What a ninny?!! He doesn't even both to check the facts. He just believes what he is told.
He believes the child without any question. I suppose we are to believe that he had such a terrible nervous condition that he could not check anything. He just had to run to get away.
He is not going anywhere (like to see the doctors). He's just running away.
He probably is afraid of dogs and bugs and germs and snakes and ... you name it and he's likely afraid of it.
The actual answer I think is that he is running away from the "ghosts."
