Lawyer Estes was talking to John Ellison at the
farmhouse.

"Well, I've run down your witch," he said, smiling; "and there isn't
anything to be made out of her. I've been clear to the fair-grounds at
Newbury to see her. She's a shrewd one; didn't take her long to see that
something was up. Sized me up for a lawyer, I guess, and shut up tighter
than a clam. I told her what I knew, but she swore Tim Reardon was
mistaken.

"Those people have a fear of getting mixed up with the courts; naturally
suspicious, I suppose. She declared she had said that the man she talked
with asked about some letters he had lost, himself; and that was all she
knew about it. No use in my talking, either. I didn't get anything more
out of her. We're right where we were before."

"Well, I'm going to get into that mill and look around, just the same,"
exclaimed John Ellison. "I'll do it some way."

"Then you'll be committing trespass," said Lawyer Estes, cautiously.

"I don't care," insisted the boy. "I won't be doing any harm. I'm not
going to touch anything that isn't ours. But I'm going to look."

"Then don't tell me about it," said the lawyer. "I couldn't be a party
to a proceeding like that."

"No, but I know who will," said John Ellison. "It's Henry Burns. He
won't be afraid of looking through an old mill at night--and he'll know
a way to do it, too."

John Ellison tramped into town, that afternoon, and hunted up his
friend.

"Why, of course," responded Henry Burns; "it's easy. Jack and I'll go
with you. It won't do any harm, just to walk through a mill." And he
added, laughing, "You know we've been in there once before. Remember the
night we told you of?"

John Ellison looked serious.

"Yes," he replied, "and there was something queer about that, too,
wasn't there? You said father went through the mill, upstairs and down,
just the same as Witham does often now."

"He did, sure enough," said Henry Burns, thoughtfully. "I wish I'd known
what trouble was coming some day; I'd have tried to follow him. Well,
we'll go through all right--but what about Witham?"

"That's just what I've been thinking," said John Ellison.

"Well," replied Henry Burns, after some moments' reflection, "leave it
to me. I'll fix that part of it. And supposing the worst should happen
and he catch us all in there, what could he do? We'll get Jack and Tom
and Bob--yes, and Tim, too; he's got sharp eyes. Witham can't lick us
all. If he catches us, we'll just