The road mounted to a summit, and dipped again.  They were in a long valley, and the burning barn was clearly outlined at the far end of it.  One side was already flaming, and tongues of fire leaped out through the roof.  The men in the car were standing now, doors open, ready to leap, while the car lurched and swayed over the uneven road.  Behind them they heard the clatter of the oncoming horse.

As they drew nearer they could see three watching figures against the burning building, and as they turned into the lane which led to the barnyard a shot rang out and one of the figures dropped and lay still.  There was a cry of warning from somewhere, and before the detectives could leap from the car, the group had scattered, running wildly.  The state policeman threw his horse back on its hunches, and fired without apparently taking aim at one of the running shadows.  The man threw up his arms and fell.  The state policeman galloped toward him, dismounted and bent over him.

Firing as they ran, detectives leaped out of the car and gave chase, and so it was that the young gentleman in bedroom slippers and pajamas, standing in his car and shielding his eyes against the glare, saw a curious thing.

First of all, the roof blazed up brightly, and he perceived a human figure, hanging by its hands from the eaves and preparing to drop.  The young gentleman in pajamas was feeling rather out of things by that time, so he made a hasty exit from his car toward the barn, losing a slipper as he did so, and yelling in a slightly hysterical manner.  It thus happened that he and the dropping figure reached the same spot at almost the same moment, one result of which was that the young gentleman in pajamas found himself struck a violent blow with a doubled-up fist, and at the same moment his bare right foot was tramped on with extreme thoroughness.

The young gentleman in pajamas reeled back dizzily and gave tongue, while standing on one foot.  The person he addressed was the state constable, and his instructions were to get the fugitive and kill him.  But the fugitive here did a very strange thing.  Through the handkerchief which it was now seen he wore tied over his mouth, he told the running policeman to go to perdition, and then with seeming suicidal intent rushed into the burning barn.  From it he emerged a moment later, dragging a figure bound hand and foot, blackened with smoke, and with its clothing smoldering in a dozen places; a figure which alternately coughed and swore in a strangled whisper, but which found breath for a loud whoop almost immediately after, on its being immersed, as it promptly was, in a nearby horse-trough.