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bed.
    â€œI’m going back downstairs, Grandmother,” Mandie told her as she started for the door.
    â€œAll right, dear. I’ll be down shortly,” Mrs. Taft replied as she began unbuttoning her waist.
    Mandie found Joe sitting on the bottom step waiting for her. He had already changed his clothes, too. He stood up as she came down.
    â€œNo grass grows under your feet, does it?” Joe teased.
    â€œYours either,” Mandie replied with a smile. She sat down on the steps, and he did likewise. “I wish we had known the hearing was not till tomorrow. We could have had a little more time searching the house for the will.”
    â€œBut Dad said it was set for nine o’clock in the morning, so you would have had to come here today anyway,” Joe reminded her. “Unless you were going to travel at night.”
    â€œNo, Grandmother wouldn’t have agreed to that,” Mandie said. “Here comes Grandmother now,” she added as she stood to look upward.
    â€œAre you all waiting for me?” Mrs. Taft asked as she came down and saw them standing there.
    Mandie smiled up at her and said, “Of course, Grandmother, because I know nothing is going to be discussed until you return to the parlor. I want to hear everything that’s said.”
    Mrs. Taft stepped down into the hallway as she looked at Mandie and said, “Come along, then. You might miss something.” She smiled. “You too, Joe.”
    When they returned to the parlor, Mandie was surprised to see her uncle was already there. He certainly had not wasted any time in his room. After Mrs. Taft had been seated, John Shaw began asking Uncle Ned questions.
    â€œThe will that my brother Jim drew up and that Amanda and Joe found has disappeared out of my desk, as Dr. Woodard has probably already told you,” John Shaw began. As the old Indian nodded, he continued, “We are trying to remember the signatures of the witnesses on the will and thought perhaps you might have known who they were, or maybe you were present when Jim signed the will.”
    â€œI not there when Jim Shaw made will, but he told me,” Uncle Ned began. “Man named Tom Kennering sign his name, and other man named Jacob Smith.”
    John Shaw looked at Joe and said, “You almost got one of the names right.” Then turning back to Uncle Ned, he asked, “Do you know these two men? Do you know where we can find them now?”
    â€œKnow them,” Uncle Ned said, nodding his head. “Tom Kennering gone to happy hunting ground, accident, shot hunting deer. Jacob Smith, he moved way up north soon after he signed. Jim Shaw said too far to visit.”
    Everyone sighed in disappointment.
    â€œDo you know any relatives of these men that we might be able to find?” John Shaw asked.
    Uncle Ned thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, “No, no kin people.”
    â€œUncle Ned, were these men friends of my father’s? I mean, did they visit each other?” Mandie asked.
    Uncle Ned nodded. “Visit, hunt together,” he replied. “When Jim Shaw first moved to Charley Gap, they friends.”
    â€œWhere did these men live? Were they neighbors of Jim?” Mrs. Taft asked.
    â€œTom Kennering live over mountain in Tennessee,” the old Indian explained. “Jacob Smith come from up north and he return up north, live in cabin in mountain alone.”
    Dr. Woodard had been thoughtfully listening to the conversation, and he told John Shaw, “Strange that I never knew these people. Being a doctor, you know, I get around most everywhere and meet ’most everybody.”
    â€œAnd of course you had been living here in Swain County a long time before Jim ever moved out here,” John Shaw replied. “What about the accident when this Tom Kennering was shot? Was a doctor called in, or did it happen near here, Uncle Ned?”
    â€œShot in Tennessee, too far for Dr.