"Wife, light the lamp, quick," said the squire, in the hall below.

Just then a door opened on the other side of the entry where Tom stood,
and he caught a faint glimpse of a figure robed in white. Though it was
the solemn hour of midnight, and Tom, I am sorry to say, had read the
Three Spaniards, and Mysteries of Udolpho, he rejected the suggestion that
the "sheeted form" might be a ghost.

"Who's there?" called the squire again.

A romantic little scream from the figure in white assured Tom that Miss
Susan was the enemy immediately on his front. Then he caught the glimmer
of the light below, which Mrs. Pemberton had procured, and the race seemed
to be up. Concealment was no longer practicable, and he seized upon the
happy suggestion that the window opening upon the portico over the front
door was available as a means of egress.

Springing to the window, he raised it with a prompt and vigorous hand, and
before the squire could ascend the stairs, he was upon the roof of the
portico. Throwing his boots down, he grasped the gutter, and "hung off."
He was now on _terra firma_, and all his trials appeared to have reached a
happy termination; but here again he was doomed to disappointment.

"Bow, wow, wow-er, woo, row!" barked and growled the squire's big bull
dog, when he came to realize that some unusual occurrences were
transpiring.

The animal was a savage brute, and was kept chained in the barn during the
day, and turned loose when the squire made his last visit to the cattle