“Everyone except my son! Where is he?” the distraught father demanded. “Why are you trying to deceive me?”
“I wouldn’t deceive you, George,” Meta Hanley replied quietly. She spoke as if continuing an earlier conversation. “I told you he didn’t come home for lunch. He went over to the beaver dam early this morning.”
A heavy beam crashed in Judy’s path.
“He may have come back! He may have gone inside! Danny! Danny!” the man shouted.
Judy stepped up to him. She had heard enough. “Your son is too far away to hear you, Mr. Anderson, but he’s safe,” she said, sure now that the man really was Danny’s father. “The fireman is right. All the children are accounted for. Your son is with my husband. Wait here, and I’ll bring him over.”
Judy hurried off to where Peter and Danny stood.
“What happened to you?” Peter demanded. He had not seen her follow the fireman toward the burning building, but he could tell, from her sooty face, that she had been too near the fire.
“I was going to try to keep a man from going back in. Peter, it was Danny’s father,” she rushed on, “and he wants to see Danny right away.”
“Well, I don’t want to see him, not if he’s a thief,” Danny spoke up unexpectedly. “I’m going to stay with Ma. No house at all is better than a house with stolen furniture in it. And if he cares so much about me, why didn’t he come to see me instead of sneaking around looking for the stuff the beavers stole?”