“Here you go, Shane!” he exclaimed. “There’s a cool hundred here, and it’s yours if you testify that the Widow Lewis has no claim on the land. And she hasn’t any claim that she can prove. All we want you to testify to is that her husband’s father sold the land some time before his death. We’ll do the rest.”
“But he didn’t sell it!” cried Denny. “It was his on his dyin’ day, and it belongs to his son’s widder and daughter now. That’s the law, an’ you know it.”
“She can’t prove that the land is hers,” sneered Kelly.
“Maybe she can,” returned Denny, quietly.
“Well, she can’t unless you tell what you know,” broke in Bruce. “We’ve found out that much. Now the factory wants that land, and it’s going to get it. Here, I’ll make it a hundred and fifty if you do as we want you to.”
“An’ testify to a lie?” cried Denny.
“It wouldn’t be exactly a lie. Besides, we’re willing to pay the widow a small sum.”
“Not what the land’s worth. That’s valuable property,” insisted Denny, “and it will keep her in her old age if she manages right. Be off with you! I’ll stick to the Widder Lewis, so I will. Be off!” and he motioned them to the door. “You wouldn’t have got this close if it hadn’t been that my dog was dead. Be off!”
“Not so fast,” Cora and her chums heard Bruce say. “We haven’t said all we intend to.”
“Oh, I’m sure something will happen now,” quavered Bess.