"Miss Kittredge. You are presently living apart from your father?"
"I am."
"Since the night of the incident."
"Yes."
"You have been seen several times in the company of Mr. Tolliver and of Mr. Weatherby."
"I have been giving a statement, Mr. Vane. It took several times."
A ripple went through the Freedom Creek side of the room. Judge Fitch looked at it and it stopped.
"Did you at any time," Vane said, "see or hear anything, with your own eyes or ears, to show that your father directed any man to set a fire or to set a charge of explosive?"
Louisa looked at the back of the room. Her father was looking at her now.
"No," she said. "I did not."
"Thank you, Miss Kittredge. Nothing further."
"But I saw the bill of lading," she said, "with his signature on it. And I saw which car he chose."
Vane turned back. Fitch raised one hand. "The witness has answered the question, counsel. The answer is on the record. So is the addendum."
Judge Fitch ruled the following Tuesday. He enjoined the Kittredge Land and Improvement Company from conveying any part of the Freedom Creek sections to any party. He found that the thirty-four families whose contracts survived had paid in full according to the receiving book and were entitled to warranty deeds. As to the seven whose contracts had been destroyed, he found that the court could not, on the present record, determine their payments, and he set the question over for further hearing in the spring term, with leave to the plaintiffs to produce such other evidence as they could find.