"But couldn't we find the corner-posts if the land was surveyed?"
"Perhaps it wasn't surveyed. Surveys are usually up to the purchaser. Your land is part of a larger block owned by Braden. I think he owns land on both sides of it. He got it for about fifty cents an acre, and he got the Tetreau place for next to nothing. The description in the deed would give a starting point, then so many chains that way and so many another, and it would work out to the acreage, but no actual survey may have been made."
In fact the only means of determining the actual boundaries were the deeds themselves, which were temporarily inaccessible.
"I'll go over the ground to-morrow anyway," Angus said, "and look for a line. And I'll see what these fellows are doing."
"Oh, I forgot! This Garland told me nobody was to be allowed on the ground. Those were his instructions."
"They were, were they. It's easy to give instructions. I believe Garland and Poole had something to do with my ditch. They're just the sort Braden could hire to do a thing like that. And now they're in charge of this coal prospect! There's something queer about it. I wonder if that was why your uncle was trying to buy you out?"
"Why," she exclaimed, startled, "surely you don't think he knew of this coal! Oh, he couldn't!"
"It looks to me like a reasonable explanation."
"But if it is my land, how can Mr. Braden say it's his?"
"I don't know," Angus replied, "but I do know that Braden will do anything he thinks he can get away with."