“That seems fair enough,” the Scout leader agreed.
“Stony told me dozens of times he intended me to have everything he owned. At the very end, he turned against me—only because his mind was failing. He began to think of Craig Warner—a man he never saw in his lifetime, so far as I know.”
“That probably is so,” Mr. Livingston conceded.
“Now I’m willing enough the map should go to Craig Warner, if that was Stony’s last wish. But who knows where Warner is?”
“We’ve had no luck in getting in touch with him so far,” the Scout leader admitted.
“Exactly. Suppose you never find him? Then what becomes of the map?”
Mr. Livingston replied that he had given no thought to that possibility.
“It seems to me,” Walz said, speaking slowly, “that if you fail to find Warner, the map ought to be turned over to me.”
“Your request is a reasonable one.”
“I thought you’d see it my way,” Walz said in relief. “Then it’s settled. Turn the map over to me, and I’ll do my best to find Warner. If I don’t find him, I’ll keep it.”