Free The Clock by James Lincoln Collier

the mill road, and onto the village road.
    Had he seen me? I didn’t know. He’d have only got a glimpse of me, but that might have been enough. I didn’t think he could have seen who it was diving around that corner. But if he’d seen someone spying on him, he’d have a pretty good guess as to who it was. I ran off to Hetty Brown’s house as quick as I could manage.
    ******
    But Mr. Hoggart didn’t come around for a couple of days, and I rested easier. In the meanwhile, I got a chance to talk to Robert. Mr. Hoggart had got him carrying yarn down out of our part of the mill, and sometimes he could swing through the slubbing room and talk to me. He looked dreadful; it was hard enough for him to get up and down a flight of stairs by himself, much less carrying a huge bundle of yarn. “He’s trying to kill you,” I said. “He wants to work you to death.”
    â€œIt isn’t as bad as all that,” Robert said. “I’m getting used to it.”
    â€œHe thinks I’m sweet on you, and he’s afraid of what you might know from being tally boy. He wants to kill you.”
    â€œDon’t exaggerate, Annie. It isn’t that bad. He wants me to quit.”
    â€œMaybe,” I said. “Anyway, I found out where he’s hiding the wool.”
    â€œWhat?”
    So I told him the whole story, of seeing the footprints through the snow behind the mill, and tracking them to the shack in the woods.
    â€œThat was a foolish risk, Annie. He’d have beaten the daylights out of you if he’d caught you. He might have killed you.”
    â€œI know,” I said. “I was almighty scared. I was plain lucky that he didn’t come bursting out of that shed while I was standing there.”
    â€œYou sure were,” he said. I was feeling sort of proud of myself, for it was a brave thing to do, even if it was foolish.
    â€œNow we know where he’s got the wool. We can tell Colonel Humphreys.”
    He thought about it for a minute. “But you didn’t actually see it. You didn’t get a look inside.”
    â€œNo, that’s true.” I stood there, thinking. “But it has to be in there. What else would he be going out to that cabin for in the dead of winter?”
    â€œYes, that’s true. But suppose we can somehow get Colonel Humphreys to look into it. What if there’s no wool in it? What if he’d cleared the wool out? What if he was using the shed for something else in the first place?”
    Well, it was a puzzle. Robert said we’d better think about it for a few days first, before we did anything. So I went on home. But I was feeling a lot better, because I knew Robert would help me, and with Robert I knew I had a chance.
    ******
    Then, a few days later, Mr. Hoggart came after me. It was quitting time, getting dark outside. The bell had just rung, and the girls were putting on their caps and the boys were pushing and jostling to go across to their lodgings and get their suppers. I was putting on my cap, too, and thinking about my own supper, although I knew I wouldn’t get it until six, for Pa was still running everything by the clock. I saw Mr. Hoggart pushing his way through the mob of boys going out. He was heading right toward me, and I jumped under my skin. Quickly I slipped into my coat, and started for the door with the others, hoping to skirt around him. But the next thing I knew he was standing dead in front of me. I tried to skip around him, like I didn’t realize he wanted me, but he grabbed my arm. “Hold up, Annie,” he said, kind of rough. “I want to talk to you.”
    â€œYes, sir,” I said. I kept my eyes down so as not to encourage him.
    He stood there holding my arm like that until the boys and girls had all filed out and were clumping down the outside stairs. Then he said, “Look at me.”
    I flicked my eyes upward for a second, and then down again.
    â€œI