not wait for an answer, but went on to the pond, and Dan Duff followed
him. Sure enough, Rachel Frost was in it. They knew her by her clothes,
as she rose to the surface. Dan Duff, in his terror, went back shrieking
to Verner's Pride, and young Broom, more sensibly, ran for help to get
her out.

"How did young Broom know, or suspect, there was anybody in the pond?"
questioned Mr. Verner.

"I dun know, please, sir," sobbed Dan Duff; "that was what he said as he
runned off to it. He asked me if I had seen any folks about, and I said
I'd only seen that un in the lane."

"Whom did you see in the lane?"

"I dun know who it was, please, sir," returned Dan, sniffing greatly. "I
wasn't a-nigh him."

"But you must have been nigh him if you met him in the lane."

"Please, sir, I wasn't in the lane then. I had runned into the field
after a cat."

"After a cat?"

"Please, sir, 'twere a cat, I think. But it got away, and I didn't find
it. I saw somebody a-passing of the gate up the lane, but I warn't quick
enough to see who."

"Going which way?"