By this time Nettie came back with a long tin box painted black. It was locked, and the key was in a pocketbook under the sick man's pillow. Soon the box was opened and Herman Wenrich took out a paper yellow with age.
"This is the map," he said. "If I were you I would be very careful of how I handled it, or it may go to pieces. Nettie, haven't you a big envelope in which to place it?"
"I think I have, father," she replied, and went off to hunt up the article.
During her absence Robert looked over the document, and found that it contained not only a map but also a long written description of several lumber tracts, including that which Felix Amberton had once purchased from a man named Gregory Hammerditch.
"This must be some relative to the Hammerditch I met," said our hero.
"It was an uncle. The trouble started through this Gregory Hammerditch and the Canadian, Jean Le Fevre. They claimed the land was never paid for, I believe."
At that moment came a ring at the front door bell.
"It is those two men!" cried Nettie, who stood close to the window.
"You mean the Canadian and the Englishman?" asked Robert.