“Just to make the man feel easy. Westcott said it’d be the best way. He was mighty kind about raisin’ the money fer me. I hadn’t a red after I’d settled up Ed’s debts an’ small matters.”
“Here’s your deed.”
She took it, eagerly, and they pored over it together. The stranger pointed to a signature at the end of the acknowledgment.
“Do you know that man?” he asked.
She studied the name. “Never hearn of him,” she said, “What’s he got to do with it?”
“He was the notary before whom the deed was acknowledged,” was the reply. “If we could get hold of him we might learn something, and I think it would pay you to try to find out something from Oliphant.”
“I don’t know where he is,” was the bitter response, “an’ if I did, I tell you I ain’t got a cent to do anything with. I ain’t more ’n makin’ a livin’ here.”
“I guess that could be fixed,” the stranger said. “I’ve got some.”
She looked him over, fixedly, with her black eyes.
“An’ where do you come in?” she demanded.