He was very much disturbed.  This intelligence would be a severe blow to the poor boy’s mother, and he had not the courage to destroy all her bright hopes by writing her the terrible truth.  He was confident that Bobby was innocent, and that his being in the company of Tom Spicer had brought the imputation upon him; so he could not let the matter take its course.  He was determined to do something to procure his liberty and restore his reputation.

Squire Lee was in the city that day, and had left his store only half an hour before he discovered the paragraph.  He immediately sent to his hotel for him, and together they devised means to effect Bobby’s liberation.  The squire was even more confident than Mr. Bayard that our hero was innocent of the crime charged upon him.  They agreed to proceed immediately to the State of Maine, and use their influence in obtaining his pardon.  The bookseller was a man of influence in the community, and was as well known in Maine as in Massachusetts; but to make their application the surer, he procured letters of introduction from some of the most distinguished men in Boston to the governor and other official persons in Maine.

We will leave them now to do the work they had so generously undertaken, and return to the Reform School, where Bobby and Tom were confined.  The latter took the matter very coolly.  He seemed to feel that he deserved his sentence, but he took a malicious delight in seeing Bobby the companion of his captivity.  He even had the hardihood to remind him of the blow he had struck him more than two months before, telling him that he had vowed vengeance then, and now the time had come.  He was satisfied.

“You know I didn’t steal the money, or have any thing to do with it,” said Bobby.

“Some of it was found upon you, though,” sneered Tom, maliciously.

“You know how it came there, if no one else does.”

“Of course I do; but I like your company too well to get rid of you so easy.”

“The Lord is with the innocent,” replied Bobby, “and something tells me that I shall not stay in this place a great while.”

“Going to run away?” asked Tom, with interest, and suddenly dropping his malicious look.

“I know I am innocent of any crime; and I know that the Lord will not let me stay here a great while.”

“What do you mean to do, Bob?”

Bobby made no reply; he felt that he had had more confidence in Tom than he deserved, and he determined to keep his own counsel in future.  He had a purpose in view.  His innocence gave him courage; and perhaps he did not feel that sense of necessity for submission to the laws of the land which age and experience give.  He prayed earnestly for deliverance from the place in which he was confined.  He felt that he did not deserve to be there; and though it was a very comfortable place, and the boys fared as well as he wished to fare, still it seemed to him like a prison.  He was unjustly detained; and he not only prayed to be delivered, but he resolved to work out his own deliverance at the first opportunity.