Mark stuck out his fish-pole slow and cautious with that clammy hand on the end of it, and then, all of a sudden, there was a thin little ray of light that shot out and touched that hand so’s you could see it plain, but you couldn’t see anything else. It jest looked like a hand a-floating in the air, sort of pale and fleshy and horrible—and it moved straight toward Jason. Mark he let loose another moan. “_Jason Barnes!_” says Mark, in a hollow, awful kind of voice. “_Jason Barnes!_” Now the hand was close to Jason and he was a-crowding away from it. His eyes was sticking out of his head about a foot and his mouth was open wide enough to stick that hand right into it. All he could see was that hand and the ghost light that come with it. The light was an electric flash of Mark’s. The hand came closer and closer and touched Jason right on the cheek. Well, sir, you never heard such a screech as he let out. “Go away!” says he. “Don’t touch me! What be you ha’ntin’ me fer? I hain’t never done nothin’ to you. Ooo-oo!” “_Kneel, Jason Barnes!_” says Mark, and down plopped Jason right in that chilly water. “_Kneel and confess._” And all that time that clammy hand was a-fumbling over Jason’s face. If I’d been him I calc’late I’d have keeled over and give up the ghost right there, but maybe, being one of them spirit fellers, Jason was sort of familiar with ghosts and wasn’t as scairt as I would have been. But he was scairt enough. Come to think it over, I don’t see how a body could get much more scairt than he was. “_Jason Barnes_,” says Mark again, “_what—are—you—doing—there_?” “Oh, Spirit, whoever you be,” says Jason, his teeth clattering like clappers, “I hain’t doin’ nothin’. I was walkin’ in my sleep. I hain’t a-doin’ nothin’.” “_Jason Barnes—confess_,” says the voice. “I—Oh, Mr. Ghost—I come to bust the water-wheel.” “_Why?_” “’Tain’t my fault. I didn’t know any ghosts was int’rested in this mill.... I was hired.” “_Who hired you?_” “Feller named Wiggamore.” “_This is my mill.... This is my water-wheel_,” says the voice. “I didn’t know.... Honest, I didn’t know. Oh, lemme git out, Mr. Spirit! I won’t never come ag’in. I won’t never disturb your property no more.” “_How—much—were—you—paid?_” says the voice. “Ten dollars,” says Jason. “_Put—it—in—my—hand_,” says the voice. Jason he reached in his pocket and laid a bill in the hand on the end of the fish-pole, and the hand pulled it back to Mark, who put it in his pocket. Then the hand went back again. “_I’ve—been—watching—you_,” said the voice. “I hain’t done nothin’.... I didn’t know. Oh, lemme go! I won’t never do nothin’ like this again.” “_This—mill—is—mine_,” says Mark. “I wouldn’t tetch it for a million dollars,” says Jason. “_If—you—do_,” says the voice, “_I—shall—come—for—you_.” “Jest lemme go and you won’t never have no complaint ag’in. How was I to know you owned this mill?” “_Come out_,” says the voice.