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."

"No, I don't," returned the farmer, flatly.

"You and Spink were up at Hillcrest the first night we girls slept there.
And you frightened my sister half to death."

The old man blinked at her, but never said a word.

"And you were there with Spink the evening Lucas took 'Phemie and me down
to the Temperance Club--the first time," said Lyddy, with surety. "You
slipped out of sight when we drove into the yard. But it was you."

"Oh, it was; eh?" growled Mr. Pritchett.

"Yes, sir. And I want to know what it means. What is Spink's intention?
What does he want up here?"

"I couldn't tell ye," responded Pritchett.

"You mean you won't tell me?"

"No. I say what I mean," growled Pritchett. "Jud Spink never told me what
he wanted. I was up to the house with him--yep. I let him go into the
cellar that night you say your sister was scart. But I didn't leave him
alone there."

"But _why_?" gasped Lyddy.

"I can easy tell you my side of it," said the farmer. "Jud and me was
something like chums when we was boys. When he come back here a spell
ago he heard I was storing something in the cellar under the east wing of
the house. He told me he wanted to get into that cellar for something.

"So I met him up there that night. I opened the cellar door and we went
down. I kept a lantern there. Then I found out he wanted to go farther.
There's a hatch there in the floor of the old doctor's workshop----"

"A trap door?"

"Yes."

"And you let him up there?"

"Naw, I didn't. He wouldn't tell me what he wanted in the old doctor's
offices. I stayed there a while with him--us argyfyin' all the time. Then
we come away."

"And the other time?"

"On Saturday night? I caught him trying to break in at the cellar door.
I warned him not to try no more tricks, and I told him if he did I'd
make it public. We ain't been right good friends since," declared Mr.
Pritchett, chewing reflectively on a stalk of grass.

"And you don't know what it's all about?" demanded Lyddy, disappointedly.

"No more'n you do," declared Mr. Pritchett; "or as much."

"Oh, dear me!" cried Lyddy. "Then I'm just where I was when I started!"

"You wanter watch Jud Spink," grumbled Mr. Pritchett, rising from the
fence-rail on which he had been squatting. "Does he want to buy the farm