ion was for a short time.

"Caleb Schell's book shows that it was for thirty days. Uncle Jeptha
undoubtedly thought it was for that length of time and therefore the
option expired several days before he died.

"Mr. Pepper may have fallen under temptation. He considered heretofore,
like everybody else, that the railroad would pass us by in this section.
Pepper gambled twenty dollars on its coming along the boundary of the
Atterson farm--between you and Darrell's tract--and thought he had lost.

"Then suddenly the railroad board turned square around and voted for the
condemnation of the original route. Pepper remembered the option he had
risked twenty dollars on. If it was originally for thirty days, it was
void, of course; but Uncle Jeptha is dead, and he hopes perhaps, that
nobody else will dispute the validity of it."

"It's a forgery, then?" cried Mrs. Atterson.

"It may be a forgery. We do not know," said the lawyer, hastily. "At any
rate, he has the paper, and he is a shrewd rascal."

Mrs. Atterson's face was a study.

"Do you mean to tell me we have got to lose the farm?" she demanded.

"My dear lady, that I cannot tell you. I must see this option. We must
put it to the test----"

"But Schell and Pollock will testify that the option was for thirty
days," cried Hiram.

"Perhaps. To the best of their remembrance and belief, it was for
thirty days. A shrewd lawyer, however--and Pepper would employ a shrewd
one--would turn their evidence inside out.

"No evidence--in theory, at least--can controvert a written instrument,
signed, sealed, and delivered. Even Cale Schell's memoranda book cannot
be taken as evidence, save in a contributory way. It is not direct. It
is the carelessly scribbled record, in pencil, of a busy man.

"No. If Pepper puts forward the option we have got to see if that
option has been tampered with--the paper itself, I mean. If the fellow
substituted a different instrument, at the time of signing, from the one
Uncle Jeptha thought he signed, you have no case--I tell you frankly, my
dear lady."

"Then, it ain't no use. We got to lose the place, Hiram," said Mrs.
Atterson, when they left the lawyer's office.

"I wouldn't lose heart. If Pepper is scared, he may not trouble you
again."

"It's got ten months more to run," said she. "He can keep us guessin' all
that time."

"That is so," agreed Hiram, nodding thoughtfully. "But, of course, as
Mr. Strickland says, by raising a doubt as t