"If you'd like to stop at the mill, I'll show you a water wheel," said Mr. Peek. "And it'd have been runnin' yet, but--" Not finishing this sentence, the possible conclusion of which the boys could easily guess, the old gentleman after a little hesitation continued: "I can't get around like I used to and not as much as I ought to. I ain't been in the mill for nigh onto two years." Billy halted the car before the weather-worn buildings. He glanced toward Paul as if he felt some misgiving in entering the ruins of the once busy place in company with the ruin of him whose wrecked hopes were responsible for all the gloom and decay in this otherwise charming valley. But if Jones was in any degree apprehensive, he did not show it. Truly, too, it was interesting and surely there was nothing to fear, unless it were from loose or rotting boards beneath their feet. Mr. Peek explained briefly the operation of the long-silent water wheel. There was a choke in his voice, and in one way the lads felt relief when they all were in the outer air again. "It wa'n't a right convenient place to have a mill, but we had to take our work to where our power was. Couldn't hitch power up an' make it carry us anywhere, in my time, as you do with your automobile," observed Mr. Peek. Paul said he would like to take a walk around the old pond. Billy said, "Yes, let's do it, if Mr. Peek doesn't care." "Just do whatever pleases ye," said the old gentleman kindly. "I'll sit here on the old platform a spell." So he seated himself at the entrance where, in the long ago, grain for the mill was unloaded and the two boys sauntered along the one-time race. They strolled partly around the pond, speaking of the chances of good fishing and the probable depth of the water, and wondering that the ancient dam had not given way long ago. They drew near and walked alongside of the icehouse between the building and the water. They saw the black, decaying sawdust oozing from cracks where the siding had decayed. They passed around to the east side where were the great doors, still hanging loosely on rusty hinges. The lowest one was but a few feet above the ground. It was unlatched and stood ajar an inch or two. "Let's look in," Billy suggested. A runway of heavy planks, seamy and gray, built wide enough to have driven a team of horses upon, led up to the lowest door. The two boys walked easily up the incline. They drew the great door open a foot or two. The place seemed very dark after the bright sunlight without. The dead, heavy odor of the sawdust slowly being consumed by damp rot below and by dry rot higher up, was strong to their nostrils. "If there's such a thing as spooks, they'd like to live here, I'll bet," said Paul Jones.