"You mean Mr. Darnell? He was brought safely to the ground. He owes his life to you, Gus, for if you had not gone to him, he must have perished."
"I am so glad," said Gus fervently, and tears came into his eyes.
He lay still, too weak to ask more questions, and Sebastian Mouncey avoided speaking about the fire, for he feared to excite him.
From that day Gus began to improve, and though his progress was very slow, it went on steadily. One day the good woman with whom he had lived, and who had been a kind friend to him ever since he entered her home, came to see him. He asked her to let him have some of his possessions that were at the cottage, amongst other things his Bible. She promised to send one of the boys to the vicarage with them as soon as she reached home.
So it happened that when Mr. Mouncey returned from his afternoon's round of visits, and looked into the sick-room to ascertain how Gus was getting on, he saw the old Bible lying on the counterpane by his side. The large thick book, with its unusual style of binding, at once attracted his attention.
"Why, what have you here, Gus?" he asked, laying his hand on it.
"My father's Bible, sir," was the reply. "I thought I should like to read a bit, but my arms ache so when I try to hold it."
Mr. Mouncey looked at the Bible with interest. He took it up, and examined curiously the thick leather covers, with their lining of watered silk. He noted, with the keen eyes of a connoisseur, the strong yet flexible binding and the exquisitely clear type in which the paragraphs were printed.
"This is a beautiful Bible, Gus," he said; "old, yet in excellent preservation. I see it was printed in 1828."
He was standing at the window, holding the book up to the light as he spoke. The next moment a slip of paper fluttered from it to the ground.