“Then it will suit us,” declared Tom. “Tell me all about it. Were you ever camping there?” “No, but I used to live near there when I was a boy. So did your mother. It’s a beautiful country, but wild.” “Then I’m for Wilden!” cried Tom. “I’ll write to the fellows at once. I’m going to take Dick Jones along with us. Hurray for Wilden!” Mrs. Fairfield came into the room at that minute, and at the sound of the name she started. “Wilden!” she repeated. “What about Wilden, Tom?” “Nothing, only I’m going camping there, mother.” “Camping at Wilden! Oh, Brokaw, do you think that’s safe for Tom?” and the lady looked apprehensively at her husband. “Safe? Why shouldn’t it be safe?” asked Tom quickly. “Well--Oh, I don’t know but--Oh, well, I suppose it’s silly of me,” his mother went on, “but there’s a sort of wild man--a half insane character--who roams through the woods up there, and you might meet him.” “How did you hear that?” asked Tom. “I had a letter from a lady with whom I used to go to school in Wilden years ago,” explained Mrs. Fairfield. “She wrote me the other day, and mentioned it. I told you at the time, Brokaw.” “Yes, I remember now. Old Jason Wallace. Let’s see, didn’t Mrs. Henderson say he stayed part of the time in the old mill?” “Yes, he’s trying to solve the secret of it, Mrs. Henderson said, and that’s one reason why he acts so strange, as if he was crazy. Oh, Tom, I wish you’d go camping some other place!” finished his mother. “What, mother! Pass up a place like that, with all those attractions--a wild man--a mysterious old mill? I guess not! What is the secret of the old mill, anyhow?” “Ask your father,” advised Tom’s mother. “He knows the story better than I do.” “Let’s have it, dad,” begged our hero. “Say, this is great! A mystery and a wild man in camp! Maybe the boys won’t like that! I must write and tell ’em to hurry up and come on. Oh, I can see some great times ahead of me this summer, all right!” CHAPTER II THE STORY OF THE MILL “Let me see if I can remember the story of the old mill,” mused Mr. Fairfield, as Tom stood expectantly waiting. “It’s quite some years since I heard it,” and he gazed reminiscently at the ceiling. “This is better luck than I expected,” murmured Tom, and, while he is thus waiting to hear the story of the secret of the old mill, I will take the opportunity to tell you something more about him and his friends, and the two previous books in this series. My first volume was entitled, “Tom Fairfield’s Schooldays,” and in that I related how our hero came to go to Elmwood Hall. It was because his parents had to go to Australia to claim some property left by a relative of Tom’s father. As Tom could not go to the land of the kangaroo with his folks they decided to send him to a boarding school, called Elmwood Hall.