Vick?"
"Taking everything into consideration, it amounts to nearly a million
dollars. David Windom had quite a bit of property up in the city,
aside from his farm, and he owned a big ranch out in Texas. The
grain elevator in Windomville belonged to him,--still belongs to
Alix Crown,--and there's a three mile railroad connecting with the
main line over at Smith's Siding. Every foot of it is on his land.
He built the railroad about twenty year ago, and the elevator,
too,--out of spite, they say, for the men that run the elevator at
Hawkins a little further up the road. Hawkins is the place where
his daughter and Edward Crown got off the train the night of the
murder."
"And this young girl owns all of it,--farms, ranch, railroad and
everything?"
"Every cent's worth of it is her'n. There ain't a sign of a mortgage
on any of it, either. It's as clear as a blank sheet of writin'
paper."
"When was it you were gassed, Mr. Thane?" inquired young Caleb.
"Oh, that was when I was in the air service,--only a few weeks
before the armistice."
"You left your wings at home, too, I suppose?"
"Yes. Mother likes to look at the only wings I'll probably ever
have,--now or hereafter."
"How does it come, Court, that you went into the British air corpse,
'stead of in the U. S. A.?" inquired old Caleb.
"I joined the Royal Flying Corps, Mr.
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