The pitifulness of his tone, no doubt, more than his words, betrayed
the truth to her fearful heart, for all the color ran down out of her
cheeks, and he seemed to see nothing of her face, save two great
terrified eyes, which piteously beseeched a merciful reply, even while
they demanded the uttermost truth.

"Is he going to die?"

Perez felt a strong tugging at his heart strings, in which, for the
moment, he forgot his own personal trouble.

"I don't know, my child," he replied, very gently.

"Oh, he's going to die. I know he's going to die," she cried, still
looking through her welling eyes a moment, to see if he would not
contradict her intuition, and then, as he looked on the ground, making
no reply, she turned away, and walked slowly down the lane sobbing as
she went.

"Abner, we must manage somehow to get George out too."

"Poor little gal, so we must Perez. We'll kidnap Schoolmaster Gleason
'long with deacon. But it's a pootty big job, Perez, two o' them and
on'y two o' us."

"I'm afraid we're trying more than we can do, Abner. If we try too
much, we shall fail entirely. I don't know. I don't know. There's the
whole jail full, and one ought to come out as well as another. All
have got friends that feel as bad as we do." He reflected a moment.