Then the man, with a few inquiries as to Mr. Boyd's plans after his release, dismissed his young visitor.
"I have no more offices to visit, then," Budd remarked on reaching the street, "thanks to Mr. Johnson. I'll buy a copy of every paper to-morrow, however, so father can see just what they do say."
He now turned his steps toward the quarter of the city where he had formerly lived, and walked slowly over the familiar ground. Then he went around by the school he had last attended, and gazed up at the windows of the room where he used to sit. His thoughts now turned toward his former acquaintances and friends, and he felt a little pardonable exultation as he remembered how, at every breakfast-table of the city, on the following morning, his father's innocence would be discussed.
"I am not sure," he admitted to himself, as he walked back toward his hotel, "but that I should be glad to come back here and take up the old life--if," he added, after a brief pause, "Judd could only come with me."
And though he did not know it then, that very thing was to eventually happen.
Not far from half-past eight o'clock the next morning Budd put his packages into a hack, and entering it, gave the order to the driver:
"Go over to the State Prison in Charlestown."
With a peculiar look at his young passenger the driver mounted his box and drove away. A half-hour or so later he stopped at the massive entrance of the institution named, and Budd alighted. Requesting the hackman to remain until his return, he took up his bundles and went into the warden's office.
Upon showing the official document of the Governor to the clerk in waiting he politely requested Budd to take a seat while he went to call his superior officer. The warden soon entered, and telling Budd he had expected him, he led the way into the prison building. Down one corridor and into another they went, the heart of the lad beating loudly as he drew nearer to the father he had not seen for months. Suddenly the warden stopped before a cell and unlocked the door.
"You may enter and break the news to your father," he said to Budd in a low voice. "A little later I will send a man for you, and you and your father can come down to the office, where there is a dressing-room which he can use to get ready for his departure."