CHAPTERXXI
The deacon, Mr. Ander, and the sexton looked carefully around on the floor of the balcony near the broken window. They even found some little slivers of colored glass, for only the larger pieces had been swept up.
“Danny’s ring certainly came in here, stuck to the snowball he threw against the window,” decided the deacon. “It’s as plain as if we saw it happen. And I think, Bert, when I hand this ring to Danny’s father and tell how it was found—I think Danny will confess just how it happened. I want you with me when he does, so your name will be cleared.”
“Yes, I’d like to go with you,” Bert said. “But I ought to go home now. I’ve been away a good while, and maybe Nan might want some of the groceries I have in the basket downstairs. Nan is home alone withFlossie and Freddie. Mrs. Pry is sick in bed.”
“Then you’d better go home now,” agreed the deacon when Bert had further explained how it was the Bobbsey twins were keeping house by themselves. “This evening after supper I’ll call for you and we’ll take this ring back to Danny.”
“Do you want me to come along?” asked the sexton. “I’m going to be pretty busy, keeping up the fires, for it’s going to be a cold night.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed Mr. Ander “No, I don’t believe we need you, Robert. Two witnesses are enough to prove where the lost ring was found.”
“All right,” agreed Bert. “I’ll be ready for you after supper.”
It was with a very much lighter heart than he had had on entering the church that Bert left the edifice. Picking up his basket of groceries he started for home.
“Say, it is mighty cold!” he murmured as he felt the tingling air nip his ears and nose. “I’ll have to keep up a good fire in our furnace.Mrs. Pry has got to be kept warm with her lumbago.”
On leaving the church, Bert looked around for a sight of Danny Rugg, but that small bully and cheat was not in view, and Bert was glad of it.
“For if he saw me coming out of the church,” reasoned Bert, “he would guess that I made the noise that scared him away. Now he’ll be surprised when we hand him his ring.”
Mr. Ander put the gold finger ornament in his pocket and went back home, planning to go to Bert’s house in the evening. Danny lived not far from the Bobbsey house.
“I’m glad it can be proved that Bert didn’t break the window,” said the sexton.
“So am I,” agreed the deacon. “Bert’s a good boy. I never liked to think that he broke the window. Yet the other boys said he did.”
“Well, Danny never actually said so,” remarked Mr. Shull. “But he kept quiet about it when he knew that he, himself, had thrown the snowball that did the damage. It wasjust as bad as if Danny had said Bert did it.”
“Just the same,” agreed the deacon.
Bert found Nan and the small twins waiting rather anxiously for him when he got back.
“Did you get a letter from mother?” asked Nan as soon as the door was opened.
“No, not yet.”
“Oh, dear! I wonder what’s the matter,” and tears were in Nan’s eyes.
“They’re all right,” declared Bert. “It’s just that the mails are late on account of the storm. I guess we’ll hear from them by to-morrow. But, Nan, I’ve got good news!”
“What is it?” she asked. “Did you see Sam and Dinah coming back?”
“No. But maybe they’ll be along soon. But I found Danny’s ring in the church under the broken window, and that proves he did it,” and the boy quickly told his sister what had happened.
“Oh, I’m glad of that!” cried Nan. “Danny was mean to keep still and let it be thought you did it.”
“Yes, he’s a sort of a sneak,” agreed Bert.“But wait until he sees the deacon and me with his ring! He’ll feel queer then!”
Flossie and Freddie were playing about the house when Bert came back, and they were delighted when he gave them some sticks of candy he had bought at the store.
“Aunt Sallie says she feels cold,” reported Nan, when she had taken a cup of tea and one of the lamb chops Bert had brought up to the invalid. “Can you make the house any warmer, Bert? You know Doctor Martin said we must keep her lumbago warm.”
“I’ll turn on the furnace more, shake it down and put a lot of coal on,” decided the boy. “I’m glad we have plenty of coal in the bin.”
“So am I!” agreed Nan.
Soon the pipes were cracking with the additional heat that Bert turned on. And though the wind still blew cold outside and though more flakes of snow began to fall as evening settled down, the Bobbsey twins were warm and snug.
Of course they were lonesome without their parents, and they surely wished Dinah andSam would return. But Bert and Nan, putting aside their own feelings, amused Flossie and Freddie, so that the small twins laughed merrily.
“Will you be afraid to stay here while I go out with Mr. Ander a little while?” asked Bert of his sister, when supper was over.
