CHAPTER XX—FOUND AND LOST
Tom’s fall was not a long one. But he was bruised and shaken by it. Had it not been for the fact that he had tumbled into what had been an old mushroom cellar that was floored with soft mold, he might have been injured seriously. As it was, however, his tumble through the open trapdoor, which he had not noticed in his haste to escape from the phantom that he thought was pursuing him, resulted in no injury to the lad.
Suddenly he heard himself hailed from above.
“Say, you, what’s the trouble?”
“I’ve fallen into a hole of some kind,” rejoined the boy, much astonished at hearing the voice, which was not an unfriendly one.
“Yes, and I came mighty near following you. Wait till I get a light and I’ll see what I can do to get you out of your trouble.”
“Now I wonder who on earth that can be?” thought Tom, as he heard the one who had addressed him retreating down the hallway. “Could it have been he who screeched like that and scared me so?”
Before long the man was back with the overturned lantern, which he had picked up and lighted. As he held it over the edge of the trapdoor through which Tom had tumbled the boy gave a start. The man’s face was painted white, and he had on a suit of loose white material with funny looking black mules stenciled all over it. The man peering over the edge of the hole saw the look of astonishment on Tom’s face, and broke into a laugh.
“Guess you’re wondering what under the sun sort of a chap I am,” he said. “Well, I’m a clown. I was with that show of Sawdon’s, but the rascal quit us cold down yonder, and dug out with everything. He even took our clothes and I had to make shift in this rig. It’s all I had.”
“Oh,” said Tom greatly relieved, “then it was you that ran after me?”