a dollar honestly.”