“Apparently I had sold all there was to sell,” said Virginia.
“Did you want to sell the land? Had you asked Mr. Benson to find a purchaser?”
“No, I don't know how he found Mr. Stark, or how Mr. Stark knew I had the land, I never heard Mr. Benson say.”
“But he advised you to sell the land?”
“Oh, yes, he said it was producing nothing, which was quite true; and that it was of little or no value, but that Mr. Stark seemed to think he could do something with it, at least he was willing to take it off my hands.”
“As a great favour, I suppose,” said Wade, smiling faintly. “What's become of Stark?”
“He's dead.”
“Then there is only Mr. Benson who might have the facts we want to know, Mrs. Landray. What is your theory?”
“I think at the very last, just before they started West, Mr. Tucker must have induced my husband and his brother to accept more land in payment for the distillery.”
“And the deeds were left in Mr. Benson's hands, that was probably the way of it, Mrs. Landray; so Mr. Benson knows all that we should know.”