Soon he saw a boat lowered, and before time had elapsed long enough to tell the story, the convict was in the steamer and nestling in a warm sailor’s bed, and steaming out for a foreign country.
There was nothing that could have suited Jim better. When he arose after a few days’ illness there was no sign of New York and not a shadow of the walls that had covered him so long.
He did not try to come back to his native city for fifteen years, and then one day Jim Farren, not much changed in appearance, turned his face homeward and landed in New York, just one day before the twentieth birthday of sweet Helen Standish.
“I’m going to see Biddy Roan to-morrow,” said he to himself as he went along and picked out the familiar landmarks. “She will be glad to see me for my mother’s sake. Poor mother, you never knew that your boy would make his way about the world like that. I wonder whatever became of the kid and the cove that saved her. That was a plucky piece of business on his part. I’d like to shake hands again just for the sake of old times.”
Saying this, the man entered some of the Bowery saloons which he had long ago visited and sat for some hours pouring the whiskey into his stomach.
Now Tom Cooper had come home. His heart was singing in his breast, for had he not a great deal to live for? He was sure that his little ward loved him in a way. Of course she could not care for him in the way he did for her, but then, it was something to feel her smooth white hands upon his face, and feel her innocent kisses showered there. He did not find the girl in when he reached the boathouse. Biddy was making biscuits and singing.
“You are as happy as I am, Biddy,” said the man as he put down his oars upon the dock, and came into the house.
“Of course I’m happy,” replied the woman, “and why should I not be? Why, Tom, have any two people any more reason to be happier than we are? Think of it, Nellie loves us both, and we are saving money by the quart, and our darling is a lady.”
“I don’t want her too much of a lady,” said the man gravely.