Pausing not to look back, Danny ran down to the main floor and out of the side door.
“I hope he doesn’t take my basket of groceries,” thought Bert. But he remembered he had set it over in a dark corner, where it would not be likely to be seen. And, as a matter of fact, Danny Rugg was so frightened that he thought of nothing but taking his own basket of food and hurrying out of the church.
Bert heard the door slam after the other boy, and then the Bobbsey lad began to wonder what was the best thing to do.
“If Danny’s ring is there and I find it, I can prove that he threw the snowball that broke the window,” said Bert to himself. “But even if I pick up the ring on the balcony floor, Danny might say I found it somewhere else and put it there. I ought to have some one with me when I find it—if I do—and whoever’s with me can say I didn’t put it there. I’ve got to get some one to help me.”
Bert remembered that Mr. Henry Ander, one of the church deacons, a good and kindly man who was well acquainted with the Bobbsey family, lived close to the church.
“I’ll go and get Mr. Ander before I look for the ring,” decided Bert.
He started down the balcony stairs, though he was more than anxious to look for the lost ring, for the finding of that would clear Bert’s name from the suspicion of having broken the window. But knowing that the plan he had made was best, Bert kept on.
As he was crossing the dim vestibule on his way to the side door, Bert heard some one coming in.
“I hope that isn’t Danny coming back!” Bert whispered.
It was not. It was Mr. Shull.