It took them three days to get the roof thoroughly off, and all
they found was a bird's nest; after securing which they covered up
the house with tarpaulins, to keep it dry.

You might have thought that would have cured the poor fellow of
looking for treasure. But it didn't.

He said there must be something in it all, or the ghost would never
keep on coming as it did; and that, having gone so far, he would go
on to the end, and solve the mystery, cost what it might.

Night after night, he would get out of his bed and follow that
spectral old fraud about the house. Each night, the old man would
indicate a different place; and, on each following day, my brother-
in-law would proceed to break up the mill at the point indicated,
and look for the treasure. At the end of three weeks, there was
not a room in the mill fit to live in. Every wall had been pulled
down, every floor had been taken up, every ceiling had had a hole
knocked in it. And then, as suddenly as they had begun, the
ghost's visits ceased; and my brother-in-law was left in peace, to
rebuild the place at his leisure.

"What induced the old image to play such a silly trick upon a
family man and a ratepayer?" Ah! that's just what I cannot tell
you.

Some said that the ghost of the wicked old man had done it to
punish my brother-in-law for not believing in him at first; while
others held that the apparition was probably that of some deceased