“I believe I begin to see the truth!” cried the young major.
“What do you think?” asked Bert Field.
“Jabez Trask makes folks believe the old mill is haunted so that they will keep away. He is afraid that if folks visit the mill they may, accidentally or otherwise, find the missing will.”
“That’s it exactly—or at least, that is how I figure it out,” answered the strange youth.
“Do you think Trask plays ghost?” asked Pepper. “If he does, I’d like to go there and catch him at it.”
“He either does it himself or has somebody do it for him,” answered Bert Field. “You must remember that he is a very queer man,—very suspicious as well as miserly.”
“Have you been to his mansion, or to the old mill yet?” questioned Pepper.
“Yes, I was near the mansion several times, once during that thunderstorm, when I saw two of you, and I have been around the old mill. I tried to enter it once, when it was dark, but was warned away by a ghostlike figure. I wasn’t much alarmed by the ghost, but when the figure threatened to shoot me I walked away.”
“That proves that the so-called ghost is nothing but a man,” was Andy’s comment. “Well, I was sure of that before,” he added.
“When you saw me with the rope I had a new scheme I was going to try to carry out,” continued Bert Field. “I have been watching the streams around here and I came to the conclusion that the one flowing along where I met you ran under the old mill. I got the long rope and was going to let myself down in that opening and see if I couldn’t follow the stream backward to the place. By doing that—if it could be done—I thought I might be able to get into the old mill without Mr. Ghost knowing anything about it. Then, if I did get into the mill, I was going to watch my chance and hunt for that missing will. The old woman wrote to me that William Robertson was a great man for hiding valuable things under the floor. Maybe that will is under some flooring in the old mill.”