‘You have done all this, my poor fellow,’ said George, lifting the old man’s head gently and putting the pillows right—‘all this and more. You have made me the happiest man on earth!’ ‘I’ve made somebody happy at last,’ sighed Josh, closing his eyes. ‘Don’t speak for a minute or two; I want to lie still and feel what doin’ good be like.’ The little group sat silent when Josh Heckett lay with closed eyes, his thoughts wandering far away into the past. He was the first to speak. ‘Gertie!’ ‘Yes, grandfather.’ ‘Would you like to read my gal’s Bible to me?’ ‘Oh, yes, grandfather, if you would let me!’ cried Gertie, eagerly. ‘Missus, ’said Josh, ‘give the gal her mother’s Bible. I ha’ kept it all these years, but I never know as I should want it. I kept it for my gal’s sake. It’s over yonder in the dror there.’ Bess followed the old man’s finger. She opened the drawer and drew out an old-fashioned cheap Bible, faded and worn with age. ‘Give it to me.’ Josh took the book and looked at it reverently. ‘That’s it,’ he said; ‘she was always a-worriting of me to hear summat out of it, was my gal. “Father,” she used to say, “I wish you’d let me read yer a bit out of the Bible,” but I never would. It warn’t in my line then.’ ‘Shall I read it to you now, grandfather?’ said Gertie, softly laying her hand upon the book. ‘Yes, gal, do. I seem to hear your mother’s voice a-sayin’ “Read the Bible! Read the Bible!”’ ‘What shall I read you, grandfather?’ ‘Arn’t there summat in it about storin’ away proputty and about thieves? Once I heard a chap at a street-corner a-lecturin’ on that. I fancy something about that’ud be best for me to hear, eh?’ Gertie knew what her grandfather meant. She opened the Bible to search for the passage, and as she did so a paper fluttered down upon the floor. George picked it up and read it. ‘Why,’ he exclaimed, ‘it’s a marriage certificate!’ ‘A what?’ shouted Heckett, rising in the bed with new-found strength—‘a what in my gal’s Bible?’ ‘It is the marriage certificate of Ralph Egerton and Gertrude Heckett.’ ‘God of heaven!’ cried the old burglar, clasping his hands; ‘my gal was a honest gal arter all! His wife! his wife! My gal—my gal! why didn’t I look in your Bible afore?’ In his wild excitement the old man had started up, and was clutching fiercely at the pillows; his face was crimson and his sunken eyes were starting from his head. His hand was stretched eagerly towards Gertie, as though asking her to give him the Bible. As Gertie held it out he clutched it, pressed it to his lips, and then, with a little cry, fell heavily back upon the pillows, while the life-blood welled from his mouth. The sudden exertion had completed the long work of disease. Josh Heckett had burst a blood-vessel, and was bleeding to death. Late that evening a cab rattled up to the door of Josh Heckett’s house, and Mr Duck and a strange gentleman got out. The strange gentleman knocked at the door.