Page:The adventures of Ann; stories of colonial times.djvu/88

84 as she shut the lid. Back she crept softly into her own room, undressed and got into bed. She could hear the men out in the yard quite plainly. "We've lost him again," she heard one of them say.

Presently Phineas Adams opened a window, and shouted out, to know what was the matter.

"Seen anything of the horse-thief?" queried a voice from the yard.

"No!" said Phineas. "I have been asleep these three hours. You just waked me up."

"He was hiding under the meeting-house," said the voice, "must have slipped in there this morning, when we missed him. We went down there and watched to-night, and almost caught him. But he disappeared a little below here, and we've lost him again. It's my opinion he's an evil spirit in disguise. He ran like the wind, in amongst the trees, where we couldn't follow with the horses. Are you sure he did not skulk in here somewhere? Sim White thinks he did."

"I knew I saw him turn the corner of the lane," chimed in another voice, "and we've scoured the woods."