“I won’t.”
Warren said quietly, “That sounds reasonable.”
Marcus looked at him.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“A little.”
Dale Pruitt and Otis Renner happened to be helping Marcus move a mineral feeder two days later.
Dale farmed cattle on the adjoining property.
Otis lived three miles away and knew more about tractors than he knew about most people.
Marcus mentioned Eli’s well theory.
That was a mistake.
Dale laughed.
“So the boy thinks your pond is eating an old house?”
“Old well,” Eli corrected.
Otis grinned.
“You find pirate treasure too?”
“No.”
“Shame.”
The laughter was not cruel.
That almost made it worse.
It was the laughter adults gave a child when they had already decided the idea was harmless.
Eli said nothing.
He kept measuring.
He cut five-foot wooden stakes and numbered them.
Every few days he pushed a steel probe into the ground at regular intervals around the northeastern bank.
Most places resisted after several inches.
Others accepted the rod far too easily.
He marked those.