"Want to earn some money, Letts?" he demanded, without turning around.
"You bet! Ye bet I do!"
Ebenezer returned to his desk and sat down again facing his visitor.
"You'll have to go about this business carefully."
"Trust me," promised the squatter.
"I am. There's a mystery about Young's house--I mean, there's some one in it beside my brother-in-law, the Skinner girl, and the boy."
"Who air it?" The question was no perfunctory expression of interest. Anything relating to Tess was vitally important.
"That's what I want you to find out. It's a man!"
"Mebbe it's the brat's pa," offered the other.
"No, it isn't, and by the way, you let up trying to find out about that."
"What do ye mean?" interjected Sandy, sullenly.
"I mean I want that matter dropped."
Letts merely grunted, for to acquire that information was one of the first things he intended to do, but there was no use telling the elder so.
"What ye want?" he muttered.
"I'll give you a hundred dollars to find out the name of the other man living at Young's."
"Done!" cried the squatter. "Do I get any of the dough, now?"
"Part of it, if you like," replied Waldstricker, slipping his hand into his pocket. "But listen to me. You're to come directly back here and tell me, when you find out. Discover his name, if you don't know the man. Do you understand?"
"I does that. You leave it to me. Then, I'll settle with Tess Skinner."
"As you please about her," consented Waldstricker. "Go along now. I'm busy."