"They got me again! They got me again!" mourned the shaken Battick. "What did I tell you, Mr. Strong?" "Why, Mr. Battick, do you really believe some enemy burned your wheat stack?" "It certainly was no friend of mine," returned the man laughing wildly. "You said a true word there, Brother," Orrin Post remarked bluntly. "Whom do you suspect?" "Who about here knew anything about this wheat?" asked Hiram. "Yes, you might as well let Orrin know about it. I can assure you I have not told him." "What's that?" asked Post curiously. "This wheat!" almost sobbed Yancey Battick. "It was a special variety that I was raising for seed. They have burned it up on me! Oh, the rascals!" "Who do you suspect?" demanded Orrin again. "Couldn't it have been set on fire by accident?" "How by accident? There was no lightning accompanied that tempest. I tell you somebody came here and set it off. I have had as bad done to me before." "Who could it have been?" Hiram murmured. "And so soon after that terrible wind. You wouldn't think anybody would have gone out in that gale to do a neighbor an ill turn." "Hey!" ejaculated Orrin suddenly. "There's that Ad Banks." "Where?" demanded Hiram turning around quickly. "I don't mean that he is here now," Orrin said grimly. "But don't you remember we saw him coming down the road in this direction in the middle of that rain storm?" "So we did," Hiram agreed. "Banks isn't at home now," said Yancey Battick, looking at the two young fellows doubtfully. "We saw him all right," Orrin declared. "Jim Larry who works up at Sunnyside knows him well. Lives right on the next farm to the Bankses." "Mr. Battick!" exclaimed Hiram, smitten by a new thought, "have you ever had any trouble with Ad Banks?" "I told you once I had to run him off my place." "And there is something I did not tell you," Hiram went on. "Remember the day I was over looking at your wheat field? Back there in the spring, I mean?" "Yes, I remember, Mr. Strong," said Battick, reddening. "When I left you that day I chanced to see Adam Banks sneaking through the underbrush away from that very log on which we had been sitting to talk!" "Had he been eavesdropping?" demanded Battick angrily. "Like enough. I did not give it much thought at the time. But he may have learned at that time all about this special wheat." "He did it!" ejaculated Battick. "He was paid to do it, I bet." "We-ell," said Hiram thoughtfully, "that's rather jumping at conclusions without much evidence. But it might be." "It is!" repeated Yancey Battick. "They told me Ad Banks went over to Loomisville to work." "That is right," Orrin said. "That," said Battick significantly to Hiram, "is where I lived before I came here. They robbed me of my Mortgage Lifter Oats over in that neighborhood." Orrin looked at him curiously, but Hiram understood. "You think they might have sent Ad over here to do this?" the manager of Sunnyside said thoughtfully. "I'm sure they did."