"How do you know he has had nothing to eat?" asked Joshua; the words almost choked him.
Minnie looked up with a plaintive smile.
"If he had had only a hard piece of bread given him," she said in a tender voice, "he would have put it into his pocket for me."
"Stop here, Susan," said Joshua, a great sob rising in his throat. "I will be back in ten minutes."
He ran out of the room and out of the house. Never in his life had he run so fast as he ran now. He rushed into Dan's room, and said, almost breathlessly,--
"Where is the money-box, Dan? How much is there in it?"
"Fourteen pence," said the faithful treasurer, producing the box. "What a heat you are in, Jo!"
"Never mind that. I want every farthing of the money, Dan. Don't ask me any questions. I will tell you all by and by."
Dan emptied the money-box upon the table, and Joshua seized the money, and tore out of the house as if for dear life. Soon he was in the actor's room again, with bread and tea. Susan had not been idle during his absence. She had bathed the man's wound, and had wiped the blood and mud from his face and hair. He had recovered from his swoon, and was looking at her gratefully.
Joshua placed the bread before him, and he broke a piece from the loaf and gave it to Minnie, who ate it greedily.