There was not much time to wait, for the hour was near and Paul must be on hand. Tom had brought him a fresh suit of clothes the day before and he had put them on before his mother came, and except for his face and stooping figure looked a fashionably dressed young man when he stood up to meet her. She was so crushed and helpless and leaned so heavily on him that he felt at once the necessity of bracing himself if he would not have her fainting in his arms. “Don’t, mother, don’t. It isn’t so very hard; there’ll be some way out of it, and it makes me worse to see you so bad,” he said to her, and with a great effort the little mother nerved herself to calmness. Max Allen, the constable, was there by virtue of his office, shaking so he could hardly speak. “I don’t want to go with you, but it’s the law which must be vin-_di_-cat-ed,” he said to Paul, who answered cheerfully, “All right, Max, I understand, and as long as I am not handcuffed I shan’t mind.” “Handcuffed,” Max repeated. “I’d like to see ’em make me do that. No, sir! You are going to court like a gentleman in your father’s carriage. I wish to gracious I could walk, as I or’to, but I can’t. You are to go on the back seat with Mrs. Ralston, I in the front with the judge.” This was the arrangement, and when all was ready the jailer unlocked the door and Paul stepped out into the brightness and freshness of the morning, but before he had time to look about him he was met and nearly knocked down by Sherry. They had forgotten to shut him up and he had followed the carriage to the jail, where, while the judge and Mrs. Ralston were inside, he sniffed under the window and scratched upon the door with low whines of eagerness and delight as if he knew his master were there. The moment Paul appeared there was a roar of joy, and Sherry’s paws were on Paul’s shoulders and his shaggy head was lain first on one side of his neck and then on the other. “Good Sherry, are you glad to see me?” Paul said, caressing the dog and with some difficulty removing his paws from his neck. “Get down, old fellow, get down, I’ve no time for you now.”