he may set fire to my house
regardless of the danger to his own. At present everything is dry, and
as the wind is so high he may sneak from the back of his own building,
start a fire, and get away unseen by any of us.

"He may burn and steal without being found out, and thus go unpunished. I
wish I could catch him."

This thought so worried Ivan that he decided not to return to his house,
but went out and stood on the street-corner.

"I guess," thought Ivan to himself, "I will take a walk around the
premises and examine everything carefully, for who knows what he may be
tempted to do?"

Ivan moved very cautiously round to the back of his buildings, not
making the slightest noise, and scarcely daring to breathe. Just as he
reached a corner of the house he looked toward the fence, and it seemed
to him that he saw something moving, and that it was slowly creeping
toward the corner of the house opposite to where he was standing. He
stepped back quickly and hid himself in the shadow of the building. Ivan
stood and listened, but all was quiet. Not a sound could be heard but
the moaning of the wind through the branches of the trees, and the
rustling of the leaves as it caught them up and whirled them in all
directions. So dense was the darkness that it was at first impossible
for Ivan to see more than a few feet beyond where he stood.

After a time, however, his sight becoming accustomed to the gloom, he
was enabled to see for a considerable distance. The plow and his other
farming implements stood just where he had placed them. He could see
also the opposite corner of the house.

He looked in every direction, but no one was in sight, and he thought
to himself that his imagination must have played him some trick, leading
him to believe that some one was moving when there really was no one
there.

Still, Ivan was not satisfied, and decided to make a further examination
of the premises. As on the previous occasion, he moved so very
cautiously that he could not hear even the sound of his own footsteps.
He had taken the precaution to remove his shoes, that he might step the
more noiselessly. When he reached the corner of the barn it again seemed
to him that he saw something moving, this time near the plow; but it
quickly disappeared. By this time Ivan's heart was beating very fast,
and he was standing in a listening attitude when a sudden flash of light
illumined the spot, and he could distinctly see the figure of a man