I saw a form approaching in the gloom with feet as noiseless as a cat's. I took a step backward and, seeing that it was a woman, stopped.
"It's Kate," the answer came in a hoarse whisper as I recognized her form and staff.
"Run, boy—they have just come out o' the woods. I saw them. They will take you away. Run."
She had picked up the flail and now she put it in my hands and gave me a push toward the door. I ran, and none too quickly, for I had not gone fifty feet from the barn in the stubble when I heard them coming after me, whoever they were. I saw that they were gaining and turned quickly. I had time to raise my flail and bring it down upon the head of the leader, who fell as I had seen a beef fall under the ax. Another man stopped beyond the reach of my flail and, after a second's hesitation, turned and ran away in the darkness.
I could hear or see no other motion in the field. I turned and ran on down the slope toward the village. In a moment I saw some one coming out of the maple grove at the field's end, just ahead, with a lantern.
Then I heard the voice of the schoolmaster saying:
"Is it you, my lad?"
"Yes," I answered, as I came up to him and Mary, in a condition of breathless excitement.
I told them of the curious adventure I had had.
"Come quick," said the schoolmaster. "Let's go back and find the man in the stubble."