"
"Oh," said Orde in some disappointment.
Taylor hesitated, removed his eye-glasses, wiped them carefully, and
replaced them. He glanced at Orde sidelong through his keen, shrewd
eyes.
"I have something more to tell you; something that will be painful,"
said he.
Orde looked up quickly.
"Well; what is it?" he asked.
"The general cussedness of all this investigation business had me
puzzled, until at last I made up my mind to do a little
investigating on my own account. It all looked foolish to me.
Somebody or something must be back of all this performance. I was
at it all the time I was West, between times on regular business, of
course. I didn't make much out of my direct efforts--they cover
things up well in those matters--but at last I got on a clue by
sheer accident. There was one man behind all this. He was--"
"Joe Newmark," said Orde quietly.
"How did you know that?" cried Taylor in astonishment.
"I didn't know, Frank; I just guessed."
"Well, you made a good guess. It was Newmark. He'd tied up the
land in this trumped-up investigation so you could not borrow on
it."
"How did he find out I owned any land?" asked Orde.
"That I couldn't tell you. Must have been a leak somewhere.
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