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Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

Chapter 12

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"That wall is over a hundred years old," the attorney replied calmly. "Stone walls shift. They get rebuilt. My client's family has used that strip of ground along the wall for decades. We believe the true boundary line runs about thirty feet west of where you think it does. That would place the vault and everything inside it on Mr. Pruitt's land."Dale stood beside his attorney with his arms crossed. He didn't meet Marcus's eyes. "I told you I'd make you a fair offer for the whole parcel," Dale said. "Offer still stands. You could walk away with your money back. More, even."Marcus looked from Dale to the attorney and back again. He understood exactly what was happening: six months ago, the Stony Waste had been a rock pile that nobody wanted; now that there was something valuable in the ground, suddenly everyone wanted a piece of it."The land's not for sale," Marcus said.The attorney nodded as if he had expected that answer. He handed Marcus an envelope. "Then you'll be hearing from us."After they left, Marcus stood alone by the stone wall as the sun went down. He still had one vault left to find: Vault 4, down in the southern corner by the old oak tree. According to the ledger, it held the cooperative's land records.He thought about the thirty feet the attorney had mentioned—a strip of ground nobody had cared about for sixty years. Dale hadn't said a word about the boundary at the auction; he hadn't said a word all summer while Marcus was hauling rocks along that very wall. It was only now, with iron and copper coming out of the ground, that the line had supposedly moved.He had a feeling he was going to need those records.The next blow came faster than Marcus expected. Four days later, Sheriff Tom Barrett's cruiser pulled into the field. The sheriff was a heavyset, soft-spoken man who had known Marcus's grandmother for years, and he looked genuinely uncomfortable as he climbed out of the car."Marcus," he said, holding out a folded document. "I'm sorry, son. I've got to serve you with this."It was a court order. Dale Pruitt had filed a lawsuit claiming ownership of the eastern strip of land and everything found on it. Until the boundary dispute was settled, a judge had ordered a halt to all excavation anywhere on the property: no digging, no removing anything from the ground. Everything already recovered had to stay on the property and be made available for inspection."How long?" Marcus asked.
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Black Boy Bought 19 Acres Nobody Wanted — Then His Plow Hit Something Buried Below

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