“Oh, no,” Nan answered. “That is, if you don’t stay too late.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “Only long enough to give Danny back his ring and see what he has to say.”
A little later the deacon arrived at the Bobbsey house. He went to the side door and brushed the snow off his boots with a broom that was kept there for the purpose.
“Is it snowing much?” asked Bert, as he let Mr. Ander in.
“Yes, snowing hard,” was the answer. “I don’t know when we’ve had so much snow this early in the winter. It keeps up as if it would never stop. How are you, Nan?” he asked kindly. “And how is the fat fairy and the big fireman?” he asked, patting Flossie and Freddie.
Fairy and fireman were the pet names Mr. Bobbsey often called his small twins, and the deacon, being a friend of the family, remembered this.
“I’m all right,” Freddie answered. “Do you think there’ll be a fire to-night, Mr. Deacon?”
“Mr. Ander—not Mr. Deacon!” corrected Nan.
“Oh, it’s all the same,” laughed the kindly man. “Names don’t mean anything. But I surely hope there won’t be any fires, little man. The engines would have hard work getting through the drifts.”
“We got a little kittie out of a snowdrift,” said Flossie. “Bert found her and she’s named Snowflake. Here she is,” and she picked up the little cat and put her in the deacon’s lap.
“Say, she’s real cute!” laughed Mr. Ander, who was fond of animals. He gently rubbed the pussy’s ears and scratched her under her chin, which she seemed to like very much.
By this time Bert was dressed to go out and he and the deacon started through thestorm to the Rugg home, not far away. Mr. Rugg, who opened the door, seemed surprised to meet Bert and Mr. Ander.
“Good evening,” greeted the deacon. “Is Danny in?”
“Danny? Yes, I guess so,” answered Mr. Rugg slowly. “Did you want to see him? Has he been doing anything?”
“Oh, nothing new. And it isn’t such a terrible thing, after all, I suppose,” replied the deacon. “The worst part of it was keeping quiet and letting some one else be blamed. Oh, there you are, Danny,” he went on, as the boy himself came into the room.
No sooner did Danny catch sight of Bert and the deacon than he seemed to know what was “in the wind,” as the saying is.
Mr. Ander lost no time.
“Is this your ring, Danny?” asked the deacon, holding out on the palm of his hand the gold circlet.
Before Danny could answer Mr. Rugg stepped forward and took the ring from the deacon.
“Why, yes, that’s Danny’s ring!” exclaimed the boy’s father. “I bought it for his birthday. He told me he lost it at school. I guess he did, for only yesterday I met the principal and he said the ring hadn’t been found.”
“Well, it’s found now,” said Mr. Ander, with a little smile at Bert. “And though Danny didn’t exactly lose it at school, it was near there. That’s your ring, isn’t it, Danny?” he asked.
“Yes—yes, sir,” faltered the boy. “It’s my birthday ring.”
“Don’t you want to know where we found it—where Bert and I found it?” went on the deacon.
“Yes—yes, sir, I—I guess I do.” Danny’s voice was low.
“Maybe you can guess where we found it,” went on the deacon, while Mr. Rugg looked curiously at his son and then at the visitors. “I think you can guess, Danny, but I’m going to tell you.
“Bert and I and Mr. Shull, the sexton,found your ring in the church balcony, right under the broken stained-glass window. The window was broken by a snowball thrown through it, Danny. The ring must have been in the snowball, and when the snow melted the ring fell out on the floor and into a crack. It has been there ever since. Danny Rugg, were you in the church this afternoon looking for this lost ring?”
The deacon’s voice was now stern.
Danny hung his head.
“Answer, Danny,” ordered his father. “Is this true?”
“Yes—yes, sir,” mumbled Danny. “I went there to look for my ring. I—I thought it might have been in the snowball.”
“Did you throw the snowball that broke the church window?” asked Mr. Rugg in stern tones.
Danny hung his head and was silent.
“Better own up and tell the truth,” said the deacon more gently.
“Oh, I did it! Yes, I did it!” and Danny burst out crying. “I didn’t mean to, but I broke the window. I was trying to throwover the church, but my hand slipped and the ball went through the window.
“Then, right after that, I missed my ring. First I thought it had dropped off. But when it wasn’t found I thought maybe it had stuck to the snowball and gone inside the church. So I went in to look.
“I went in once before, but I heard a noise and I ran out. That was when Bert fell down the trapdoor.”
“Is that so, Bert?” asked the deacon.
“Yes, sir,” was the answer. “I didn’t want to say why I went in the church, though, until I could be sure what Danny wanted in there.”
