"That I will not condemn the boy untried and unconvicted," gravely answered Mr. Bacon.
Mr. Carleton shook hands with him again warmly, and then he said:
"Immediately after dinner I will go over to the lockup to see the boy. He must sadly stand in need of friends now. Will you go with me, Brother Bacon?"
"Yes. Stop as you pass the house, and I'll be ready," was the hearty reply.
One other there was who had not heard of Ray's arrest. It was his teacher, Miss Squire. Detained at home from the morning preaching service by her mother's sudden illness, she came hastily into the Sunday-school, ignorant of the whole sad affair. Looking around on her boys, and noticing Ray's absence from the class for the first time since the memorable Sunday more than a year ago, when he had first become a scholar, she asked, innocently:
"Do any of you know why Ray is not here to-day? Was he at church?"
The boys looked curiously at each other, and then one of them answered:
"No, ma'am; I rather guess he wasn't; for he's in the lockup, arrested for robbing Shephard's store Friday night."
Miss Squire did not answer a word, but looked steadily at her boys for a few minutes, as though she would read their souls; then, with a sigh, she took up the lesson for the day. But as soon as the school closed she went directly to her pastor, and, with tears in her eyes, she asked:
"You have heard about poor Ray?"