"I'm ashamed of you,
John Kendrick!"
"All right! all right! The shame can wait. And I want YOU to wait,
too--until I've finished. There was a flaw in that title, as I said.
Captain Bangs, as you know, the house in which Mrs. Barnes is now living
originally stood, not where it now stands, but upon land two or three
hundred yards to the north, upon a portion of the property which
afterward became the Colfax estate and which now belongs to Mr. Kendrick
here. You know that?"
Captain Obed nodded. "Course I know it," he said. "Cap'n Abner could
have bought the house and the land it stood on, but he didn't want to.
He liked the view better from where it stands now. So he bought the
strip nigher this way and moved the old house over. But he DID buy it
and he paid cash for it. I know he did, because--"
"All right. I know he bought it and all the particulars of the purchase
perhaps better than you do. A good deal of my time of late has been
given to investigating the history of that second strip of land.
Captain Abner Barnes, Mrs. Barnes' uncle, bought the land upon which
he contemplated moving, and later, did move the house, of Isaiah Holt,
Darius Holt's father, then living. Mr. Holt bought of a man named David
Snow, who, in turn, bought of--"
Holliday Kendrick interrupted. "Snow bought of me," he growled. "Worse
luck! I was a fool to sell, or so I think now; but it was years ago; I
had no idea at that time of coming here to live; and shore land was of
no value then, anyhow.
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