In James Thurber's The Night the Ghost Got In, who does the mother think the intruders were?

In the story, the narrator's mother thinks that the intruders were burglars. The story begins at about a quarter past one on November 17, 1915. The narrator has just finished his bath when he hears resolute footsteps repeatedly circling the dining-room table downstairs. Initially, he thinks that either his father or his brother, Roy, is responsible for the noises. However, he soon discards the idea and goes to wake up his brother, Herman. Both are...

In the story, the narrator's mother thinks that the intruders were burglars. The story begins at about a quarter past one on November 17, 1915. The narrator has just finished his bath when he hears resolute footsteps repeatedly circling the dining-room table downstairs. Initially, he thinks that either his father or his brother, Roy, is responsible for the noises. However, he soon discards the idea and goes to wake up his brother, Herman. Both are too afraid to ascertain the cause of the upheaval.

Herman rushes to his room and slams the door, while the narrator slams the upstairs door shut in order to keep out the supposed burglars. All the noise eventually wakes up the narrator's mother, who thinks that burglars have indeed invaded their home. She proposes that the police must be alerted about the situation. So, she throws a shoe from her bedroom window across to their neighbor's bedroom window. The resounding crash of glass wakes up Bodwell, a retired engraver, and his wife. For his part, Bodwell does alert the police despite his displeasure about the broken window.

When the police turn up, they cannot find any burglars even after ransacking the house. However, they do manage to get into a harrowing shootout episode with the narrator's grandfather, who thinks that the police officers are Army deserters. Eventually, the police leave in great frustration after a fruitless search for the supposed burglars and an embarrassing tangle with the narrator's delusional grandfather. The next morning, however, the narrator's grandfather shocks the family when he asks why so many police officers were at their residence the night before.