Just at this juncture the leader of the mob suggested to Jake that if he and his comrades would break up camp and leave the ground immediately, they would not hang him, but would continue their search for the Evangelist.  To this Jake and the whole party of campers readily agreed.  In the light of the moon, the whole ground of campers, consisting of more than a dozen families, hitched their teams to their wagons and made their way over the hills homeward.  Before any wagon was allowed to leave the ground, it was carefully searched by the mob to ascertain whether or not Evangelist Blank were there.  He could not be found.

When old Brother Bunk and his family arrived at their home, which was two miles from the campground.  Sister Bunk and the Bunk children were afraid to go into the house until Brother Bunk should unharness the team and go with them.  When the Bunk family came to the yard, they were astonished to see in the moonlight somebody sitting under the old silver poplar-tree.  They were scared to say the least.  Sister Bunk and the Bunk children hovered closer and closer to Brother Bunk, while fear increased as the distance to the poplar-tree decreased.  Imagine their surprise and relief when the person under the tree shouted, “Praise God, Brother Bunk, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.”  It was Evangelist Blank.  He explained to them that he had walked the whole two miles from the camp through the woods, guided by the sound of the wagon, thus avoiding the possibility of being apprehended by the mob in case they should attack the wagon.  He had arrived at the Bunk farm about the same time as the wagon had, but not having the inconvenience of a team to attend to, had sat down under the tree to rest.

The mob naturally supposed that Evangelist Blank would somehow make his way from the campground to Jake Benton’s.  Benton and his family arrived home from the camp about three o’clock in the morning.  They had been there only half an hour when they were aroused by the shout of the mob, who demanded that the preacher should be yielded up to them.  Not until they had thoroughly searched Benton’s home would they believe Jake’s contention that Evangelist Blank was not on the premises.  Finally, when they were convinced that Benton could not or would not tell them where the preacher was they withdrew to a clump of woods a short distance from Benton’s home and, the morning air being chilly, built a fire.

It was here that their identity became known.  As they chatted around the fire they removed the masks from their faces.  Of course, Jake Benton was curious to know who they were, and when he saw their fire in the woods he resolved to find out, even at the expense of much trembling.  He thought he had recognized some of them by their voices when they talked to him at the camp, but now he determined to make sure.  He crawled on his hands and knees for nearly a quarter of a mile along an old rail fence