CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SECRET REVEALED
Lyddy did not have to go all the way to the Pritchett farm to speak with its proprietor. The farmer was wandering up Hillcrest way, looking at the growing corn, and she met him at the corner where the two farms came together.
“Mr. Pritchett,” she said, abruptly, “I want to ask you a serious question.”
He looked at her in his surly way–from under his heavy brows–and said nothing.
“You knew Mr. Spink when you were both boys; didn’t you?”
The old man’s look sharpened, but he only nodded. Cyrus was very chary of words.
“Mr. Spink left Hillcrest this morning. Last night my sister caught him in the east wing, trying to break open grandfather’s desk with a burglar’s jimmy. I am not at all sure that I shan’t have him arrested, anyway,” said Lyddy, with rising wrath, as she thought of the false professor’s actions.
“Ha!” grunted Mr. Pritchett.
“Now, sir, you know why Spink came to Hillcrest, why he has been searching up there among the rocks, and why he wanted to get at grandfather’s papers.”