would be a pretty kettle of fish if I should take old Hiram into my
confidence, and it should afterwards be revealed that Sarah Jane was
the paramour and Mary Belle the true wife. Pshaw! that's not probable.
Then, there's Hite's singular expression, 'to her legitimate
offspring.' What a fine thing it would be to discover that Mrs.
Gilcrest is Hite's lawful legatee. To do the schoolmaster justice,
though, I believe him entirely innocent of intentional deception in
this matter; but I'd stake my reputation for acuteness that this old
Richard Dudley knows--only, of course, he bases his nephew's claim upon
the fact that Mary Hollis Page was still living at the time Hite made
this insane will. Abner Dudley, or Abner Logan, as the case may be,
stated that she died in August, 1782. My first step must be to
ascertain if this be correct. Let me see, Tom Gaines used to live in
Lawsonville, and is still living in Culpeper County. I'll write him for
information. On account of his connection with our Spanish schemes he
can be trusted to mention my letter to no one. I'll write him
immediately, and, while waiting his reply, I'll hover about Oaklands as
much as possible, and try to ascertain the date of the Logan-Pepper
alliance; and at the same time make another effort to recover
possession of Sebastian's letter and that dangerous little specimen of
forgery."

The postal system of our country was a slow business in that day and
time; but, in due course, Drane had Gaines' reply. From this he learned
that a certain old tombstone in the Lawsonville graveyard bore this
inscription:

MARY BELLE HOLLIS PAGE
born Feb'y 16th, 1758
died Aug. 21st, 1782.

Other information contained in Gaines' letter was this, Mrs. Page had
not died at Lawsonville, notwithstanding the tablet erected there to
her memory. She had married Marshall Page in October, 1781, and she and
her husband and the little Abner had migrated to Kentucky. Late in the
next year, a brother of Marshall Page, who had accompanied them to
Kentucky, returned to Lawsonville with the little boy, Abner Logan, and
the intelligence that Marshall Page had been killed by Indians, and
that Mary Page had died at Bryan's Station. The child had been
committed to the care of Mrs. Page's relations in Lawsonville, the
Dudleys, who had adopted him. Drane's informant also wrote that it had
always been the impression with the people of Lawsonville that Mary
Hollis had not been legally m