At any rate, everyone of those three families believed the mill house haunted. And for many years now, no one had had the nerve to occupy the place.
And yet it had once been a paying venture, for the main road was only a few hundred yards away from this lonely, forbidding-looking pond, where the frogs grew so large and the red-marked "turkles," as Ty Collins called them, were so saucy.
"Careful here!" warned Elmer, as they arrived at the runway, where in times past the water was turned on when the mill was to be operated.
The boards were rotting and slimy, and if one made a slip he might get a wet jacket in the sluice, where there was more or less running water.
Elmer held up a hand to hold his comrades back. He seemed to be down on his hands and knees, as though examining something that had just caught his attention.
"What is it?" asked Lil Artha.
"He came this way, all right, boys."
"Do you mean Nat?" questioned Chatz.
"Why, of course," replied the leader.
"How do you know?" continued Chatz.