This catastrophe had the effect to quicken the steps of the young man.

He reached the stairs, and had commenced a rapid descent, when the door of the squire's room, which was on the lower floor, opened, and Tom found himself flanked in that direction.
"Who's there?
What's that ?" demanded the squire, in hurried, nervous tones.
Tom was so impolite as to make no reply to these pressing interrogatories, but quickly retreated in the direction from which he had come.
"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.