"This story wouldn't take but a minute," grumbled Maurice Hamilton, otherwise known as "Shadow." "It's a dandy one, too."
"All right, we'll listen to it later," returned Roger Morr. "Let us first hear what Phil has to tell."
"It isn't so much of a story," said the shipowner's son. "You see, years ago my dad and his older brother purchased a tract of land at East Haven, along the waterfront. For some time it was idle, and then it was leased to a lumber company, who used it for a number of years as a lumber yard. At that time East Haven had no railroad, but the L. A. & H. line came through that way and wanted to cross the river at East Haven, and wanted to locate their railroad repair shops along the waterfront there. They have made my father an offer for the land, and if that tract could be sold my folks would stand to make a profit of twenty to thirty thousand dollars."
"Well, why not sell the land then—unless you think it is worth more than the railroad company is willing to pay?" asked Dave.
"My father is willing enough to sell, and has been for some time; but he can't give the railroad a clear title, and consequently the deal is at a standstill."
"Oh, I see, Phil," said Roger Morr. "That is the worst of buying land that has a flaw in the title."
"There wasn't any flaw in the title when my father and my Uncle Lester purchased the ground," returned the shipowner's son. And now his face clouded. "The trouble has all come up within the last five years—that is, it wouldn't have come up at all if it hadn't been for what happened about five years ago."
"Oh, I think I know to what you refer, Phil," cried Dave, quickly. "I remember now that you told me about your old Uncle Lester. Didn't you ever hear from him?"
"Not a word, Dave. And that is why my father can't sell the land."
"I don't understand this," said Ben Basswood.