‘She must be out in the Dials,’ Gertie heard him say. ‘I hope she don’t leave the place like this often.’
Presently Gertie heard the clang of his heavy boots going down the rickety stairs.
‘He’s gone out to look for me,’ she thought.
She slipped out from her hiding-place, rushed upstairs to her own little room, and knocked the fluff and dust off her dress.
While she was there her grandfather came in again, and shouted up the stairs:
‘Gertie, are you there?’
‘Yes, grandfather,’ she called out. ‘I had a headache, and laid down, and dropped off to sleep.’
‘Well,’ growled the old man, ‘come down and look arter the place. If you go to sleep again I’ll wake yer up.’
Gertie came down trembling. The old man eyed her keenly for a moment, then bidding her keep her eyes open and not leave the place again, he lit his pipe and went out.
Latterly Josh Heckett had been very little at home, leaving the business, such as it was, almost entirely to Gertie. The child noticed that he never bought any fresh animals now, and that anything sold was not replaced.