Do you think I am running away?"
The red-headed Pinner boy did not answer. This boy was recalling in
every detail the gruesome story, read in a paper, of a bright young
lad who had been foully done to death in a wood.
George continued: "I shall be back with you at the inn this evening,
and I shall ask your father to give you a good thrashing for hiding in
my room."
In an earnest prayer the red-headed Pinner boy besought God that he
might indeed be spared to receive that thrashing.
III.
They reached the haystack. George struck a match; looked at his watch.
In seven minutes the train was due.
The ladder George had noticed that morning was lying along the foot of
a stack. Uprearing it against one partially demolished, "Put down that
bag," he commanded. "Up with you!"
Gustily sniffing in the huge sighs that advertised his terror, the
red-headed Pinner boy obeyed. George drew down the ladder. "Stop up
there; I shall be back in five minutes. If you move before then--"
He left the trembling boy out of his own agitated fear to fill the
unspoken doom. He walked slowly away in the direction opposite from
the station until the haystack was merged and lost in the blackness
that surrounded it. Then, doubling back, he made for the road; pounded
along it at desperate speed.
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