[Nick of the Woods by Robert M. Bird]@TWC D-Link bookNick of the Woods CHAPTER XXVIII 12/15
In a word, Jack, I design to marry her;--ay, faith will-she nill-she, I will marry her: and thereby, besides gratifying certain private whims and humours not worth mentioning, I will put the last finish to the scheme, and step into the estate with a clear conscience." "But the will, the cussed old will ?" cried Doe.
"You've got up a cry about it, and there's them that won't let it drop so easy.
What's an heir at law agin a will? You take the gal back, and the cry is, 'Where's the true gal, the major's daughter ?' I reckon, you'll find you're jist got yourself into a trap of your own making!" "In that case," said the stranger, with a grin, "we must e'en act like honest men, and find (after much hunting and rummaging, mind you!) the major's _last_ will." "But you burned it!" exclaimed Doe: "you told me so yourself." "I told you so, Jack; but that was a little bit of innocent deception, to make you easy.
I told you so; but I kept it, to guard against accidents. And here it is, Jack," added the speaker, drawing from amid the folds of his blanket a roll of parchment, which he proceeded very deliberately to spread upon the table: "The very difficulty you mention occurred to me; I saw it would not do to raise the devil, without retaining the power to lay him.
Here then is the will, that settles the affair to your liking. The girl and the younker are co-heirs together; but the latter dying intestate, you understand, the whole falls into the lap of the former. Are you easy now, honest Jack? Will this satisfy you all is safe ?" "It is jist the thing to an iota," ejaculated Doe, in whom the sight of the parchment seemed to awaken cupidity and exultation together: "there's no standing agin it in any court in Virginnee!" "Right, my boy," said his associate.
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