"There he is! There's the man! He's after me! Oh, please don't let him take me away!"
Tom turned to run back into the woods, but Mr. Brown called to him:
"Stay right where you are, Tom! This man won't hurt you. Stay where you are."
Though he was much frightened, Tom stood still.
"Now then, what do you want?" asked Mr. Brown of the man with the whip.
"I want that boy!" answered the man, pointing the whip at poor Tom. "I hired him to work for me, but he ran away. I want him back, and I'm going to have him!"
And oh, what a rough, cross voice the man had! He wasn't at all nice, Bunny and Sue thought.
"I've been looking for that boy, and now I've found him. I want to take him back with me," the cross man went on. "I was hunting all through these woods for him, and yesterday I heard that a boy like him was in a camp over here. So I came for to find out about it, and I've found him!"
"Is that the man you saw in the woods, when we went after milk the other day, Tom?" asked Bunny in a whisper.
"Yes," nodded Tom.