back on the hook. If he don't catch
it, to-morrow. Hello! Well, if I've smashed that glass, there'll be
trouble."

Farmer Ellison, stumbling across the floor, had, indeed, kicked the
lantern which had been left there by the fleeing canoeists. That it was
not broken, however, was evidenced the next moment by the gleam of its
light.

By this gleam, the boys, peering down the stairway, could make out the
form of a tall, stoop-shouldered man, holding the lantern in one hand
and gazing about him. Now he advanced toward the little door that opened
into the outer mill, and stood, looking through, while he held the
lantern far out ahead of him.

"Queer," he muttered. "I closed that door before I went up, or I'm
getting forgetful. But everything's all right. I don't see anything the
matter. Ho! ho! I'm getting nervous about things--and who wouldn't? When
a man has--"

The rest of his sentence was lost, for he had stepped out on to one of
the planks. They heard him, only indistinctly, stepping from one plank
to another; but what he sought and what he did they could not imagine.

"He must think a lot of this old rattle-trap, to mouse around here this
time of night," muttered Harvey. "What'll we do, Henry?"

"Hide, just as soon as we get a chance," whispered Henry Burns. "He may
take a notion to come up. There! Look sharp, Jack. Get your bearings."

Again a sharp flash of lightning gleamed through the upper windows,
lighting up the room where they were, for a moment, then leaving it
seemingly blacker than before.

"I've got it," whispered Henry Burns. "Follow me, Jack."

The two stole softly across to an end of the room, to where a series of
boxes were built in, under some shafting and chutes, evidently
constructed to receive the meal when ground. Henry Burns lifted the
cover of one of these. It was nearly empty, and they both squeezed in,
drawing the cover down over their heads, and leaving an opening barely
sufficient to admit air.

They had not been a minute too soon; for presently they heard the sound
of footsteps. Farmer Ellison was coming up the stairs. Then the lantern
appeared at the top of the stairway, and the bearer came into view.

They saw him go from one corner to another, throwing the lantern rays
now overhead among the tangle of belting, now behind some beam. Then he
paused for a moment beside one of the huge grinding stones. He put his
foot upon it and uttered an exclamation of satisfaction.

"All r