Coombes said he would tell us his story, and before anybody
could stop him, he had begun.
Mr Coombes said the story was called -
THE HAUNTED MILL
OR
THE RUINED HOME
(Mr. Coombes's Story)
Well, you all know my brother-in-law, Mr. Parkins (began Mr.
Coombes, taking the long clay pipe from his mouth, and putting it
behind his ear: we did not know his brother-in-law, but we said we
did, so as to save time), and you know of course that he once took
a lease of an old Mill in Surrey, and went to live there.
Now you must know that, years ago, this very mill had been occupied
by a wicked old miser, who died there, leaving--so it was rumoured-
-all his money hidden somewhere about the place. Naturally enough,
every one who had since come to live at the mill had tried to find
the treasure; but none had ever succeeded, and the local wiseacres
said that nobody ever would, unless the ghost of the miserly miller
should, one day, take a fancy to one of the tenants, and disclose
to him the secret of the hiding-place.
My brother-in-law did not attach much importance to the story,
regarding it as an old woman's tale, and, unlike his predecessors,
made no attempt whatever to discover the hidden gold.
"Unless business was very different then from what it is now," said
my brother-in-law, "I don't see how a miller could very well have
saved anything, however much of a miser he might have been: at all
events, not enough to make it worth the trouble of looking for it.
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