XX.
OUT ON BAIL.
"Did you get a look at the faces of the men and the boy you say you saw?"
asked the postmaster, after a pause.
"No, sir. I saw them, but it was too dark to distinguish faces."
"And you say each carried a handbag?"
"Yes, sir."
"Can you prove that you were not around the post office at the time of the
explosion?"
"I cannot, sir. I was just coming from home to go to Dr. Foley's, for my
mother, who was taken sick during the night."
"And you went to Dr. Foley's afterward?"
"Yes, sir. He will tell you the same thing."
"What of the valise found in your back doorward?"
"I know nothing of it, excepting that both my mother and I fancied we heard
somebody around the house just a short while before the constable and the
others came."
Postmaster Hooker turned to Squire Paget.
"What do you think of this, squire?" he asked.
"Very queer," responded the squire, briefly. "I think you had better have
him held until we can investigate further. Remember, we have not heard from
the other parties who went out yet."
[Illustration: "Here they found all in confusion." See page 122.]
"Yes, we'll have to hold you, Nelson," said Mr. Hooker. "It's too bad, if
you are innocent, but it can't be helped."
"Do you mean to say you will lock me up?" exclaimed Ralph, in horror.
"We'll have to--for a while--unless you can furnish satisfactory bail."
"How much bail do you wish?" asked the boy, faintly.
A consultation was held between the postmaster and Squire Paget, and
finally bail was fixed at three hundred dollars.
"That will hold him tight enough," whispered the squire. "No one will go
bail to that amount for him."
But Squire Paget was mistaken. While Ralph was being taken to the village
lockup, a gentleman stepped up. In him Ralph recognized Mr. Leander
Carrington, Julia Carrington's father.
"I will go that boy's bail," said the rich man.
"You, Carrington!" cried the squire, in some astonishment.
"Yes."
"You are running a mighty big risk," sniffed the squire.
"I reckon I can stand it," laughed Leander Carrington. "I do not believe
the boy is guilty."
"I do."
"Besides, he did my wife and daughter a service that I shall ever
remember," went on Mr. Carrington, warmly. "He stopped my team when your
son let them run away from him."
The squire did not relish this remark, and he turned away with some saying
on his lips to the effect that if a man wanted to make a fool of hi
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