Burr, who slept in a little chamber right over my stall, was too dazed to do anything at first, but Tommy's terror was so real that he compelled himself to act.
Running down the stairs, he scratched away the straw that concealed a trap-door in the floor and bade him crawl in. Then he scattered the straw back and climbed to his room. He could not have more than reached his bed when hurrying feet and confused, angry voices sounded outside; then somebody opened the door and flashed a lantern into the barn.
"I know that he came home," said one, "and I think he headed for the barn."
"Well, if he is here, we'll have him dead or alive; it was a piece of cold-blooded crime, if ever there was one."
There must have been a dozen of them, and they rushed everywhere.
Presently part went to the house and the others routed Burr out.
The latter pretended to be very sleepy and wholly unable to understand what they meant at first.
He stoutly denied all knowledge of Tom, solemnly assuring them that he was not in the barn to his knowledge.
After searching everywhere, as they thought, they found their companions at the house.
I suppose that the women folk were terribly frightened. Burr followed to the house, and when he returned, after the searching party had seemed to go away, he told Tommy that his mother "just dead fainted away."