But he disappeared a
little below here, and we've lost him again. It's my opinion he's an
evil spirit in disguise. He ran like the wind, in amongst the trees,
where we couldn't follow with the horses. Are you sure he did not
skulk in here somewhere? Sim White thinks he did."
"I knew I saw him turn the corner of the lane," chimed in another
voice, "and we've scoured the woods."
"I think we'd better search the barn, anyhow," some one else said,
and a good many murmured assent.
"Wait a minute, I'll be down," said Phineas, shutting his window.
How long poor Ann lay there shaking, she never knew. It seemed hours.
She heard Phineas go down stairs, and unlock the door. She heard them
tramp into the barn. "O, if I had hidden him there!" she thought.
After a while, she heard them out in the yard again. "He could _not_
have gotten into the house, in any way," she heard one man remark
speculatively. How she waited for the response. It came in Phineas
Adams' slow, sensible tones: "How could he? Didn't you hear me unbolt
the door when I came out? The doors are all fastened, I saw to it
myself.
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