“And you went into the church the second time, to-day, Danny, did you?” asked the deacon.
“Yes, sir. I went to see if I could find my ring. And if I found it I was going to tell that I broke the window—and that it wasn’t Bert.”
“Better late than never,” the deacon said. “Well, I guess Bert is cleared now.”
“Yes, I’ll tell everything,” sobbed Danny. “I wouldn’t have let it be thought Bert did it,only Sam said he saw Bert throw the same time I did, and I thought, maybe, after all, Bert’s ball broke the glass.”
“It didn’t!” exclaimed Bert. “For I only threw my snowball on the ground.”
Mr. Rugg placed the ring on the table. Danny was still sobbing brokenly in one corner of the room.
“I am very sorry this has happened,” said Mr. Rugg. “I will punish Danny for his part in it, and I will pay for the broken window, Mr. Ander. I will also make Danny get up in front of the whole school and confess so Bert’s name will be cleared.”
“If you do that and the window is paid for, I think Danny will have been punished enough,” suggested the deacon. “I don’t believe he will ever do a thing like this again. Will you, Danny?”
“Oh, no, never! Never! Not as long as I live!” sobbed the boy, and Bert felt sorry for him.
“Well, this is what we came for, and I’m glad it’s over with,” announced Mr. Ander. “I’ll trust you to pay for the stained-glasswindow, Mr. Rugg, and also see to it that Danny tells the truth as soon as school opens again.”
“I’ll take care of it,” promised Danny’s father.
Bert waited a moment and then walked over to where his former chum was standing, sobbing.
“It’s all right, Danny,” said Bert in a low voice. “I don’t mind, now that it’s known I didn’t do it. I’ll be friends with you again.”
“Tha-thanks,” faltered Danny, and then the hands of the two boys met in a firm clasp.
“They’ll be better friends than ever,” whispered the deacon to Mr. Rugg.
“I hope so,” said the father. “Danny needs a lesson. I hope he will profit by this one.”
Nan rejoiced with Bert when he got home and told all that had happened. The smaller twins had gone to bed, the “sandman” having paid them an early visit.
Nan went up to see if Mrs. Pry wanted anything, and gave her some of the medicine the doctor had left for her.
“It’s snowing yet,” Nan said to the old lady.
“What’s that? You say the kitten’s got a fit?” cried Mrs. Pry. “Land sakes! Well, put it down the cellar!”
“No, no! The kitten hasn’t a fit! I said it was snowingyet!” said Nan loudly.
“Oh! More snow! Seems like it was never going to stop! I do hope the house keeps warm, for my pains seem to be getting worse.”
Nan was more lonesome than ever that night, wished more for her father and mother, but she said nothing to Bert about it. She was the first up the next morning, and she felt a sense of chill as she moved about dressing.
“Bert! Bert!” she softly called to her brother, so as not to awaken Flossie and Freddie. “I’m afraid the fire has gone out, Bert, or else it’s very low. You’d better look after it.”
“I will,” said Bert sleepily as he got out of bed and hastily dressed to go down cellar. As Nan put the coffee on to boil, so Mrs. Prycould have an early, hot cup, the girl heard her brother rattling away at the furnace.
“Fire’s out,” he called up. “But I’ll soon have it going again.”
He piled in wood and lighted the paper, and then, after putting on some coal, came upstairs.
“It will soon be warm,” he said.
“I hope so!” exclaimed Nan, shivering as she set the table for breakfast.
Flossie and Freddie were just awakening when Nan carried up Mrs. Pry some toast and coffee and an egg. The old lady sat up in bed and suddenly exclaimed:
“Nan, I smell smoke!”
“I guess it’s the toast,” Nan answered. “One slice burned a little.”
“No, it isn’t toast!” insisted Aunt Sallie. “I know the smell of burned toast! This is burning wood! I hope the chimney isn’t on fire.”
“Oh, no, I guess it isn’t,” replied Nan. “Bert just made up a new fire in the furnace.”
Just then Freddie cried:
“Oh, look at the smoke! There’s a lot of smoke out in the hall!”
Nan looked out of Mrs. Pry’s room. Truly the hall was filling with a blue, choking haze.
“It’s a fire!” screamed Flossie. “Bert! Nan! The house is on fire!”
More smoke welled up until Nan and the small twins were choking and gasping.
“Bert! Bert!” shouted Nan, running down the stairs. “What is the matter? Is the house on fire?”