the midst of the storm a voice hailed them from outside. Dave went to
the doorway and saw--through the falling rain--Farmer Prosser, standing
by his horses' heads. He had just brought his family home from the
picnic and they had scurried into the house.

"What are you doing in there?" demanded the farmer. "Can't you stop the
sails?"

Dave explained, making it as light for Ferd as possible.

"Well! I've been expecting something like this ever since the mill was
put up. We can't do anything about it now. But I believe the wind will
shift soon. And if it does, perhaps I can stop the sails from outside
here."

It was nearly dark, however, and quite supper-time, before the farmer's
prophecy came true. Then the rain suddenly ceased to fall (the thunder
and lightning had long since rolled away into the distance) and the wind
dropped.

The farmer and his man rigged a brake to fall against the narrow breadth
of shaft which extended outside of the mill wall, and so brought
pressure to bear upon the revolving axle. This helped bring the sails to
a stop.

How thankfully the Go-Aheads and the Busters got out of that tower, it
would be difficult to express. Professor Skillings had started up
through the rain to see what he could do; but on the way he had picked
up a white pebble washed out of the roadside by the rain, and there
being something peculiar about it, he stopped under a hedge to examine
it by the light of his pocket lamp. Then he must needs proceed with his
ever-present geological hammer to break the stone in two. Long after
dark his electric lamp was flashing down there on the hillside like some
huge wavering firefly.

Not that he could have done a thing to help his young friends. Mrs.
Prosser, the farmer's wife, had the most practical idea of anybody; for,
the minute the boys and girls were out of the mill, she insisted that
they troop into the farmhouse kitchen and there sit down to her long
table and "get outside of" great bowls of milk and bread, with a host of
ginger cookies on the side.

So the incident ended happily after all, though Ferdinand Roberts's
spirits drooped for several days. It was well for him to suffer in
spirit--as Frankie said: it might teach him a lesson. And he had to pay
the farmer for the damage he had done to the machinery.

Ferdinand never had any money. He spent his allowance in advance,
borrowing of the other Busters whenever he could. When he got money from
home he had to sit do